You won't be disappointed!

Good movie but grossly overrated

Fantastic!

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Gentle, sweet, and warmly executed. From the writing to the acting, the photography to the music it is top notch in every respect. Perhaps my favorite television series!

I tried this show when it was first seen on BBC Four, to be honest, I was mainly attracted to it by the fact that Mackenzie Crook was acting, directing and writing, and I knew that metal detection is a big hobby in Britain, so why not make a joke out of it, it is one of those oh so simple but oh so fantastic ideas for a sitcom. Basically in the small town of Danebury in northern Essex, Andy Stone (Mackenzie Crook) is an agency worker with an interest in archaeology, and Lance Stater (BAFTA nominated Toby Jones) is a forklift truck driver and amateur musician. Andy and Lance are good friends, and they are members of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club (DMDC), an exclusive club for many eccentric detectorists, characters who have an interest in metal detecting. Andy and Lance, besides being with their girlfriends and getting on with their normal work, spend a lot of their time walking across the countryside, the ploughed fields and open fields, with their metal detectors. They always hope to find something made of metal that is rare, interesting, or obviously really valuable, but most of the time they find disposed items, such as ring pulls, nails and screws, toys, cutlery, stationary, inexpensive jewellery, and a controversial Jim'll Fix It "Jim Fixed It for Me" medal. Andy and Lance are also often competing with rival detectorists Art (Simon Farnaby) and Paul (Paul Casar), mockingly nicknamed Simon & Garfunkel, who are not only encroaching on their patch, but constantly changing their name, which include The Antiquisearchers, The Dirt Sharks and Terra Firma. What Andy and Lance are really hoping to find is treasure, specifically a collection of highly valuable ancient coins, believed to be buried beneath the fields they often scour, there are many times throughout the series that they come close to finding one or all the coins, either just beneath their feet, or in a tree snatched by magpies. Also starring Rachael Stirling as Becky, Gerard Horan as Terry, Pearce Quigley as Quigley, Russell, Divian Ladwa as Hugh, Laura Checkley as Louise, Sophie Thompson as Sheila, Orion Ben as Varde, Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Sophie, Alexa Davies as Kate, EastEnders' Lucy Benjamin as Maggie, Dame Diana Rigg as Veronica, Adam Riches as Tony, Tim Key as Tim, Kenneth Collard as the Mayor, Linda Lusardi, Kevin Bishop as Kelvin and Kevin Eldon as Auctioneer. Crook does a great job writing and directing a surprisingly witty show, and he is good acting as an eccentric as well, Jones is equally fantastic as the more eccentric man who has all the facts about every find. It is admittedly a show with a very slow pace, but that is obviously part of the joke, it is all about the interactions between the characters, mostly the main double-act, the humorous subjects of conversations, and obviously their pointless unearthed finds, the search for treasure is a good running trend, it is also worth mentioning the likeable theme tune by Johnny Flynn, a delightful situation comedy. It won the BAFTA for Best Scripted Comedy. Very good!

The Detectorists is a gem of a television series featuring beautifully observed and well written characters. The interplay between mates Andy and Lance keeps each episode filled with wit and charm, helped along by well written supporting characters who all contribute to the unfolding events. The strength of the writing of the supports means that they can have their own stand alone segments such as when Russell and Hugh search for the mayor's gold chain in the dodgy car park. The series is a homage to metal detectoring and is careful to be respectful to a pastime almost universally considered naff by the outside observer. It still manages to poke gentle fun but never crosses the line into simply just being disrespectful. There is numerous swearing but spoken by characters you have come to appreciate so it becomes the type of swearing you hear your real- life friends say and do not take offence to. There is also pathos amongst the humour; witness Sheila's lament to Lance for the child she never knew. The series is beautifully photographed and the choice of medieval style music is inspired. There are also moments where characters just use facial expressions or glances to purvey how they are feeling which is a wonderfully observed feature of how English culture operates. Toby Jones in particular plays this aspect so well. The casting of Rachael Stirling and Diana Rigg as mother/daughter is inspired and is never played as though a series in-joke.By series 3 the proceedings start to stretch a bit and repetition does creep in, for example references to Varde's "chattiness". The decision to have Sophie's character air brushed from series 3 is also a shame given that she was a good foil for Andy & Lance in the first two series. Mackenzie Crook deserves all the plaudits available for the work he has put into this series. He has put his stamp over every aspect – acting, writing, direction, music, photography – and he clearly has a passion for history and for the preservation of artefacts left behind by those who came before us.We now live in an age where it is possible to be a TV star whilst possessing no talent for anything at all. So in a way we as viewers have now become detectorists in our own right; we search through the pages of our channel guide trying to find something which is neither utter dross or something repeated for the endless time. The moment anyone discovers The Detectorists in their TV guide is the moment when they know they have found their own gold.

It's rare that I would award a 9 to a TV show but this show is an exception.Mackenzie Crook has created a little world that I would love to live in if I could. I can see myself as someone like Becky with a professional job through the week and detecting as my hobby during my free time. My circle of acquaintances are a little off-beat, like the lesbian couple, the cop who never retired, his wife and strange Russell.It looked like Becky was getting involved with Andy's detecting near the end of the second series. I wondered what kind of a relationship Becky and Andy had since they never appeared to spend much time together outside of late nite TV.The pace of the series seems just about right, they do enough each episode to make you think and whet your appetite for the next show.The BBC has confirmed a third series will air sometime in late 2017. I'm really happy about that because the second series didn't wind everything up and left so many loose ends only another series could resolve things.I hope though that the third series isn't really the last, this show could run for many more years what with the possibilities that surround metal detecting and artifact rich England with thousands upon thousands of sites to search.There's still so much development potential for all the characters, Andy, Becky, their kid, Lance, Maggie, the lesbians, all of them.