Detectorists
Detectorists is a British single-camera television comedy series which was first broadcast on BBC Four on 2 October 2014. It is written and directed by Mackenzie Crook, who also stars alongside Toby Jones.
The series is set in the fictional small town of Danebury in northern Essex; the plot revolves around the lives, loves and metal detecting ambitions of Andy and Lance, members of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club.
It won a BAFTA award at the 2015 British Academy Television Awards for Television Scripted Comedy. In May 2019, it was voted 19th in a Radio Times list of Britain's 20 favourite sitcoms by a panel that included sitcom writers and actors.
Cast
- Mackenzie Crook as Andy Stone, an agency worker who qualifies as an archaeologist during the series. A member of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club
- Toby Jones as Lance Stater, a forklift truck driver and amateur musician. A member of the DMDC
- Lucy Benjamin as Maggie, Lance's ex-wife who runs a New Age supplies shop
- Adam Riches as Tony, Maggie's boyfriend, a pizza restaurant manager
- Rachael Stirling as Becky, Andy's girlfriend, a primary school teacher
- Gerard Horan as Terry Seymour, a retired policeman who is the president of the DMDC
- Sophie Thompson as Sheila Seymour, Terry's wife
- Pearce Quigley as Russell, a DMDC member
- Divian Ladwa as Hugh, a shy and awkward DMDC member
- Orion Ben as Varde, a mostly silent DMDC member and girlfriend of Louise. Despite appearing in nearly every episode, and being described by members of the DMDC as very talkative, her only line of dialogue is in series 2, episode 4
- Laura Checkley as Louise, a forthright DMDC member and girlfriend of Varde
- Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Sophie, an ancient history student at a university
- David Sterne as Larry Bishop, an eccentric farmer and landowner
- Simon Farnaby as Philip Peters and Paul Casar as Paul Lee, members of "AntiquiSearchers", later "Dirt Sharks" and then "Terra Firma", a rival metal detecting group. Lance and Andy call them Paul and "Art" because of their resemblance to the pop duo Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel. "Art" calls his partner "Paul" in series 1, episode 3, and both give their full names when questioned by the police in series 2, episode 5
- Diana Rigg as Veronica, Becky's mother and occasional child-minder for Stanley.
- Alexa Davies as Kate, daughter of Lance
- Rebecca Callard as Toni, a mechanic and co-worker of Lance, who becomes his girlfriend.
- Daniel Donskoy as Peter, a German visitor who seeks the DMDC's help in finding the location of his grandfather's aircraft, alleged to have crashed during World War II. He becomes a love interest for Sophie
- Jacob and Isabella Hill as Stanley, Becky and Andy's baby
- Asa James Wallace as Stanley, Becky and Andy's child
Episodes
Series 1
Series 2
Series 2 commences with a 3-minute sequence showing an Anglo Saxon priest, carrying a holy book and an aestel in a sack, fleeing mounted spearmen. He buries the sack near a standing stone. Time lapse shows all but the decorated gold handle of the stick decaying, and the shot pans upwards to reveal Andy and Lance walking across the field in present-day Danebury, detecting as they go. Having had no success they decide to look up the hill. The jewel is shown again, still buried, at the beginning of subsequent episodes.| No. | Title | Original air date |
Specials
| No. | Title | Original air date |
Series 3
In March 2017, the BBC released a statement confirming the filming of a third and final series. The six-episode third series was filmed in the summer of 2017 and aired weekly on BBC Four from 8 November 2017.The first episode ends with a historical timeline sequence, backed by the song "Magpie" by The Unthanks. Reviewing the opening episode for The Guardian, Sam Wollaston said: "Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones shine in the third and final series of this beautifully written and performed slice of life."
| No. | Title | Original air date |
Production
Detectorists was announced by the BBC on 31 January 2014. The producer was Adam Tandy and the series was a Channel X and Lola Entertainment co-production.Although the series is set in Essex, it was mainly filmed in neighbouring Suffolk, with Framlingham used as a major location. Other locations used in filming include Orford, where Orford Primary School was used as the outside of Becky's school, Great Glemham, where interior pub scenes were filmed, and Ipswich. In series 2, the round-tower church at Aldham was used as a recurring location.
One location in Essex was used in Detectorists: the scenes involving Lance's girlfriend Toni's houseboat, 'Elsie', were filmed at Paper Mill Lock, Little Baddow. Locations were sourced by Creative England.
Diana Rigg, who plays Veronica, and Rachael Stirling, who plays her daughter Becky, are mother and daughter in real life.
Upon deciding to finish the show at the end of series 3, Crook commented "it took a while to realise that I did want to do six more episodes to finish. I don’t want to make any sort of big, dramatic announcement that ‘never again’, but I can’t see myself going back to it."
Broadcast
Internationally, the series premiered in Australia on 9 November 2015 on BBC First. In the United States, the series premiered on streaming subscription service Acorn TV in August 2015.Reception
Critical response
Series one of Detectorists was met with positive reviews from a number of UK and US media outlets. David Renshaw, writing for The Guardian, had particular praise for the "delightful double-act" Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones. Renshaw points to the "biggest ratings BBC4 has ever had for a comedy" as evidence that "Detectorists has clearly struck the sort of gold that Lance and Andy spend hours sweeping the fields for". Rupert Hawksley, writing for The Daily Telegraph, was particularly impressed with Crook's "first-rate writing" and remarked in his review that series one "has all the markings of a classic sitcom".Ellen E. Jones of The Independent said that while the show "requires some patience... it has turned out to be one of the best new sitcoms of the year".
In the US media, The New York Times writer Mike Hale describes Detectorists as a "distinctive creation – not for everyone, but bound to be fiercely loved by those who fall into its rhythms". Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times "can't recommend it enough", saying: "Like the ordinary lives it magnifies, Detectorists has the air of seeming to be small and immense at once, to be about hardly anything and almost everything. It is full of space and packed with life."
When the programme returned for a second series, the response was also positive.
On the completion of the third and final series Radio Times website reviewer Mark Braxton wrote "The series finale... is one of the most satisfying conclusions ever. Series one and two both ended in clever and memorable ways: bittersweet and punch-the-air respectively. But the series three finale has a real poetry to it; Crook seems to be saying: “Yes, that’s where we’ll leave it – I’m happy with that.”
The series has also received praise for its authentic portrayal of "a gentler side to maleness and male bonding", with Ben Dowell of The Times describing the show as being "steeped in a gentle kindness that I hadn’t seen before".