THE DETECTORISTS, BBC4, 10pm
FELLOW TV critics have been taking to Twitter to say tonight’s series finale is tender and beautiful, so I felt a bit lukewarm as I sat down to this episode. Tender? Huh. What’s so great about that?
Andy sits in the garden, building houses out of Lego. The poor man desperately wants a home of his own so he can get out from his mother-in-law’s feet and take care of his family.
He interrupts a sunny day of detecting to just go “nippin’ off to buy a house” at auction, but his wife is less enthusiastic. The auction room is a silent, intimidating place, and Andy only knows the rules from YouTube and daytime TV.
But, of course, the main story of this show is the gruff friendship between him and Lance, and the final scene – the most tender – belongs to them, as Lance gives a stumbling speech on the beauty of their hobby. “We unearth the scattered memories,” he says. “We’re time travellers.”
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