Detectorists

In the 2017 climax to the three series of his beguiling comedy, Detectorists, writer-director-star Mackenzie Crook gave metal-detecting hobbyist chums Andy and ...

The action briefly left Essex for 33CE Jerusalem and scenes that suggested that they might have been on to something. Newly enriched because they were able to claim the reward for the Roman coins, Terra Firma drove up in a shiny chauffeur-driven 4×4, accompanied by a minder who did the detecting and digging for them. Having excitedly discussed the possibility of meeting Professor Alice Roberts at the British Museum press conference about their find, Andy and Lance were too preoccupied to notice the Digging for Britain presenter walking behind them as they left the museum. It was a scene that felt all too real: Stirling’s real-life mother, Diana Rigg, who also played her mum in the show, died in 2020. Jones (it almost goes without saying) was superb in depicting Lance’s increasing discomfort at concealing the truth, a non-disclosure that jeopardised their long-standing friendship. The DMDC’s hopes rested on a new permission granted to Andy and Lance to scour 10 acres of prime undetected farmland.

Detectorists is a TV treasure as priceless as anything Andy and Lance could ever dig up in the fields around Danebury. And tonight's feature-length episode ...

But things are not quite as rosy as they should be at the start. Typical of many middle-aged men, their emotions are repressed so that however well they know each other they only connect through half-said conversations – and primarily through their shared hobby, rather than directly. Detectorists is a TV treasure as priceless as anything Andy and Lance could ever dig up in the fields around Danebury.

At first Mackenzie Crook tried to resist the “gentle” epithet attached to The Detectorists. The Bafta-winning comedy, centred on two friends who share a ...

As for Andy, he still “needs a kick up the arse all the time”, he quips. That’s how it works for me.” The Detectorists is set to air at 9pm on BBC Two. “It’s weird, it’s been five years since a new episode was broadcast, but in that time the fan base has continued to grow. But I think we found a way to bring it back one last time in a very special way.” “There’s quite a responsibility now, to not muck it up,” he says candidly. It was little surprise, then, that his announcement of a new 75-minute special, to air today, was met with elation.

Like every great Christmas parable, Detectorists sees how the epic and the everyday are intertwined.

But when Lance finds a plate of shockingly vivid gold, embossed with a mysterious inscription, he hides it away from Andy in his pouch and sneaks it home. Jones, with his diminutive stature and wizened, Anglo-Saxon features, turns Gollum-like in a way that is both funny and painful to watch. The second series ended with Lance digging up a genuine Saxon artefact of great value. The first series ended with Lance turning up just another ring-pull – until the camera panned downwards, beneath the ground, revealing a hoard of treasure undisturbed deep below. It’s been five years since the last episode of Detectorists – five years since we last padded over the soft soil of the Essex countryside with Lance (Toby Jones) and Andy (Mackenzie Crook), heads bowed reverently, metal detectors in hand. The days are long, dragonflies flit lazily over the fields and gold winks in the sunlight.

Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones are back one last time with their metal detectors and, thankfully, nothing seems to have changed.

This might have been the answer: a bravura sequence that concertina’d history and reminded us that there is treasure all around us, for those with eyes to see it. It was completely out of keeping with all that had gone before (Detectorists moves with tortoise-like speed and assurance) and yet it worked. In particular the path of Andy and Becky’s (Rachael Stirling) relationship over the years we’ve been away was beautifully drawn, a merry-go-round of hope and disappointment; but every performance spoke of actors relishing being back with characters they’ve tended and loved.