TV Series I've Missed Until Now: Detectorists (2014-2022)

I absolutely love this series.

With that succinct review out of the way, allow me to elaborate. DETECTORISTS is a British comedy TV series made between 2014 and 2022, consisting of three seasons of six episodes each plus two specials, for a total of twenty episodes. The protagonists are Lance (Toby Jones) and Andy (Mackenzie Crook), a pair of working class friends whose hobby is going out and searching in fields using metal detectors. They belong to a small club of fellow detectorists that often clashes with a rival group. The stories revolve around Lance and Andy’s efforts to find something worthwhile—Roman artifacts are the most highly prized, especially golden ones—along with their personal lives, including a few romances.

Doesn’t sound like much to build a TV series around, does it?

And yet DETECTORISTS is one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Mackenzie Crook wrote and directed the entire series in addition to playing Andy. The scripts are superb. Most of the humor is of the gentle, whimsical type, but some of it is hilariously funny, especially if you have a hobby to which you’re devoted yourself. I mean, Lance being able to look at a button he’s unearthed and spout very detailed information about how old it is and where it was manufactured isn’t really that different from me looking at a vintage Western paperback and declaring that the cover art is by A. Leslie Ross because of the way the hats look.

You get invested in the characters in this series to the point that some of it is heartbreakingly poignant, too, and genuinely suspenseful. The characters are all fleshed out very well, and while most of them are eccentric, they’re never silly and are always believable, credit for which goes both to the writing and the fine performances by the cast, which includes the great Diana Rigg in one of her last roles as Andy’s mother-in-law.

It's safe to say that DETECTORISTS really resonated with me. I wish there were more seasons. Crook decided that it was time to end the series, though, and I have to respect that. The older I get, the more I seem to enjoy books, movies, and TV shows that have some warmth and humanity to them. DETECTORISTS really possesses those qualities. I give it my highest recommendation.