Detectorists

The 20 best TV comedies of 2017

Here - in no particular order - are the 20 best shows from 2017.

Euan Ferguson's best television of 2017

Includes Motherland, Car Share and W1A, while flops include The Nightly Show.

Detectorists: a rich portrait of unremarkable lives

Testament to the mood-altering powers of television, Mackenzie Crook's Bafta-winning comedy allows us to tune out our grimly fractious world.

"Life is too cynical," wrote Paul Weller in the Jam's Tales from the Riverbank, yearning to return to the pastel fields of his youth, both life and death "carried in this stream". The same romanticism, that dream of Arcady, powers this meditative, even transcendent series, which tonight finds Lance and Andy attempting, "like environmental ninjas", to save a beloved tree from culling. The penultimate episode of a show that yields hidden treasures galore.

Detectorists inspires record public haul of treasure

The number of new Treasure discoveries by members of the public has hit a record level, with 1,120 finds last year.

50 best TV shows of 2017, #42: Mackenzie Crook's perfectly crafted comedy about two treasure-hunters with deeply buried emotions returned, as serene and picturesque as ever but with more hidden prickles.

We begin with Lance dreaming about going metal detecting with Linda Lusardi (she finds a Kestrel Super ring-pull). But the whole of Detectorists is dreamlike, merging bathos with moments of quiet revelation. There's mild turbulence for Andy and Lance - Andy and Becky's attempts to buy a house hit a snag while Lance's plans for a romantic weekend are stymied. But really, this is simply a charming meditation on friendship, nature and modest lives lived well.

Meet the real-life Detectorists

A quarter of a century ago, the biggest Roman hoard of coins and artefacts ever discovered in Britain was uncovered by an amateur metal detectorist. David Barnett goes inside in the world of the treasure-hunting hobbyist.

What a unique, and gently astonishing thing Detectorists is; closer in precedent to English folk music, or a Stanley Spencer painting, than TV sitcom. Tonight, old rivals "Simon and Garfunkel" (forever pursued by appropriate musical cues) suggest pooling resources, while Lance is persuaded to try hypnotherapy - which goes about as well as expected ("I want you to imagine you're lying on soft, warm sand." "Sorry, I'm very sensitive to the sun, I burn easily.")

Motherland / Detectorists, review

From fundraising cash to buried treasure, these sitcoms are comedy gold.