Toby Jones (II)

Radio Times review

If Radio Times had a Scene of the Year competition I'd nominate a two-hander in the finale of this adorable sitcom. It's moving not only for what is said but also for what is not - and the back story suggested by it. In a pub garden, Lance (Toby Jones) nurses a pint, rueful about not hearing from the daughter he's just discovered he has. Smiley Sheila (wonderful Sophie Thompson), whom we thought was naive and a bit simple, consoles him with unexpected wisdom. And behind her careful words lies a world of sadness.

Not far behind are other insightful scenes: Lance and Andy discussing ambition; Andy and his mother-in-law (Diana Rigg) on priorities; and a real beauty between Andy and Becky: both absurd and affecting. But then Detectorists has always championed unfashionable things like kindness and friendship.

It's an episode of decisions, framed with a David Bailey eye and a nuanced script... delivered by actors who know they've made something of lasting value. Perfection.

Star/writer/director Mackenzie Crook told RT the BBC wants more, so we just hope it'll come buzzing back soon.

Toby Jones: Do you think I play losers?

Nobody plays flawed heroes like actor Toby Jones, from Capote to Hitchcock to Captain Mainwaring. But they're winners in his eyes.

Radio Times review

It's crunch time for our Poundland Time Team: Andy (Mackenzie Crook) faces an interview to work in Botswana, while Lance (Toby Jones) is nervous about playing catch-up with his long-lost daughter Kate. Neither meeting goes well.

Among the show's many amusing pairings, the timorous, hangdog Andy and his much more driven wife Becky (Rachel Stirling) are a charmingly odd couple. In an episode with more drama than comedy, their exchanges, plus the trivia-laced banter of the two friends - is golden talk indeed.

Another round of excavations in Mackenzie Crook's wonderfully beguiling comedy drama. While Lance (Toby Jones) practises his conversation starters before an encounter at the Lemon Tree ("Did you know 90% of onions are consumed in their country of origin?"), Sophie and Peter are getting closer - and a worried mayor enlists the Danebury Metal Detecting Club's help in finding his chain of office, dropped somewhere up the hill in the bushes in Barnfather Woods, near "where all the cars go after dark".

To the Danebury Metal Detecting Club, Detectorists' gentle comedy, normally words which conjure fierce misery, works splendidly on both that and many other levels. As far as I can recall from this resumption, absolutely nothing happened, but it happened perfectly: and, again, a pairing is at the heart. I've been lucky enough to interview both Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook, and they must be among the least egotistical delights in the business. It shows in their quiet on-screen companionship: and yet already I'm gripped with frissons, and fiercely rooting for them to find that damned trove.

Detectorists, Series 2 Episode 1, BBC Four, review

This comedy about men on the edge is beautifully underplayed by Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones, says Jasper Rees.

Pastoral sitcom Detectorists returns for a second series, with Mackenzie Crook's hangdog Andy struggling to find both employment and his sense of masculinity following the birth of baby Stan when Becky heads back to work. Toby Jones's sad-sack Lance is still finding it hard to accept that ex-wife Maggie is gone, but Andy has a plan to get him on the internet dating scene. Meanwhile, a mysterious German stranger arrives at the Danebury metal detecting club, seeking help to find the wreckage of a war plane.

The first series of this comedy rested as deep below the surface as the long lost treasures hunted by Andy and Lance, also known as Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones. Those who dug it out from the schedules will have found it to be a magical and heart-warming comedy, later awarded with the gold the screen pair seek in the shape of a Bafta award.

Everything is ever so-slightly out of reach for Andy and Lance in this gentle meander, which basks beneath marshmallow cloud blobs above a hushed countryside, their very first sweep across the screen bringing them as agonizingly close to bounty as at the end of the first run.

The dexterity of Crook's writing and the performances knit together with rare ease such disparate threads as naked calendars, breast milk, and a perfect analysis of the most irritating ways to answer a question on University Challenge. A quiet contentment flows through this world and through them into ours, and the humility of the writing is almost bashful of its talent.

Interview extra: Mackenzie Crook & Toby Jones

TV Choice caught up with the series' writer, director and star Mackenzie Crook, who plays Andy, and Toby Jones, who plays Lance, to find out more about male hobbies, friendship and how it feels to have struck gold with this double BAFTA award-winning show...

Toby Jones on Dad's Army: It was really nerve-wracking

Toby Jones, talking about his role in the new Dad's Army film said: "It was really nerve-wracking. It was one of those jobs where you go, 'No, that's a terrible idea, I don't want anything to do with that, thank you very much'... And when I saw who else was cast in it, I thought, 'That's exactly the right kind of way to go'. It's not comics, it's more actors."