Detectorists. Image shows from L to R: Lance Stater (Toby Jones), Andy Stone (Mackenzie Crook). Copyright: BBC
Detectorists

Detectorists

  • TV sitcom
  • BBC Four / BBC Two
  • 2014 - 2022
  • 20 episodes (3 series)

Sitcom about metal detecting enthusiasts. Stars Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones. Also features Rachael Stirling, Gerard Horan, Pearce Quigley, Divian Ladwa, Laura Checkley and more.

  • JustWatch Streaming rank this week: 249

Press clippings Page 7

Detectorists review

Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones shine in the third and final series of this beautifully written and performed slice of life.

Sam Wollaston, The Guardian, 9th November 2017

It seems this is to be the final series of Mackenzie Crook's gentle, delicate metal-detection bromance Detectorists (BBC Four, 8 November, 10pm) and though I've never found it unmissable exactly, I mourn its impending departure. Being at times more of a reverie than a sitcom, it is like nothing else on television, for all that its subject - the inability of men to talk to one another, the various ways they get around the problem - is an old one.

If it is sweetly funny, it's also full of pathos, its characters never quite getting what they want, or need. And where else are you going to hear people using expressions like "purse spill"? (In the world of the metal detectorists, this is what you call a hoard that comprises only a couple of pathetic coins.)

Andy (Crook) doesn't like his new job as an archaeologist, and Lance (Toby Jones) is walking on eggshells now his daughter has moved back in. These problems, however, are as nothing compared to the news that a planned solar farm may threaten their favourite detecting spot. Will they be able to stop it? Fans will hope that as the clock ticks, they will make a discovery that will both vanquish the developers and provide Andy and the long-suffering Becky (Rachael Stirling) with enough cash to buy themselves a home. But my guess is that Crook is too much of a realist for happy endings. Don't think Sutton Hoo; think more rusty scaffolding clamps.

Rachel Cooke, The New Statesman, 9th November 2017

Belly Laugh? Motherland (BBC2); Detectorists (BBC4)

Both funny, but in different ways. The question is which way around should I watch them?

Shouting At The Telly, 9th November 2017

Mackenzie Crook: Suffolk the perfect setting for comedy

The creator of the BBC series Detectorists says Suffolk has provided the ideal landscape for the programme and he can no longer imagine it being filmed elsewhere.

BBC, 8th November 2017

TV preview: Detectorists, BBC4

Writer, director and star Mackenzie Crook has said that this is the last series of Detectorists. If that's the case it will be a great shame.

Bruce Dessau, Beyond The Joke, 8th November 2017

Detectorists series 3 review

For, as so much of this delightful series, while it seems like nothing much is happening, there's such a lot beneath the surface, hidden from view. What a perfect metaphor metal detecting turns out to be.

Steve Bennett, Chortle, 8th November 2017

Detectorists, BBC4, review

Metalhead comedy full of tender moments.

Bernadette McNulty, i Newspaper, 8th November 2017

Detectorists returns to unearth more comic gold: review

It's almost compulsory in Detectorists reviews to say the show unearthed comic gold. Indeed it did. If you're yet to join the DMDC (Danebury Metal Detecting Club), treat yourself. Treasures await.

Michael Hogan, The Telegraph, 8th November 2017

Detectorists is an utter joy

Detectorists is an absolute televisual treasure. I'm delighted that Series 3 is here.

Sarah Kennedy, The Custard TV, 8th November 2017

Detectorists feature

Earlier this year, Mackenzie Crook found gold. In an inevitable piece of life imitating art, the creator of the Bafta-winning sitcom Detectorists has taken up metal detecting. He now owns an XP Deus and goes out searching on a piece of farmland, where he turned up a piece of ancient gold jewellery.

Alice Jones, i Newspaper, 7th November 2017

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