--- title: "Detectorists" year: 2014 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/detectorists" fi1m_score: 87 critics_score: 88 critics_reviews: 8 published: "2026-09-17T02:58:55.924791+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T02:59:11.900112+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Detectorists (2014) Created by Mackenzie Crook · 30m · MPA TV-14 · Comedy **Fi1m score: 87** · Critics 88 from 8 reviews *In a sentence:* Eighteen half-hours of two men not finding gold, and we would have sat through eighteen more > Mackenzie Crook’s comedy about two friends and their metal detectors is small on purpose and exactly written. The plots barely matter and sometimes show it; the fields, the silences and Toby Jones carry it. ## Synopsis Andy Stone (Mackenzie Crook) and Lance Stater (Toby Jones) spend their weekends walking farmland in rural Essex with metal detectors, members of a small metal-detecting club that meets in a hall under its president Terry Seymour (Gerard Horan). They find ring-pulls, buttons and bits of tractor, and talk about Saxon gold. Andy lives with Becky (Rachael Stirling), who loves him and would like him to earn something; Lance has not got over his ex-wife Maggie (Lucy Benjamin). A student, Sophie (Aimee-Ffion Edwards), asks to come out with them, and a rival pair of detectorists, Paul (Paul Casar) and his partner, keep appearing on the same fields with the same idea. ## Review Mackenzie Crook wrote and directed every episode of *Detectorists*, three series of six, each half an hour, and all of it is about two men walking fields in Essex with metal detectors and finding almost nothing. Andy Stone (Crook) and Lance Stater (Toby Jones) want Saxon gold. What they get, week after week, is ring-pulls and buttons, and the series is about why they go out anyway. We think it is as good as British comedy has been in years, and our reservations are real and small. Jones does the harder job. Lance still hopes his ex-wife Maggie (Lucy Benjamin) will come back, and she knows it. Jones plays him as a man who has built his life around the hobby so he never has to look at the rest of it, and he is funny without once asking to be pitied. Crook’s Andy is the worrier, living with Becky (Rachael Stirling), who loves him and would like him to earn something. Crook writes their talk in the field so that neither man says what he means and both know what the other meant. The club meets under Terry Seymour (Gerard Horan), who runs the meetings as if the minutes mattered, and his wife Sheila (Sophie Thompson) sits at the edge of the meeting and says one thing per episode that stops it. Hugh (Divian Ladwa) and Russell (Pearce Quigley) never find anything and never stop coming. A rival pair, Paul (Paul Casar) and his partner, turn up on the same fields with better kit. It is committee comedy, done with affection. Jamie Cairney shoots the fields from a distance and low, so two men in anoraks are a pair of dots against a hedge and the sky takes most of the frame. Colin Fair, the editor, holds those shots past the point where a comedy would cut, and you start to hear what the men hear: skylarks, a tractor a field away, the whine of the detector. Johnny Flynn’s theme song is a finger-picked folk tune about searching the earth for someone; Dan Michaelson’s score seldom rises above a guitar. Samantha Harley gives Lance a flat where the finds outnumber the furniture, and Jackie Vernon dresses everyone in the fleece and cargo trousers you would see in any Essex car park on a Sunday. There is a shot in the first series of the two of them sitting under a tree, saying nothing, while the camera stays wide and a breeze moves the wheat, and it moved us more than a comedy about ring-pulls has any right to. What did it was the stillness. Fair does not cut, nobody speaks, and Crook trusts that two contented friends are enough to look at for half a minute. More than once the camera also goes where the men cannot, into the soil below where they stopped, and we will not say what it finds. The plots are the weakest thing in it. The rival detectorists, who has permission for which field, a lost find and who has it: all of this is broader than the people, and now and then Crook leans on it to get to the end of a half-hour. Maggie is written closer to a sketch than a person, and Benjamin does what she can with a woman who exists mainly to be unkind to Lance. Over eighteen episodes none of this costs much. There is a version of *Detectorists* that would have been a mockumentary about men in anoraks, shot to make us feel superior. Crook chose the opposite. The series never stands outside its people to laugh at them. Watch it from the beginning and in order, because it is one story told slowly. It carries a 15 certificate, which seems stern for a series whose worst offence is the occasional swearword and a great deal of sitting down. If you need a plot, look elsewhere. If you would like nine hours with two people who are happy, it is here. *Fi1m score 87, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews are unanimous, and unusually so: eight in, every one positive, and the praise sits in the same place each time. Critics describe Mackenzie Crook’s comedy about two metal detectorists in rural Essex as gentle, wistful and unhurried, and most of them reach for the word quiet. The writing and the central double act draw the warmest notices, with Toby Jones’s downtrodden Lance singled out more than once. Several reviews also note the folky score and the rural settings. There is almost nothing to report on the other side. The spread is narrow, the lowest score is still a strong one, and nobody files a reservation of substance. The Guardian sits lowest and observes that the show is really about the characters’ private lives rather than the hobby, which reads as description rather than complaint. The later American notices treat it as a hidden gem discovered late, while the British press liked it from the start. ### Reviews we read (8) - **Radio Times**, Mark Braxton (90/100, inferred): The review calls Detectorists a breath of fresh air, naturalistic and gently funny with memorable sadness, celebrating its rural settings and the characters’ gentle lives. It singles out the central duo’s spoddish charm and the show’s sunny virtue. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/programme/b-3aj5p9/detectorists-season-1/) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Tim Goodman (90/100, inferred): The review hails Detectorists as one of the better hidden gems on TV, a lovely slice-of-life comedy refined over three seasons with enough drama to invest viewers in the characters. It singles out the show’s ability to make small stories passionately engaging. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/detectorists-review-1074827/) - **The i Paper** (90/100, inferred): The review praises Mackenzie Crook’s understated take on hapless male friendship in this final series of the comedy about two metal detectorists. It singles out the tender, musical exchanges and silences between characters as a highlight. [Read](https://inews.co.uk/culture/television/detectorists-bbc4-review-metalhead-comedy-full-tender-moments-102689) - **The Times**, Andrew Billen (****): Mackenzie Crook’s delightfully poignant comedy about metal-detecting is a rare and beautiful treasure, beautifully acted and written with Jones excelling as the downtrodden Lance. It stands out for its subtle humour and depth amid more flashy contemporaries. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/tv-review-detectorists-peaky-blinders-phnw66th68s) - **The Guardian** (80/100, inferred): Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones are a delightful double-act as bickering friends in this wistful, subtle comedy about metal detecting in rural Essex. The series excels in its gentle tone, folky score and focus on the characters' personal lives and eccentricities rather than the hobby itself. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/dec/04/detectorists-toby-jones-mackenzie-crook-box-set-review) - **The Ringer**, Ben Lindbergh (90/100, inferred): The critic praises Detectorists as a gentle, charming cult classic that stands out for its quiet focus on ordinary lives and a niche hobby. He singles out the show's compassionate, uncynical tone and its loving depiction of the two leads' friendship and metal-detecting passion. [Read](https://www.theringer.com/2018/01/15/tv/detectorists-mackenzie-crook) - **Collider**, Allison Keene (85/100, inferred): The critic celebrates the series as a Peak TV treasure for its quiet loveliness, sincerity, and focus on small, meaningful moments in ordinary lives. They single out the gifted storytelling and believable quirky characters brought to life by Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones. [Read](https://collider.com/detectorists-hulu-mackenzie-crook/) - **Paste**, Shane Ryan (85/100, inferred): The critic calls Detectorists a dose of quiet minimalism and artistic brilliance, praising its unhurried rhythms, humanity, and emotional depth. They single out the masterful performances of the leads and the nostalgic, poignant use of setting and theme song. [Read](https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/detectorists/detectorists-streaming) ## Details - **Created by:** Mackenzie Crook - **Creator:** Mackenzie Crook - **Director:** Mackenzie Crook - **Writer:** Mackenzie Crook - **Cinematography:** Jamie Cairney - **Editor:** Colin Fair - **Music:** Johnny Flynn, Dan Michaelson - **Production design:** Samantha Harley - **Costume design:** Jackie Vernon - **Producer:** Adam Tandy, Gill Isles - **Cast:** Mackenzie Crook as Andy Stone; Toby Jones as Lance Stater; Rachael Stirling as Becky; Lucy Benjamin as Maggie; Gerard Horan as Terry Seymour; Divian Ladwa as Hugh; Paul Casar as Paul; Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Sophie - **Runtime:** 30m - **Certificate (MPA):** TV-14 - **Release (the US):** 2 October 2014 - **Genres:** Comedy ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: free - Tubi: free, hd - The Roku Channel: free, hd - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Apple TV: add-on, hd - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd - Apple TV: buy, sd - Amazon Prime Video: buy, hd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AU, CA, GB, IE, NZ, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Paterson* (2016), Fi1m 84: Jim Jarmusch’s bus driver and his poems; the same faith that small days are enough. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/paterson.md) - *Local Hero* (1983), Fi1m 86: Bill Forsyth’s Scottish village comedy, where the landscape quietly wins every argument. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/local-hero.md) - *Rev.* (2010): Tom Hollander’s London vicar; another British comedy that likes its people more than its jokes. - *Le Havre* (2011): Aki Kaurismäki’s deadpan shoeshiner; kindness done slowly and without a raised voice. - *Early Doors* (2003): Craig Cash’s pub comedy; regulars, silences and the pleasure of nothing much happening. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/detectorists