Detectorists

Detectorists - Series 2 preview

Perhaps an unlikely topic for a sitcom, but one that absolutely works.

Radio Times review

The new campaign of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club is causing ructions. Peter the visiting German (Daniel Donskoy) is appealing for the club's help to locate a crashed WW2 plane, but for Lance, it simply isn't history: "If it hasn't been forgotten, I'm not interested." In any case, Lance has other distractions, listening to David Essex while getting spruced up. Smooth!

The joy of Detectorists is precisely the fact that it isn't earth-shattering; rather, a succession of entrancing moments. Becky zoning out - the way people do - during a work meeting. Or Sophie defending her fellow amateur archaeologists when Peter ridicules their peculiarities. "They are weird, so I like them," she says. And more good news: Lance and Andy's rivals, "Simon and Garfunkel", are back.

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.

Mackenzie Crook interview

Mackenzie Crook is the self-effacing actor who swapped Hollywood for rural Suffolk and the chance to make his own comedy series about metal 'detectorists'.

TV review, Detectorists, series 2, BBC4

The Danebury Metal Detecting Club is back and this time it's serious. Well, not completely serious.

Video: Mackenzie Crook on finding TV gold

His hapless on-screen character might have little luck finding treasure but Mackenzie Crook has had no trouble scooping up prizes.

He wrote, directed, and starred in the comedy series Detectorists and landed two BAFTAs for the first season.

Ahead of the second series starting on BBC Four, Mackenzie told BBC Breakfast of why he thinks the show has done so well.

Detectorists starts again on BBC Four on Thursday 29 October.

Mackenzie Crook interview

Detectorists and The Office star Mackenzie Crook has said that he avoids social media because he is tired of having his personal appearance mocked.

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...

The best thing I re-watched last week: Detectorists

The first time I watched Detectorists it was on YouTube. It was formatted so the picture filled up only about a third of the screen. The rest of the field was taken up with a frame emblazoned with the show's name across the top. Despite the poor viewing conditions, it was still probably the best comedy I saw last year. In fact, it won the BAFTA for best situation comedy of 2014 and a second series is currently in production.

Mackenzie Crook to talk Detectorists at the RT Festival

Mackenzie Crook will be appearing at the Radio Times Festival in September to talk about the return of his Bafta-winning comedy Detectorists.