The Detectorists Christmas Special is on tonight

[Cocolapew]

BBC 2 at 9pm, just in case anyone didn't realise 🙂

I don't think MC should make a fourth series. I agree with a PP that ending it on the last episode where they all came together and the coins fell from the tree at the end was perfect.^

Agreed. The end of series 3 was perfect.
Up there with the end of Blackadder (and now Derry Girls).

I probably read the same interview, @CaptainMyCaptain - but characters often do appear in a show after they’ve ‘died’! Given the years that have passed since the last episode, the Christmas special might have been constructed as a series of flashbacks covering those years.

I’m obviously glad that wasn’t the story MC decided to tell!

I would like to see Becky embrace her Inner Shed in series 4. Turning out beautiful reconditioned furniture while Andy gets his act together and earns money as an archaeologist. She’d be a much better project manager for rebuilding Tatterdown Cottage than he would, too.
Maybe Sophie could be working as an archaeologist and give Andy the heads up about a job that’s going. That would atone for being duplicitous previously.

Or perhaps MC will just leave it there, as a perfect 3 series, 2 specials testament to the beauty of quiet obsession and enduring friendships.

I also felt that the ‘rumble’ sound and supernatural element is the explainer for Lance turning Gollum.. and in this Xmas special they broke the assumption of it being purely psychological by both Andy and Lance hearing it and then the pot cracking Stan’s work and revealing itself on the shelf.

I really enjoyed how they dealt with that supernatural aspect throughout the different series. I’d imagine that it must be something that detectorists think about as they are often disturbing graves and on battlefields and other sites where people died.

CurrentHun, definitely. One of my favourite bits in previous series was the aspect of time passing, trees growing and being felled/dying, the seasons changing year after year and the people from different eras (those who left the treasure) walking across the fields.

DH cooked MC dinner not that long ago, he’s a chef in a local pub

he was very lovely and, in case you are wondering, he had ham, egg & chips!

It’s the subtlety of the writing that I love so much. Like when the expert at the press conference said something about the mistaken belief that the Holy Grail would be a gold, bejewelled goblet - he pretty much described what Stanley had made. Then it cracked to reveal a simple clay pot. Sublime.

I think it was an almost perfect bit of telly. My only criticisms were that the “Colchester” caption confused me, and Stanley seemed to act and be treated very, very young for a 7 year old. Other than that, wonderful.

Lost is one of my favourite shows alongside this! I recently rewatched and it was even better second time around, it all makes sense unless you are misled by the end credits (chosen by the TV company), but that’s another thread. Spoiler: they weren’t dead the whole time.

I like Becky, and I know plenty of couples where each person is very different from the other cough cough (we’ve been together 20+ years ago so have clearly missed the memo that we’re supposed to now resemble each other in appearance and expression according to a post above haha).

I hadn’t even noticed Sophie disappearing, she wasn’t one of my favourite characters.

Stanley seemed to act and be treated very, very young for a 7 year old. Other than that, wonderful.

I thought that.

I thought that too, especially the bit where his dad was pointing at the club members and saying 'look there is uncle xxx and there is uncle/aunty xxx' That's the kind of conversation you'd have with a 2 or 3 year old. Maybe the character of Stanley was meant to have additional needs but it was never explicitly mentioned.

I thought it was great and so funny and for Simon and Garfunkel to have been twats all along- they were epically twattish. Garfunkel was so pretentious and competitive that the plot twist of the pair immorally claiming the magpie hoard and then making their entrance with Craig as their manservant was hilarious. Craig and the lemonade was amazing too!

Coming back to Becky for a moment. The character is another manifestation of something you see a lot in writing by men, which is you have a central, sympathetic male character who wants to do his own thing, and a wife who is more sensible and boring and nags him to make something better of himself. I think it's slightly more subtle than that in Detectorists, because Becky is clearly not a terrible person - and she might even be right - but the basic idea is there. And obviously its function is to drive the narrative by having the protagonist pulled in two different directions.

More generally, much as I love Detectorists, and much as I think Mackenzie Crook is a great writer, I think the portrayal of the female characters is a weakness. Creating believable, rounded female characters is a weak spot for a lot of male writers.

Mmm … I dunno … Generally I’d agree, but here … I mean - Sheila is up there with Peggy Olson and Siobhan Roy in terms of complexity and sheer fabulousness. Perhaps due to the actress, but she ‘steals every scene’ she’s in, even when she’s in another room. Though it may also be because our glimpses of her are so brief. Can’t imagine the narrative would stand up to the overexposure of a whole series based on her. It would turn into Mum, surely?)

But yes, the female nag trope is strong with Becky. (I honestly don’t believe they’d have lasted at least eight years together.)

Yes agree - the male characters are more rounded. We know much more about Russell and Hugh than we do about Varde and Louise. But I wonder whether that’s a point MC is making about male dominated hobbies and the tokenistic role that couple play, perhaps.

Agreed about Stanley’s treatment seeming many years younger. Also I don’t know many kids who’d agree to have something they were proud of and had made for a parent, immediately passed on to someone who would chuck it out in 3 weeks! But I liked that insight into Lance- he’d have to be that way with finds otherwise he’d be like Hugh constantly adding stuff to his garage- and I liked the comedy of h extending it to ‘precious’ kid’s artwork. I expected that the group would have agreed that the treasure be given back to Stanley or Andy at that point. The plot device it provided was so clever though.

I thought Andy’s walk through the cottage and salvaging something precious was a beautiful irony on metal detecting- made me think about their ‘finds’ of value and no value (pottery vs metal) and how the owners’ sentiments become stripped away from ‘finds’ over the course of time. It was like a dig of Andy’s in his own life. As a scene i felt like it acknowledged again the human reality that causes finds to be lost in the first place, as the writers do in the dramatic reconstructions but that the characters rarely talk about. If the writers had to do that scene out of necessity then it was brilliantly done.

I think we know the one thing we need to know about Varde and Louise - which is that Louise isn’t actually dominant, bordering on coercive, within their relationship. They seemed an oddity at first - it was hard to tell why they were together - but Varde’s unprompted proposal completely cleared the mists of incomprehension. I think that’s a complete story for two central but not major characters.

As a contrast or companion watch I’d recommend this years’ Royal institution Christmas lectures on the BBC IPlayer. I think only the first one is up so far. Firstly anthropological pathologist, Professor Dame Sue Black is a fantastic presenter. The scrupulous respect and human value she explicitly places on human remains even when thousands of years old is pretty life-affirming. And usually she usually deals with much more recent deaths so that is very necessary.

It showed a professional cultural and ethical focus on people in contrast to metal detecting and to an extent archaeology (or at least as it is shown on the Detectorists) which was really interesting.

Her books, especially her first one, are amazing l

Thanks CoffeeBoy I’ll definitely look out for those. She does one of those jobs that make me wonder how she can deal with even one day of it. Such an impressive person.

Agree about Prof Sue Black. Her RI lectures are fascinating.

Now, there's an idea - a future special in which Lance and Andy find human remains, with special guest appearance by the Prof. Lance could be possessed by the spirit of the dead viking

And I just love love love Terry and Sheia!

Going slightly into anorak mode for a moment. MC and Rachel Sterling have worked together before, they're both in Still Crazy, although MC's role is blink-and-you'd-miss-him.
Also he and Gerard Horan (Terry) were both in Jerusalem on stage along with Amy Ffion-Edwards (Sophie) and Johnny Flynn, who wrote the theme song.

But sad there hasn’t been a new Worzel Gummidge this Christmas.

Love it Bore. This must happen in detectorworld. You should pitch it!

I mean, finding remains- not necessarily the possession side of it

Oooh yes, it could be like the Ruth Galloway books (which I bet are made into a tv programme one day).