Detectorists — The World's Greatest Television Show

Publication date

10 May 2026

Estimated reading time

30 min read

Every time some­one asks me to rec­om­mend a show, I write: „Detec­torists”. With­out any addi­tional com­men­tary, because hon­estly, I can’t find ade­quate words for it. How do you explain to some­one that a show about two guys bonded by their shared hobby of metal detect­ing is the best show ever made? But even if you find the words — things like whole­some, clean but warm, mag­i­cal, full of true joy, ther­a­peu­tic, filled with love — there’s a second prob­lem: what if the person watches it and doesn’t like it? That would mean they have no taste, no sense of humor, no heart and no soul. I don’t want to find that out about a person.

So I’ll keep quiet. And instead I’ll show you the com­ments on six YouTube videos related to the show. Two are the sound­track, one is just the final scene cut out, and three are about how the show was made.

„A Day Out with the Detec­torists” — Behind the Scenes

• @johnof­tara — The Detecorists is the most won­der­ful series I have watched. It is ther­apy for the soul.

• @richard­wilton722 — The most beau­ti­ful pro­gramme on TV. Won­der­ful arc of story, driven along by a bril­liant script. Superbly cast. Inspired acting. Appar­ently effort­less direc­tion. A hymn to human­ity and nature.

• @jaycee2392 — this fills me with glee! a bright­ness of joy and light! i shim­mer with cosmic vibes and melt into a vast cavern of bliss! then about 2hrs later i rewind them all. roll another and watch them all again!! haha­ha­haha! weird init!!

• @hingamp — you watch detec­torists and you can die.

• @sal­lieb6435 — As soon as the music starts, it’s like my whole body goes „aaaaah­h­hhh” in a big sigh as I settle down to a world of simple, smooth view­ing. It’s the best show and i love every­thing about it. Please never stop!

• @Rob­both­e­High­lander — First tele­vi­sion I have ever watched where I felt I wanted to shake the writ­ers hand and thank him for what he has done.

• @matthew­mog­gridge5221 — Put simply, Detec­torists is absolutely won­der­ful on all levels: the writ­ing, the direct­ing, the acting, the char­ac­ters (there are no bad char­ac­ters, even the bad guys are good guys) the whole thing has a laid back vibe to it. I’d love a fourth series, I really would, because there’s some­thing spir­i­tual, some­thing calm­ing, it’s a joy to watch and it really makes me feel good.

• @Neil­Sten­house — Under­stated comedy per­fec­tion. The Exec Pro­ducer summed up Detec­torists per­fectly — the char­ac­ters aren’t yobs, aris­to­crats, careerists, geniuses, or stupid — just decent people. I’d guess most view­ers have most, if not all, of these char­ac­ter­is­tics. I think that’s why it’s so pop­u­lar.

• @daflot­sam — A series so good that once reach­ing the end, I just had to go straight back to S1E1 and do it again.

• @peter­an­thony1329 — Most of us lead unre­mark­able lives. Macken­zie cel­e­brates the sweet­ness of some unre­mark­able lives in this won­der­ful series that can only be described as a work of love.

• @shezx­goo — I binged this on Net­flix in 2023. Its such a won­der­ful, soul­ful feel good show. As soon as the theme song comes on it sends goose­bumps. It just feels so comfy cosy to watch. It is actu­ally heal­ing. It keeps you in the moment. Its beau­ti­ful. I miss it ❤️

• @Bon­goB­ag­gins — Lines such as Sheila’s in the pub garden can really grab your heart, and pull. And in another scene, there is softly, lyri­cally com­i­cal genius like „I’m thirty five.” „Years of age!?” in the same show. It’s aston­ish­ing.

• @car­ol­court­ney4309 — Just about the best sitcom ever. Only we should spend longer. Price­less jewel of a show. Per­fectly cast, per­fectly directed, per­fectly writ­ten, per­fect in every way. I have it on DVD and I show it to every­one I pos­si­bly can. I don’t want anyone to miss this won­der­ful won­der­ful sweet show.

• @SMBUAE — From open­ing music to clos­ing scenes, Detec­torists’ is an under­stated mas­ter­piece. Humil­ity, human­ity, almost whim­si­cal yet real and relat­able. Each episode a 30 min­utes parcel of joy remind­ing us the world can still be beau­ti­ful, and so too the people in it. Bravo one and all.

• @yepyepyepyep8604 — I only found this series last year, ive rewatched it at least 5 times, and its prob one of the great­est british tv shows of all time (i am totally seri­ous, anyone whos seen it will no doubt agree) it made me laugh and cry so many times its become my com­fort show now when life gets too much.

• @NDRonin1401 — Now, I’m sort of a dif­fi­cult person when it comes to tv shows and movies. Even in my most favourite shows, there’s always at least one, prob­a­bly sev­eral actors and/or char­ac­ters that rub me the wrong way. But in this show, nope, not a single one. I love them all. The whole DMDC, their fam­i­lies, all awe­some.

• @juliem­c­cormick2449 — Love it & I’ve intro­duced so many others to it, & they say made mas­sive dif­fer­ence to their life & their Mental health. Thank you xx

• @patri­ci­a­col­lis2289 — I suf­fered a bereave­ment and it was per­haps the only bit of telly that could switch my brain into a calm mode. It still does, and I feel real grat­i­tude to the team.

• @vir­giniaf.5764 — „I’ll be your trea­sure”. This show is a trea­sure I’ve just dis­cov­ered from across the pond in the US. Love it so much and don’t under­stand why only three sea­sons. I could watch it for­ever.

• @Rob­MacK­endrick — It’s a feast of bril­liant. Every­thing — writ­ing, direct­ing, cast, per­for­mances, cin­e­matog­ra­phy, loca­tions — every­thing is sharp as a razor. I loved being taken up into that world with each episode. And such genius humour. It’s like a sym­phony.

• @mark­williamson4628 — I want to wake up early, dress in the dark, qui­etly close my front door and walk out in a gentle Daneb­ury spring morn­ing. Past the White Horse, down the old lane and out into the hay-scented fields to find Lance and Andy already there…. Damn….

• @chris­field­ing9405 — Writ­ten like only the UK knows how, just filled with subtle, unspo­ken mean­ing, full of humor, sad­ness, and sit­u­a­tions that we can all relate to, about metal detect­ing, but yet again, actu­ally, noth­ing to do with it. Bril­liant!!!

• @louis­e­smith486 — A beau­ti­fully writen and acted series show­ing how a simple life can be so grat­i­fy­ing and take you places you never dreamed of. Life really doesnt have to be 100 miles an hour to be reward­ing. Friend­ships people, a happy life is all about friend­ships.

• @Robyn264-i2v — I have watched the entire three season three times and it is like leav­ing a friend each time it ends. A lovely bunch of people.

• @Sew­steady­Ge­or­gia — This show is a rare gem, a for­ever favourite. Except the very last series broke my heart, can’t watch it. For me it ends under the tree 🌳

• @steven­wild39 — It really is just a kind, heart­warm­ing show. Exactly what there should be more of in life, but sadly isn’t.

• @piers995 — A bril­liant series, the won­der­ful parts of which, the script, the acting, the music and the fil­mog­ra­phy, when all put together are merely beau­ti­ful.

• @djw8133 — Takes me back to better, more inno­cent times. Pure craft at its very best.

• @clare­wat­son2375 — I feel I’m late to the party but I have watched all the series almost back to back it’s beau­ti­fully writ­ten I have howled with laugh­ter… What a qui­etly amaz­ing show… see you on Tues­day night in the scout hall 😊

„Lance Finds GOLD” — The Great­est Scene in Tele­vi­sion His­tory

• @met­al­bearuk — If you don’t weep tears of joy when Lance realises what he’s found, you have no soul, and I’d prob­a­bly hate you.

• @peter­reed2615 — Simply one of the great­est shows ever. One of those pro­grammes you bore people talk­ing about yet no one watches. Pure bliss.

• @MrKa­jith­e­cat — This show really hits me in the soul. I watched all of it during a vul­ner­a­ble time in my life, just get­ting out of a breakup and I was train­ing myself to enjoy life again. It might be silly but this show really made me look at the little good things in life and cher­ish them.

• @boiler5959 — The world has yet to under­stand how good this show is. Its pure gold!!!

• @Jammoko — This is TV at its best, bril­liant script, direct­ing and acting. Some people think its just about anorak metal detec­torists and detect­ing… but you have to dig a little deeper to extract the poignant social inter­ac­tion here. The BBC may not know it… but they have a real gem in Mack­en­sie Crook.

• @philjones45 — I still bloody cry at this scene. Every bloody time.

• @pollofrito3000 — My TV diet is full of dark murder mys­ter­ies or police pro­ce­du­rals. I wish there were more gems like this show. It is light, but sub­stan­tial. It is about sup­pos­edly mun­dane exis­tences, but there is more truth about human­ity in this show than 99.9% of other shows. It is bril­liantly funny and gentle. It is a won­der­ful show.

• @Kevi­nOR­eilly12684 — Toby Jones’ acting in this scene is easily the best that tele­vi­sion has ever given us. He’s unbe­liev­ably tal­ented through­out the entire show as well. Detec­torists is simply the great­est T.V. show of all time. None of this „one of the great­est” bull­shit people always say these days.

• @stew­burt — One of those series you hope no one else watched because you wanted to keep it to your­self. This is the best of the best. To under­stand this scene you had to under­stand all that built up to it. Genius writ­ing and superla­tive acting.

• @chris.larkins1348 — I go back to this per­fect series every time I need to feel like I’m losing myself in this life, it never dulls or loses its poignant power. It’s per­fect, it’s subtle and funny and true. It’s friend­ships not made on how people look or what they have. It’s about people who don’t care what anyone thinks of them or what they love to do, they just love being there. I cry at the theme song. I get angry when I tell people to watch it and they don’t. If you miss this you really really don’t know what your miss­ing. Love read­ing people’s com­ments here too, I feel belong­ing with you all thanks to two men and their metal detec­tors.

• @bram­srock­hop­per3377 — So lovely you can scarcely put it into words. The genius of Lance hear­ing the horses… Just to get a little bit poetic about life… always, ALWAYS listen to your instincts. They’re within you for a damn good reason. Macken­zie Crook, you damn genius. So so good, from the music to the cast to the loca­tions to the scripts. Pure gold.

• @Pobsta-de7hb — My mum and dad watched this in my mums final days just a few weeks ago after I rec­om­mended it and she loved the song so much that just last Tues­day we played the long ver­sion of the theme tune at her Funeral, excel­lent series and beau­ti­ful theme song.

• @Vercinge­torix58v. — I have never seen such a beau­ti­ful, fan­tas­tic series as „Detec­torists” in my life… I’ve been look­ing for my detec­tor myself since 2012, it helps me to under­stand nature better every day and has helped me a lot in coping with the grief of my wife who passed away too early. Please let this series live again, people will thank you.

• @chick­lechives — Whole series is a love letter to the coun­try­side, friend­ship and hope.

• @cle­ganebowl­dog6626 — This is my favorite scene, of any show. It con­tin­ues to be the broth that feeds my soul when it needs recov­ery most.

• @mar­tinker­rmu­sic — What an incred­i­ble scene. Even the way the wheat wafts in the breeze as the camera pans out is per­fect. I’ve seen it many times but Lance’s reac­tion to seeing his find is making me cry again right now.

• @bill_lum­bergh — Joy is one of the hard­est emo­tion for an actor to por­tray real­is­ti­cally. This is a mas­ter­class in it.

• @shia_labeouf — First time I watched this it brought me to tears. Even rewatch­ing it now, I feel that same welling of emo­tion. Absolutely mas­ter­ful writ­ing and acting. The way they tease you with the sug­ges­tion that they’re going to give up and go to the pub as they have so many times, so you’re inter­nally scream­ing at Lance to go back and check. When he does, you get the absolute great­est, most whole­some moment of TV in decades.

• @Bot­tles2026 — This scene is the great­est in tv his­tory. A mil­lion emo­tions all wrapped up in one. Gives me chills every time.

• @richln9682 — I’ll be grate­ful to Macken­zie Crook to the day I die for this absolute gem of a TV series.

• @heavy­fuck­in­metal­dude — After i fin­ished the series i got my friends to watch it with me. I watched this scene almost every day to make sure i didn’t cry around them. We all cried.

• @ted­kop­pel13 — I cried a little, my wife was openly sob­bing for lit­er­ally five solid min­utes.

• @Turtle­hands — I show people this show and they pass on it… I can only lead you to the promised land, I cannot make you stay.

• @guysatch­well6990 — Here I am, again, a couple of years later… Still in tears. Telly doesn’t get better than this.

• @mas­ter­so­fur­mouth — One of the great moments of TV His­tory.

• @katube84 — One of the most charm­ing, affect­ing and won­der­fully human TV shows to date. Just adore it. Re-watch it annu­ally.

• @Amer­i­can­SoulArchive — I only binge-watched this show 2 weeks ago and I know it will be one I will go back to in the years to come because it feels like an old friend I will miss.

The Theme Song — Extended Ver­sion with All Three Verses

• @with­the­se­hands1631 — I had stage 3 cancer when I found this show and when it found me. This song. Will be played as I’m low­ered into the ground. It says what I can not. Yes, I’m pray­ing it will be years away but on that day I will listen one last time. Beau­ti­ful. 🙏🏻❤️

• @retha­h­erne8596 — My hus­band has been gone for nearly 3 years, when we were watch­ing this series. He loved MDing… and bought one spe­cial for me. He never got well enough for us to go out and trea­sure hunt. Alas he only got to series 2. I fin­ished it for the both of us. And I’m re-watch­ing it now… think­ing of him and feel this song is his anthem. He’s wait­ing for me, I just know it.

• @mutu­al­beard — A beau­ti­ful song. Detec­torists proves that good story telling does not need vio­lence, gra­tu­itous sexual encoun­ters, gun­fights or rot­ting cadav­ers to be enlight­en­ing about the human con­di­tion.

• @AEGI­PAN101 — Detec­torists is hon­estly one of the best shows that I came across com­pletely by chance. Such a sweet, quaint, funny and emo­tional series, and def­i­nitely one of those shows I wish I could wipe from my memory only to watch again afresh. This song brings back those moments cud­dled up with my fiancee in front of the TV enjoy­ing this buried trea­sure of a tele­vi­sion show.

• @tassie57 — This show and song touch me deeply. Not sure what it is, nos­tal­gia, a wish for a sim­pler life with good people. Thanks for post­ing this clip.

• @Vercinge­torix58v. — Hello, my name is Martin Schmitz from Ger­many, and I have never seen such a beau­ti­ful, fan­tas­tic series as „Detec­torists” in my life, these films are so humor­ous and full of love that one would like to watch all episodes together, it is already like an addic­tion, but a nice pleas­ant addic­tion! I’ve seen a lot of films in my 54 years, but I’ve never been more delighted by films like the series „Detec­torists”, the actors and the script are unique, just close to the life of the simple, that’s what makes this series so like­able.

• @mysurren­der7 — My wife and I actu­ally used this song for our first dance at our wed­ding this past week­end. Wasn’t a dry eye any­where. Even the DJ shed a tear. Beau­ti­ful song and every­one loved it!!

• @mar­wood1969 — My wife and I love the series so much, we went on our own hunt to visit all the film­ing loca­tions. We had a lovely week­end climb­ing through the briar and bram­bles. We ended up sit­ting in the scout hall having filled our­selves up with coffee at the Lemon Tree, a few yards down the road. What a ful­fill­ing expe­ri­ence this delight­ful show has been for so many people.

• @there­sa­davis8556 — This. Song. Plays over and over in my head, heart and soul. Love it so much. It is the absolute icing on the delec­table cake that is the comedy series of the Detec­torists. Such a gem. All of it.

• @Jim­myThe­Mower — One of the great­est TV series ever writ­ten and a fab­u­lous theme song to go with it. British writ­ing at its absolute best 👍

• @Pabloworld­wide — Thanks mate. This song, both the instru­men­tals and the lyrics strike such a deep chord with me. I am cer­tain there is an emo­tion stronger than love and it lives in music like this.

• @hay­leym­c­carthy9059 — This show is a per­fect exam­ple of how enthralling the ordi­nary and the sup­pos­edly mun­dane can be.

• @Dr_Bombay — i adore this show. i really appre­ci­ate the gentle friend­ship between Lance and Andy, and how they show a pos­i­tive male rela­tion­ship — one of hon­esty and also humor. I love that they tell each other every­thing, and also call each other out when they are bull­shit­ting. Anyway, this song is haunt­ing and beau­ti­ful, and just per­fect.

• @lau­rawatkins9399 — One of the most remark­able things about this series is that it always brings out the best in people. Or maybe simply that the best people love it.

• @Frankie­Rock­ett — Macken­zie Crook’s talent is all our trea­sure.

• @williamross2579 — I often wonder how Lance and Andy are get­ting on… I hope they are safe and well in Macken­zies mind.

• @dav­e­and­louise­ward2732 — Been living in New Zealand for 14 years and only just stum­bled across this series. The song has gripped me to my soul and with the subtle humour and simple ways that I miss so much coming through to ease my aching bones I am now making plans to return to Eng­land.

• @scot­twheeler7615 — I’ve never seen a com­ments sec­tion like this in all the years I’ve been on YouTube. So full of emo­tion and love for both the show and the song. I’ve read every com­ment and it’s gen­uinely warmed my soul. Life is hard a lot of the time, and weird and per­plex­ing. How­ever there are still plenty of like minded folk in this world who want to look after each other and share the love and it really gives me a sense of peace and appre­ci­a­tion. Gen­uine trea­sure ❤

• @andrewkee­gan1876 — This song makes me quite teary. Every time. It’s just so lovely. It could not be more per­fect for the show, which is gen­uinely one of the most beau­ti­ful things I’ve ever seen. A par­tic­u­larly lovely and gentle iter­a­tion of Eng­lish­ness which is both wist­ful and very funny at the same time. I just love it.

• @mama66333 — The most beau­ti­ful song in the world for the most beau­ti­ful show in the world.

• @tur­ing­ma­chine4617 — Just fin­ished the final episode on Net­flix. I’m over­come with emo­tion. Such a beau­ti­ful series and song. Friend­ship/love is the true trea­sure. It’s wait­ing for us — my wish for all of you who enjoy this song — may we all find it. 🧡

• @debrah­gailewis4933 — I so love this song and I so love this show! How is it that a show described as a comedy brings me both to rau­cous laugh­ter and to deep heart­felt tears? Detec­torists is simply my most favourite show ever! I have watched it through three times now, and each time, I am astounded by the the writ­ing, the story, the deep metaphors about life, loving and friend­ships — the bril­liant acting, etc., etc. My life is the richer for this show and this song 🙏🏼💖

• @lawrence­bar­ber8583 — This show has been mas­sively impact­ful to my life. It sounds stupid I know, but it’s helped me through a very rough time and brought a heart and soul that no other show has. I’m not a celebrity type of person, but I sure as hell hope I can meet Macken­zie so I can tell him how much he and this show means to me.

• @sandy­ch­eney660 — I have watched it once, all the way through. Tonight, while read­ing the lyrics to the song as I lis­tened, I finally under­stand them. It is from the point of view of the gold they are search­ing for. Know­ing that, makes it all make sense! I love the story, every episode. Macken­zie Crook, I have the high­est regard for you, thank you for giving this to us!

• @juli­et­sen­gupta3573 — we played this at my chil­drens dads memo­r­ial. he died of cancer last year.

• @clay­wil­son6149 — I wonder if Johnny knows the bril­liance of his cre­ation… or how many lives it has touched? Cre­ation comes ‘through’ us. Not ‘from’ us. Once it leaves your heart and hand, its jour­ney now belongs to the whims of prov­i­dence. Johnny… you gave a won­der­ful gift to us. Thank you 🙏 „I’ll be your trea­sure.”

• @agdgdg­wngo — One day I might be able to listen to this song with­out crying… My girl­friend showed me the show, and it reminds how she’s my trea­sure.

• @vohra82 — i fin­ished watch­ing all the sea­sons and have been lis­ten­ing to this song in loop whole day with a gentle smile and twin­kle. What a delight­ful series.

• @Chris-eo5zs — I dis­cov­ered this on iPlayer recently, and I’ve just fin­ished watch­ing the whole thing. What an amaz­ing story. There are almost not enough words in the Eng­lish lan­guage to describe it. Sad, hope­ful, dis­traught, joyful, angry, bit­ter­sweet. I can’t wait to watch it with my fiancee, my friends, and anyone else I can. The show, the song, the world needs to know.

• @frankhugh2052 — Like a fool I thought I was only one of a hand­ful who rated this show and this song so highly. It was per­fect, every second of every episode was per­fect.

• @reee5738 — This came on just after mid­night on new years 2022 and I’ve watched it daily since, per­fect com­fort tv. Macken­zie is such a talent.

„Dis­cov­er­ing Detec­torists” — Behind the Scenes

• @TK42138 — Watch­ing Detec­torists is like putting on your favourite pair of shoes, or cloth­ing. It just feels right. An absolute gem of a series.

• @Kesh­Harp — Very few times in a life­time there comes a show that has the com­bi­na­tion of per­fect cast, per­fect writ­ing and per­fect per­form­ing. Lucky to have found this absolute gem.

• @ggoan­nas — One of the best tv shows, ever. Such an orig­i­nal idea and so well done. You fall in love with every­one.

• @reyo8036 — In a world so full of extremes, instant grat­i­fi­ca­tion and polar­is­ing view­points; this series is an amaz­ing tonic and a reminder of how amaz­ing com­mu­nity, sim­plic­ity and the UK can be.

• @gra­hamjohn­son4002 — Pleased to say I’ve watched this since the very first episode. A beau­ti­ful, gentle comedy which is too subtle for some but absolutely unmiss­able for others.

• @newwave­pop — When Toby says he loves the show’s Human­ity, that is exactly it. This series’ Human­ity was absolutely beau­ti­ful. And it was so relaxed and not over the top, it was a very wel­comed change. Just made all the better because I can absolutely relate to that desire to dis­cover his­tory and your roots, to uncover the ances­try of your people. It is so moving.

• @mat­tea­ger1049 — Im sat in my snug, binge watch­ing The Detec­torists, once again, for the umpteenth time. This pro­gramme is unique. Totally and utterly. Funny. Sad. Tragic. Hilar­i­ous. It has it all. So ter­rif­i­cally writ­ten and acted, and set in glo­ri­ous sur­round­ings. Its a mas­ter­piece. Truly a gem.

• @rhid­ian­davies1991 — The Detec­torists is one of those pro­grammes I’d put on as back­ground view­ing with no expec­ta­tions of being into it, but after 1 episode I was com­pletely hooked. It’s like get­ting into a nice warm bath, it’s so funny, light, relax­ing and whole­some, and yet man­ages to be engag­ing and com­pelling through its char­ac­ters with­out having to be over-dra­matic. It’s almost its own genre — whole­some, easy-watch­ing, light-comedy-drama. I wish there were more shows like this.

• @billk9856 — Binged the first series again last night. No super­heroes, no gang­sters, no-one gets mur­dered, just a quiet but beau­ti­ful explo­ration of being human exquis­itely exe­cuted by all involved.

• @russpugh9570 — What’s not to like about this beau­ti­ful British comedy. The cast­ing is spot on, I can’t imag­ine anyone else in the roles of Lance and Andy. It’s beau­ti­fully writ­ten and acted and cen­tres on a sub­ject which is largely unknown about by the major­ity of people. The loca­tion is sub­lime and shows off Eng­land at its best. I want to live in Daneb­ury and join the DMDC and go to the pub and be friends with them all such is the idyl­lic lifestyle the pro­gramme por­trays.

• @drawn­in­war­dart — I was amazed that I got into the 3 series the first time around but they were relent­lessly funny and a col­league at work and I both admit­ted Detec­torists was our guilty plea­sure. I’ve just watched all three series again last week and it’s even fun­nier second time around!

• @nicholasjohn­son479 — This show is so beau­ti­fully con­structed. There are laugh out loud moments, like the lemon­ade, Varde’s one speech and the fly-past, heart­break­ing episodes like Sheila’s chat to Lance or Becky’s grow­ing frus­tra­tion, really poignant insights into how we live our lives and mag­nif­i­cent close ups of nature to make us realise how lucky we are… Thank you Macken­zie, and all the cast and crew, for pro­duc­ing a kind comedy.

• @Justin­Lar­combe-c5w — A Gem in the rough of tele­vi­sion. I wish I had never watched it so I could watch it all again.

• @onion6foot — I’ve never expe­ri­enced any­thing like it. I won’t say how many times I watched the series… and each time found new gems I’d missed before. Layers of genius.

• @simonel­lis7775 — Some­one told me i must watch the detec­torists and i’m so glad they did. It’s absolutely won­der­ful, as is Small Prophets. What a fan­tas­tic writer and vision­ary Macken­zie is.

• @tl7089 — The first time I saw this I thought it was bril­liant. The second time I watched it over the Covid winter and I thought Macken­zie Crook was a genius. One of the few series where you find some­thing new the second time around. The top and tail­ing of the sea­sons is the best I have ever seen.

• @kathy­hills9326 — I absolutely love this show. Have binge-watched it at least three times. It is an uplift­ing, mag­i­cal plea­sure. This show alone is worth all the years I have paid my BBC TV license fee. Just simply the best ever.

• @astronom­e­nov99 — It’s a show where I don’t really have to sus­pend dis­be­lief. Real life is funny, and Macken­zie cap­tures it per­fectly. In August 2022 I vis­ited the loca­tion of the Lunch Tree. I stood there before sun­rise, it was so peace­ful.

• @rebec­ca­ball229 — I need MacKen­zie Crook to do another series. This is the best thing I’ve ever watched. But if he doesn’t, I will just watch this one on repeat. Not a prob­lem.

• @john­tay­lor­son7769 — The Wire is the great­est TV show ever made. But The Detec­torists is too.

• @michaelclark4175 — Is it just me or is Macken­zie Crook the nicest bloke in the world?

• @peter­mor­ris9818 — I’m always sur­prised when the end music comes up, it’s easily the quick­est half hour on telly.

Johnny Flynn — Detec­torists Orig­i­nal Sound­track

• @art­dono­van­design — I’m a 68 year old Amer­i­can who grew up on TV since it began. I am here to say that „Detec­torists” is the finest tele­vi­sion series of its genre ever pro­duced. I real­ize of course that it’s a bold state­ment, con­sid­er­ing the thou­sands of really great British, Amer­i­can and Global shows made in the last 60+ years. But I think we can ALL agree that Mr. Crook is a bona fide, cin­e­matic genius (writer, pro­ducer, actor) of the First Order. From his ini­tial con­cept to cast­ing, story line, script, pacing, edit­ing, sets, loca­tion, music, light­ing and MOST of all… that bril­liant and sub­lime humor! And Johnny Flynn’s unique, tender, clever and per­fect theme song cou­pled with his honest and infec­tious per­for­mance easily rivals any­thing pro­duced by Dylan.

• @Jlo-n6f — My Mum was sadly taken away from me because of Cancer. During her final week on this planet, we watched this show repeat­edly and now it holds a spe­cial place in my heart. Some­times she was awake to watch it with me, other times she was asleep, in the end it didn’t matter we just had it on. It was like a safety blan­ket for us both and I’ll always trea­sure that for the rest of my life. Its impos­si­ble for me to listen to this song and not think of my amaz­ing Mum. This song is so painful, yet beau­ti­ful to me now. A silly, yet bril­liant show about metal detec­torists — is now one of the most impor­tant pieces of media to me. Incred­i­ble… I Love you Mum, you’re wait­ing for me.

• @Katri­naFox-p8x — My brother suf­fered a spinal injury through an undi­ag­nosed spinal abscess which resulted in him becom­ing paral­ysed from the neck. He spent 5 months in ICU. He watched the detec­torists sev­eral times over, the med­ical staff became inter­ested and started to watch the series too. When he died 2 years 8 months later. I chose the theme tune for his funeral. It will always remind me how pre­cious life is. How the beauty of life is in the small things and kind­ness.

• @xarax­a­nia — This song will always be spe­cial to me, as me and a friend watched it all together last summer, laugh­ing at the humour and wish­ing we could go metal detect­ing. He passed away last week, I hope he found peace by a fish­ing lake some­where and had some beau­ti­ful times in the sun.

• @bou7990 — Prob­a­bly the best TV series I have seen in a long time. Real mean­ing, real heart and real soul through­out that encap­su­lates you into their world; the real world. And this sound­track really is the per­fect icing on the cake. No matter how hard you search for gold, chances are it’s already right in front of you.

• @TheAn­them­sCum­bria — I absolutely adore Detec­torists and its sound­track. This show and this track in par­tic­u­lar quite lit­er­ally saved my life.

• @vivien­clog­ger — I love every­thing about this show: The gentle, beau­ti­ful music; the quiet, under­stated humour; the won­der­ful acting and, of course, those glo­ri­ous Suf­folk skies….

• @Run­ningther­ace51 — I’m a 51 year old man in the US and this is the best series I have ever watched. I loved the witty humor, beau­ti­ful land­scapes with that smil­ing hazy sun­shine. The rec­on­cil­i­a­tion with „Simon and Gar­funkel” at the end was heart­warm­ing. I’m so glad I stum­bled upon this 10 years later.

• @jwcharin — This has got to be the best theme song in his­tory. It is so incred­i­bly per­fect as sort of thesis for the tone of the show. It’s also just one of the most emo­tion­ally moving songs I’ve ever heard.

• @dar­ren­wil­son8042 — Ten years ago this month Detec­torists first aired — in all my 60 years I have never ever seen more per­fect tele­vi­sion.

• @tay­lorhether­ing­ton745 — This is the type of show to make you feel okay about the future.

• @france­sham­pel54 — Who else found this series heal­ing?

• @mud­dy­funker3014 — Things like this don’t come around often. Who’d have thought some­thing about metal detect­ing could result in such per­fec­tion. Every­thing about this series is so mag­i­cal.

• @kid­keith8878 — The art of sub­tlety is lost here in the states. It’s not all bad, but much of the writ­ing assumes the audi­ence needs to be hit over the head. The Brits respect the audi­ence a bit more in my opin­ion.

• @db9544 — ‘If their gentle exploits haven’t made your heart sing and your stom­ach go fuzzy then, well, we can never be friends.’ — quote from a Guardian review of the show back in 2017.

• @stanstan7426 — If anyone tells you that they „don’t get detec­torists”, keep them at arm’s length, they are miss­ing a 💓.

• @wilson­tim­ify — This song makes me both incred­i­bly sad and incred­i­bly happy. Mas­ter­piece.

• @gcor­riveau6864 — This song is one of the most beau­ti­ful, wist­ful and per­fect the­matic pieces of music ever used to res­onate with a TV series. „Detec­torists” remains one of my all time favorites since I first dis­cov­ered it sev­eral years back.

• @sil­i­con­jim2554 — It makes me love the world like I did when I was young.

• @sassysheila302 — The cre­ative sen­si­tiv­ity of this series and music is noth­ing short of genius. I’m lit­er­ally pray­ing for more episodes as Lance and Andy have become my best friends.

• @buxy­cat — There will never be any­thing quite like The Detec­torists.

„Wel­come to the Club House” — Behind the Scenes

• @mal­colmvoss3635 — I have just found this pro­gramme. How on earth I missed it until now I shall never know. I have binge watched three series in two days and it is pos­si­bly one of my favourite pro­grammes of all time. Per­fectly writ­ten, cast, and acted. What a talent.

• @njcur­mud­geon — At a time when loud, snarky, often cruel comedy is in vogue, this show is like a breath of fresh air — gentle, endear­ing, and gen­uine. The vibe appears to be present among the cast and crew behind the scenes and I think it comes through in the per­for­mances. I’m in the U.S. and find the Brits have a talent for such humor — endear­ing with­out being sac­cha­rine.

• @dhcana­van — We live in a world where ego shouts loudly and tire­somely. This beau­ti­ful phe­nom­e­non is a whis­per­ing anti­dote that reminds us what plea­sure and simple good­ness there can be when insight­ful people col­lab­o­rate to seek it out. Schmaltz-free, it rep­re­sents human­ity at its best.

• @elgar104 — One of the very best shows of all time. Poetic warm charm­ing and hys­ter­i­cal. The work of a modest genius.

• @bbs3470 — This series is by far one of the best shows ever pro­duced. The music, the scenes and the char­ac­ters are exquis­ite. It has done a lot for my sanity and it would make me so, so happy if we could have some more of the same.

• @Stu­dio­Mag­ne­tique — I’d pay to have not seen it yet. Would love to see this all for the first time again. Lance find­ing gold is still one of my all time favourite tv moments.

• @Hand­made­byAlan — one of the best shows ever writ­ten and per­formed. Its the TV equiv­a­lent of a wool blan­ket, hot water bottle and a cocoa, when you are feel­ing a little poorly. Love it.

• @nicholasjohn­son479 — This show is so beau­ti­fully con­structed. There are laugh out loud moments, like the lemon­ade, Varde’s one speech and the fly-past, heart­break­ing episodes like Sheila’s chat to Lance or Becky’s grow­ing frus­tra­tion, really poignant insights into how we live our lives and mag­nif­i­cent close ups of nature to make us realise how lucky we are. Thank you Macken­zie, and all the cast and crew, for pro­duc­ing a kind comedy.

• @christo­pher­ad­der­ley45 — This is simply in the Pre­mier League of comedy along with „What­ever hap­pened to the Likely Lads”, „Fawlty Towers” and „Still Game”. When we first stum­bled across „The Detec­torists” we all found our trea­sure 🧡

• @mange2 — The vibe of this show is absolute per­fec­tion, in a world where we need to escape from the chaos of every­day life.

• @wood­cut­ter2479 — Macken­zie crook is the most tal­ented film­maker the indus­try has… clever, fresh, kind, artic­u­late just 100 per­cent genius… his talent is a go to that brings hope and a belief that the world can be ok…

• @jen­ny­ba­con2250 — All through these last hor­ri­ble 3 years, I have watched an episode every night before bed… on a loop, over and over again. I never get bored, I always see some­thing dif­fer­ent some­where. A per­fect calm­ing, feel good balm to help me relax and unwind.

• @roger­lud­wig7619 — It’s by far, the wit­ti­est, clever­est, warmest and most beau­ti­ful series ever.

• @philm­c­don­ald7956 — So subtle and beau­ti­fully observed. Easily the best thing on TV in this era of deriv­a­tive non­sense. It could easily run to 10 series if Macken­zie would grasp his own bril­liance. All the cast are fan­tas­tic, but the rela­tion­ship between Andy and Lance is a mas­ter­class.

• @lla­mu­dos9809 — This is likely the best gem of a pro­gramme on TV. The subtle comedy and clever plots are so laid back it just works. Hope we get another 10 series?

• @fide­l­o­gos7098 — I can’t begin to say how many times I’ve watched this series. I bought the DVDs and then bought them for a friend of mine, who likes the series as much as I do.

• @clive­g­reen5492 — Rarely do you get a tv show where noth­ing needs to be changed… no dif­fer­ent actors… no better scenes or sto­ries… every­thing like Fawlty Towers is per­fect… just bril­liant! A warm and cosy comedy that just makes you smile and con­tent for at least 30mins 😁

• @pogleswife7572 — I can watch Detec­torists over and over again and never tire of it. Such qual­ity in every­thing about it. The only other series that I can watch over and over is the bril­liant Din­ner­ladies by the much missed Vic­to­ria Wood.

• @timwall6187 — This show is sur­rounded with a shawl of hap­pi­ness. It feels warm and safe.

• @chazsach6594 — A slow burner which just got better and better and better and BETTER.

• @lime­stonecow­boy291 — This show is prob­a­bly why we aren’t wiped out by aliens, the earth, god, viruses and every thing else. The beauty of human­ity cap­tured in a single show. Forget Bev­erly Hills 90210, Bay­watch or TOWIE. This show has the world’s most beau­ti­ful people. It should run for­ever. ❤❤❤❤❤

• @dar­d­o­bar­toli — To cor­rect the pro­ducer’s quote: ‘prob­a­bly the best comedy about male friend­ship’ — simply remove ‘prob­a­bly’ and ‘about male friend­ship.’

• @zag­catt — I have instructed my wife that after I have my stroke, to just wheel me in front of the tv and put detec­torists on repeat. Happy end of days.

• @stephaniewalker3288 — Macken­zie, in this mad crazy world we need the Detec­torists to keep us all sane, it’s total ther­apy ❤

• @got­tasay4766 — When­ever I rec­om­mend this series, I strug­gle with trying to convey just how great a series about detec­torists can be. Sorts out my soul­mates I guess.

• @VVSer­vice­Vi­su­als — Rewatch­ing is like hang­ing out with old friends that you’ve missed being around.

• @jimkemp2099 — Lovely, bril­liant, funny, restora­tive. People are tragic, funny, idio­syn­cratic. But most of all, let’s just be nice and friendly. This is what this pro­gram has taught me.

• @Murray_the_golden — When i think of the final 30 sec­onds of the series it makes me cry tears of joy. Every time i view those 30 odd sec­onds i cry out YES!!! I binge the series every winter under the warm covers wait­ing for them to find gold only to find a pull top.

„Pub?” — „Go on then.”