Detectorists

Detectorists
Genre	Comedy
Written by	Mackenzie Crook
Directed by	Mackenzie Crook
Starring	Mackenzie Crook Toby Jones
Opening theme	"Detectorists" by Johnny Flynn
Composer(s)	Johnny Flynn
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	13
Production
Producer(s)	Adam Tandy
Running time	30 minutes
Production company(s)	Channel X Lola Entertainment
Release
Original network	BBC Four BBC Four HD
Picture format	16:9 1080i
Original release	2 October 2014 (2014-10-02) – present

Detectorists is a British single camera television sitcom series which was first broadcast on BBC Four on 2 October 2014. It is written and directed by Mackenzie Crook, who also stars.

It is set in small fictional town of Danebury in northern Essex. The plot revolves around the lives, loves and detecting ambitions of Andy and Lance, members of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club (DMDC).

The series won a BAFTA award at the 2015 British Academy Television Awards for Best Situation Comedy.

Cast

• Mackenzie Crook as Andy Stone, an oddjob man and recently qualified archaeologist.
• Toby Jones as Lance Stater, a forklift truck driver and amateur musician.
• Lucy Benjamin as Maggie, Lance's ex-wife who runs a spiritualist supplies shop. (series 1)
• Rachael Stirling as Becky, Andy's wife, a primary school teacher.
• Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Sophie, a history student at the University of Essex.
• Adam Riches as Tony, Maggie's boyfriend, a pizza restaurant manager. (series 1)
• Gerard Horan as Terry, a retired policeman who runs the Danebury Metal Detecting Club (DMDC)
• Sophie Thompson as Sheila, Terry's wife.
• Pearce Quigley as Russell, one of the members of the Metal Detectorists' Club.
• David Sterne as Larry Bishop, an eccentric farmer and landowner.
• Simon Farnaby as Phil, nicknamed "Art", and Paul Casar as Paul, members of "AntiquiSearchers", later "Dirt Sharks", a rival group. Lance and Andy give them their nicknames because of their uncanny resemblance to Simon & Garfunkel, but "Art" does call his partner "Paul" in series 1, episode 3.
• Divian Ladwa as Hugh, a very shy and awkward DMDC member.
• Laura Checkley as Louise, a somewhat stroppy member of the DMDC, and girlfriend of Varde.
• Orion Ben as Varde, a mostly silent member of the DMDC and girlfriend of Louise. Despite appearing in nearly every episode, her first line of dialogue is in series 2, episode 4.
• Daniel Donskoy as Peter, a German visitor who seeks the DMDC's help in locating the spot where his grandfather's plane crashed during WWII. He becomes a love interest for Sophie. (series 2)
• Twins Jacob and Isabella Hill share the role of Becky and Andy's baby Stanley (series 2) who is cared for by Becky's mother Veronica, played by Rachael Stirling’s real life mother, Diana Rigg.
• Alexa Davies as Kate, daughter of Lance. (series 2)

Episodes

Series 1

No.	Title	Original air date
1	"Episode 1"	2 October 2014 (2014-10-02)
Andy and Lance meet Sophie and become aware that a near-legendary find might be hidden on a local farm. Trouble is, the owner is notorious for discouraging trespassers, and it is rumoured that his wife is buried on the property.
2	"Episode 2"	9 October 2014 (2014-10-09)
Andy and Lance have managed to secure permission to explore the Bishop estate, provided they avoid the lower paddock. It comes as little surprise that Larry Bishop is mad as a bag of ferrets. What they aren't expecting is a rival group of detectorists turning up.
3	"Episode 3"	16 October 2014 (2014-10-16)
Andy and Lance are going to need help, and Terry—who runs the club—is only too keen to muck in if he can prove that Larry Bishop did murder his wife. Meanwhile, Lance has a gig coming up at the local pub and he wants Maggie to come. This looks like a great plan until his nerves kick in. (The episode includes a short performance of the title song, performed by Johnny Flynn as "Johnny Piper".)
4	"Episode 4"	23 October 2014 (2014-10-23)
Terry announces that he is standing down as leader of the DMDC; Andy and Lance have a falling out after Andy shows Lance a recent find. Becky and Sophie are roped into a pub quiz together and Andy finds himself in trouble after a photograph is sent to Becky.
5	"Episode 5"	30 October 2014 (2014-10-30)
Andy, Lance, Becky and Sophie refuse to talk to each other and Bishop's farm suddenly becomes an area of great interest.
6	"Episode 6"	6 November 2014 (2014-11-06)
A huge hole has been excavated and police are looking into it. Furthermore, Larry Bishop's invisible dogs have disappeared without trace, and Andy and Lance now have one last chance to discover their hearts' true desire: the burial place of King Sexred of the East Saxons

Series 2

Series 2 commences with a 3-minute sequence showing an Anglo Saxon monk or priest fleeing from a place of worship with a holy book, and a pointer stick similar to that associated with the Alfred Jewel, in a sack. He is fleeing mounted spearmen, possibly marauding Vikings. 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
1	"Episode 1"	29 October 2015 (2015-10-29)
Baby Stan has arrived, Andy has qualified as an archaeologist, but has no work and Becky is off with Gay Martin, talking about VSO. A young German, Peter, is looking for a crashed Junkers World War II bomber, which his grandfather was in - Sophie offers to help research it. Andy and the other members of the DMDC try to convince Lance to try Internet dating. Lance receives a call from a mystery woman called Kate.
2	"Episode 2"	5 November 2015 (2015-11-05)
With Lance meeting the mystery woman, and Sophie helping German visitor Peter with his research, Andy feels left out. Meanwhile Becky's patience with staff meetings is at breaking point. Andy sees Lance with the mystery woman which preoccupies him when Becky phones. Danebury's mayor seeks the DMDC's help finding his chain of office which he has lost at a dogging site. Andy and Lance meet the Dirt Sharks, who hint that there is something other to the crashed plane than a resting place.
3	"Episode 3"	12 November 2015 (2015-11-12)
Russell and Hugh continue the search for the mayor's missing chains of office. Lance again meets with the mystery woman, this time seen by Sophie and Peter. Becky tries to convince Andy to consider volunteering abroad again: she has found an archaeological dig in Botswana and set him up for an interview. Lance reveals Kate's identity to Andy. The chains of office are discovered, but someone needs to fetch a stick.
4	"Episode 4"	19 November 2015 (2015-11-19)
The mayor—unwillingly, but with a nudge from Russell and Hugh—agrees to let the DMDC search his land. Terry receives the MOD clearance to excavate the plane, which reveals that all of the crew survived. Peter, who has asked Sophie to accompany him for the summer, is taken aback. Andy's interview does not go as well as it might, no thanks to Lance's daft pub-quiz trivia, although he does make an interesting find in a flower-bed. Lance attempts to connect with Kate, his long-lost daughter, but she is overwhelmed by 20 years' worth of presents.
5	"Episode 5"	26 November 2015 (2015-11-26)
Andy and Lance call an emergency meeting of the DMDC when they learn that Peter has been secretly meeting with the Dirt Sharks and carries a bad gold coin in his wallet. Though Sophie defends Peter, the DMDC stake out the Junkers crash site and call police who catch the Dirt Sharks on a night dig though Peter himself escapes. Andy fears the uncertainties of providing for his family in Botswana and conceals that he got the job, leading to a fight and an ultimatum from Becky. Also, Lance places several unreturned calls to Kate.
6	"Episode 6"	3 December 2015 (2015-12-03)
The DMDC hold their rally at the Junkers JU-88 crash site. Peter, whom Sophie learns has been twice convicted of disturbing war graves in Germany, skulks in to search and is caught by Terry who calls the constabulary on him. Kate arrives and reconciles with Lance. After speaking with Veronica, Andy rushes to Becky at the school's Dickens-themed fete and they agree to have an adventure together. Andy and Lance are returning from their last detecting session before Andy leaves for Botswana, when Lance hears horses near the fallen standing stone. Lance digs and uncovers the Aestel, and joyously dances the gold dance with Andy and Sophie.

Specials

No.	Title	Original air date
—	"Christmas Special"	23 December 2015 (2015-12-23)
Lance's lucky strike, a late Saxon gold and jewelled aestel, is on display at a museum but seems to have used up all his luck, as he hasn't had a single find since (not even a pull-tab), and he suffers a series of misfortunate incidents which his club-mates consider to be "the curse of the gold."

Production

Detectorists was announced by the BBC on 31 January 2014. The producer is Adam Tandy and the series is a Channel X and Lola Entertainment co-production.

The series is filmed in Framlingham in Suffolk using local shops and parts of Framlingham College.

Broadcast

Internationally, the series premiered in Australia on 9 November 2015 on BBC First.

Critical reception

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.

External links

• Detectorists at BBC Programmes
• Detectorists at IMDb
• Detectorists at British Comedy Guide