TV reviews: "Detectorists"

BBC

I watched the first episode of the comedy series "Detectorists" (BBC4) with great interest and was not disappointed. This morning it got some very good reviews, and I must say I am in agreement with the points made about the writing, acting and direction. Very good. Here are some of the reviews.

Rupert Hawksley, Telegraph:

"Detectorists [...] a treasure chest of first-rate writing, clever jokes and likeable performances [...] follows the mundane lives of the quiet, retiring Andy (Crook) and the bumptious, wise-cracking Lance (played by the ever impressive Toby Jones). These two eccentric metal detectorists spend their days plodding along ploughed tracks, hoping to disturb the tedium by unearthing a fortune.[...] Andy and Lance are, of course, looking for something much more than scraps of metal in the ground – they are looking for something to ignite and improve the drudgery of life. Lance is struggling to deal with the loss of his wife to some great hunk of a man, while Andy’s relationship with his girlfriend Becky (Rachael Stirling) is clearly strained [...] Their hobby provides the comic ammunition – without irony, Andy described the people who buy Lance’s worthless finds as “sad gits”, while one superb set piece saw him confuse the watermark on Google Earth with an Iron Age settlement. But this is really a programme about companionship. [...] It is a classic sitcom set-up which has been executed well here.

Sam Wollaston, Guardian:

Apart from local eccentric Larry Bishop’s land, which has never been gone over with a metal detector before, it’s not especially new ground. A pair of oddball middle-aged men, metal detectorists working a ploughed field, find shotgun caps, blakeys, a ringpull (’83, Tizer) and – beep beep beep beep beep – ancient history student Sophie! Circa 1990, I’d guess, certainly much younger than Lance and Andy, whose collected dreams suddenly aren’t just about Saxon treasures. We’re talking nerds, and nerdy male friendship, midlife crises, all that. But it’s sharp, nicely observed, good to look at, with lovely understated performances from Crook and Toby Jones.

Caroline Frost, Huffington Post:

'Detectorists' [...] is a glorious, unhurried celebration of comradeship in nerdsville.

and 'comradship' is one of the things many metal detectorists stress about the hobby, the hobby brings people together, brings a little glamour (of the past) into their lives. It is also a source of identity (the first conversation with Sophie). Right at the beginning it turns out that Andy (though a temp agency) is indeed studying archaeology in some extramural class, he reckons when he's completed the course and become an arkie, he'll "get at the good stuff". The detectors used are not the cheapest, an XP Deus and a Minelab CTX3030. During the first meeting with a landowner we see, there is no signing of any search-and-take agreement. We were shown no checking to see if the land was protected, no organised search technique... How typical is that? And when will the Essex FLO feature?

Nice interview   'Mackenzie Crook on directing new series Detectorists' (2 October 2014).