Mackenzie Crook: my family values

The Detectorists actor talks about his solid, loving start to life and taking his children camping to interest them in the natural world.

Radio Times review

After the note-perfect ending to series two, it came as a surprise - but a lovely one - to discover that a standalone episode would light up the festive schedules. Lance, you'll remember, unearthed a major find, while Andy and Becky were all set for something similarly life-changing.

As we rejoin the lovable eccentrics of Danebury Metal Detecting Club, the wintry fields and furrows are proving barren indeed for Lance (Toby Jones), who's not even turning up the usual ring-pulls or "canslaw". Is there any more gold to be found in them thar hillocks?

Detectorists is so adept at cockle-warming that a winter episode is in many ways the ideal framework. Tantalisingly, Mackenzie Crook says, "We got to bring the story to London for some extra-special scenes." The show's ardent metalheads can't wait...

Detectorists, BBC Four's fine comedy, came to the conclusion of its second series in the only way possible, with Lance (Toby Jones) finally doing a "gold jig" after the discovery of the medieval trinket that has tantalised in the title sequence. After weeks of wandering field and hillside with their "coils to the soil", this was no more than he and his metal-detecting confidant Andy (Mackenzie Crook) deserved. Jones gives his grins away so sparingly it is well worth the half-hour wait to see his doleful features transformed. Detectorists remains the most likely winner of any "sitcom on an unlikely theme" award, but it works because of the unfailing Don Quixote meets Countryfile tone of Crook's script and direction. "Ambition's overrated," suggests Lance as he clambers over a stile - leaving Andy, with baby Stan papoosed, to struggle with yet another fatherly obstacle - but nevertheless keeps on digging up 1980s Fanta-can ring pulls in the hope of finding the Staffordshire hoard.

Appropriately enough, the long-awaited detectorists' rally - bringing together the Uxbridge Unearthers, the Letchworth Locaters and the Romford Recoverers - passed mostly without incident, except for the troubling appearance of a rogue detector, a "nighthawk - scum of the earth" at the dig site. Still, in among the sedimentary strata of English despond there are always nuggets of hope: Lance found common ground with his newly discovered daughter; Andy the reed-thin resolve to try a new life for size. "We are all looking for gold," is one of Lance's certainties. Another, eminently employable is "when in doubt dig it out".

When I heard the premise of Detectorists (BBC Four, Thursday) -- middle-aged blokes potter about the countryside obsessively looking for buried treasure -- I presumed we were in for a spot of easy satire where the author's message would be something like 'Get a life, you losers.' In the event, this tender, kindly show has portrayed its characters as almost heroically indifferent to modern social fashions and demands. (And I bet there are far more of such people about than we generally see on television -- except of course on Only Connect.)

This perspective was duly reflected in the real author's message that came on Thursday when Andy (Mackenzie Crook) worried aloud that he wasn't ambitious enough. 'No shame in that,' his friend Lance (Toby Jones) reassured him. 'Ambition's overrated. All these people reaching for the stars and striving to be the best. It looks exhausting.' Not coincidentally, Crook, who wrote and directed Detectorists, turned down the chance to be in Pirates of the Caribbean 5 so that he could make the show.

BBC wants more Detectorists, but Crook's not sure

The BBC is understood to have offered creator and star Mackenzie Crook a third run of the BBC Four metal detecting comedy, but he is yet to make up his mind, RadioTimes.com can reveal.

Now in its second series, Mackenzie Crook's slow-burn sitcom remains as ambling and amiable as its central characters, metal detectors Andy (Crook) and Lance (Toby Jones). The stakes are still strikingly small here, and moments of huge hilarity remain relatively rare, but the whole thing is warm and welcoming enough to compensate for those slight shortcomings. In short, it's the perfect fare for a Sunday afternoon.

Radio Times review

If Radio Times had a Scene of the Year competition I'd nominate a two-hander in the finale of this adorable sitcom. It's moving not only for what is said but also for what is not - and the back story suggested by it. In a pub garden, Lance (Toby Jones) nurses a pint, rueful about not hearing from the daughter he's just discovered he has. Smiley Sheila (wonderful Sophie Thompson), whom we thought was naive and a bit simple, consoles him with unexpected wisdom. And behind her careful words lies a world of sadness.

Not far behind are other insightful scenes: Lance and Andy discussing ambition; Andy and his mother-in-law (Diana Rigg) on priorities; and a real beauty between Andy and Becky: both absurd and affecting. But then Detectorists has always championed unfashionable things like kindness and friendship.

It's an episode of decisions, framed with a David Bailey eye and a nuanced script... delivered by actors who know they've made something of lasting value. Perfection.

Star/writer/director Mackenzie Crook told RT the BBC wants more, so we just hope it'll come buzzing back soon.

Radio Times review

It's crunch time for our Poundland Time Team: Andy (Mackenzie Crook) faces an interview to work in Botswana, while Lance (Toby Jones) is nervous about playing catch-up with his long-lost daughter Kate. Neither meeting goes well.

Among the show's many amusing pairings, the timorous, hangdog Andy and his much more driven wife Becky (Rachel Stirling) are a charmingly odd couple. In an episode with more drama than comedy, their exchanges, plus the trivia-laced banter of the two friends - is golden talk indeed.

Another round of excavations in Mackenzie Crook's wonderfully beguiling comedy drama. While Lance (Toby Jones) practises his conversation starters before an encounter at the Lemon Tree ("Did you know 90% of onions are consumed in their country of origin?"), Sophie and Peter are getting closer - and a worried mayor enlists the Danebury Metal Detecting Club's help in finding his chain of office, dropped somewhere up the hill in the bushes in Barnfather Woods, near "where all the cars go after dark".

Radio Times review

For all the beauty on show, Mackenzie Crook's sylvan sitcom has no time to stand and stare. Without you even noticing, tonight's rustic stroll stealthily advances to the point where you wonder if the show can ever be the same again.

It's an unprepossessing start, however, with lesser-known detectorists Russell and Hugh engaged in what turns out to be a grubby task for the mayor. It soon dovetails neatly into the WW2 plot, while Lance's mystery date and Becky's frustration with Andy take us intriguing places. Detectorists looks effortless, but I'm certain every beauty shot, gag and beat is scrupulously planned, written and acted. It's quietly stunning.