Stream On: What have we here? ‘Detectorists’
An existential comedy about the quirky lads and lasses of the metal-detector community in a small English town.
Detectorists, a comedy, is set in the fictional small town of Danebury in north Essex, England. It revolves around the lives, loves and metal-detecting ambitions of Andy and Lance, members of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club.
Streaming television is erasing national boundaries: Shows that rarely made it to foreign audiences now routinely appear before them.Detectorists was announced by the BBC in January 2014. In the United States, the series premiered on streaming subscription service Acorn TV in August 2015.
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“Will you search through the loamy earth for me? Climb through the brier and bramble? I’ll be your treasure” (Johnny Flynn,“Detectorists”)
The quest is the thing. It’s an open secret that the members of a metal-detecting club are really only searching for gold, although the “Finds” exhibit in the clubhouse of the Danebury Metal Detecting club is usually populated with metal buttons, ring-tabs (from soda and beer cans) and occasionally Matchbox model cars, however lovingly catalogued and displayed.
The searchers themselves are fairly low-achieving citizens in a society that frowns on scavengers. The friendship of two of their number is at the heart ofDetectorists; they are Andy Stone (creator/writer Mackenzie Crook), a temp-agency worker who seems to spend the time he’s not wandering through grassland with a metal detector, wandering through grassland with weed-whackers and the like; and Lance Stater (Toby Jones,Sherlock), a forklift truck driver for a vegetable wholesaler, and amateur mandolinist. That they’re not sad-sacks is due to their passion for their hobby. (When they are called “metal detectors” by ignorant civilians, they can’t help but correct them, with pride: “We’re detectorists.”)
The show reminded me at first of the glacially slow-movingLast of the Summer Wine, except thatDetectorists features actual plots and arcs, and goes by quickly enough. (I watched the first season--six half-hour episodes--on a Sunday afternoon, engaged all the while.)
The other series of which I was reminded is Ricky Gervais’After Life (Mackenzie Crook was in the cast of Gervais’ originalThe Office) for its heartfelt depiction of small-town life, without the inherent tragedy ofAfter Life--although, while detectoring, Andy and Lance sometimes share grisly stories of other detectorists’ mishaps: “Did you hear about old Bob Cromer?”
“What about him?”
“Dead, mate. Struck by lightning.”
“No! That’s the third in the last year. Greg Peters, Janet Horwell and now Bob. You know why, don’t you?
“Because the best finds always show up just before a thunderstorm. Suddenly you’ve left it too late and you’re the highest point on the landscape.”
(The small talk rivals any from Quentin Tarantino’s films.)
The scripts contain very amusing adventures; for instance, Danebury’s sleazy mayor comes to the clubhouse with a request for the club members (on the q.t.) to find his Chain of Office, which he lost one night at a popular lovers’ lane. Detectorists Russell and Hugh, on the job, are disgusted and appalled by what they do find.
Two members of a rival club, the Antiquisearchers, haunt Andy and Lance through the first season, even at one point planting a mole with the Detectorists. They look like Simon and Garfunkel, and are referred to as such by our heroes.
Lance’s ex-wife Maggie now runs a new-age supply store in town; her new boyfriend Tony is supposedly a pizza restaurant manager, in spite of nearly always lurking in the back of Maggie’s store in various states of undress. Maggie still is not above asking Lance to still run all sorts of errands for her.
A history student, Sophie (Aimee Edwards,Luther), shows up, charming Andy, who already has a pregnant girlfriend that hates his hobby enough, even without the addition of Sophie.
Detectorists won a BAFTA at the 2015 British Academy Television Awards for Television Scripted Comedy. In May 2019, it was voted 19th in aRadio Times list of Britain's 20 favorite sitcoms by a panel that included sitcom writers and actors. It’s quite a find.
Pete Hummers is a participant in theAmazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to earn fees by linking Amazon.com and affiliate sites. This adds nothing to Amazon's prices. This column originally appeared onThe Outer Banks Voice.