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  3. I’ll paraphrase, but this still makes me larf:

    “You see, the day I met her…I won the lottery”
    “Because she was so special…meeting her was like winning a wonderful prize of some sort…?”
    (confused frown) “No. I won the lottery – thousands of pounds…”

  5. Great news. It was some sort of cult favourite on German TV two years ago. (And also remarkable as one of very few shows not dubbed into German – the TV station declared they found it “impossible to translate all the puns and references into German…«)

    • Surely there are always equivalents, and this is a reminder than interpreting is an art and not a science (I’m looking at you Google so-called Translate). I saluted the subtitler during one episode of Engrenages (Spiral) when s/he had Laure calling somebody a “knobhead”. If Laure was English that’s exactly what she would say.

  7. Hats in the air! I came to this late and binged it. I have a friend who has lived in the US for over 40 years and he just loves it and makes him very nostalgic for home…and his American wife loves it too.!

  8. Well that is superb news & has really perked up a dreary Thursday!

    Nothing has come close to this & in our house it’s the benchmark against which all other comedies fall short of

  9. Terrific news.
    What is heartening is that Mr Crook really is a safe pair of hands with his own work.
    Having heard him a while back chatting about the series & its reception with Richard Herring, I was struck that he very much knows how good it is (quiet lack of false modesty), and would not undertake any further excursions into that ‘world’ unless he was very satisfied that it really would be worth it.

  10. A brilliant depiction of friendships and human dynamics, and the love that connects them. I like that it isn’t hip, edgy, and cynical. I think we’ve had enough of that for my lifetime.

  14. A few people on here praising the humour of the show. For me (being a melancholy sod), while I agree it’s funny, it’s the pathos and poignancy that sticks with me. It treads a very fine line, being “gentle” and “nice” while somehow managing to avoid the saccharine feeling that words like “gentle” and “nice” conjur up.

    I can’t deny I’m a bit wary of this. There’s always the danger of extending a good thing too far. In the space of three series (where the over-riding was always that they never find any gold) they have already found gold three times now, so it would be pushing it a bit if they had another big find in this new special. I hope he resists the urge to go big, and just keeps it small and relatable.

    In the end, I trust Mackenzie Crook. He has a firm hand on this and is unlikely to have agreed to do a special just for the sake of it.

    I wonder which characters will be coming back? All of them, hopefully (with the exception of Diana Rigg – I can’t stand her (that’s a joke)). And in particular it would be good to see Sophie back after she was missing from Series Three.

    • That’s a very astute take about the poignancy & pathos, Arthur & I think you’re right.
      I think it touches people on a number of levels & one of those is because it’s partly about mortality (the treasure right under their noses being a reminder that it was made by living, laughing, crying people just like us who are now long dead), but it’s grace comes from the fact that such themes are deftly alluded to & never hammered home.

      • I was unaware until last week that it was classified as a comedy. I’m not sure what category I thought it was in but that’s probably it’s strength.

    • One marvellous scene that every season of Detectorists needs is when Sheila makes some of her extremely sour homemade lemonade for all the members of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club. Hilarious.

      • I’ve watched all of Afterlife and I was willing it to turn a corner and get good at some point. Contrary to many people I have a real affection for Ricky Gervais and a lot of goodwill for him still for The Office and Extras. But Afterlife just never really got going after the initial promising premise faded away (suicidal, bereaved person chooses to just keep living but on his terms, doing and saying what he wants to everyone) and became just, as you say, mawkish (suicidal, bereaved person chooses to just keep living but on his terms, doing and saying what he wants to everyone.. and then discovers he actually loves everyone and loves life after all).

        • Gervais raised a chuckle this week with a joke of his. Asked what he thought of Piers Morgan inteviewing the Taleban he said “I’ve lost all respect for them”.

          And -not at all connected- but Stephen Colbert made me chuckle with his comment on the Repubican arguments against impeaching Trump:
          “So you just want to let him off scot-free for insurrection because he’s no longer in power? That’s like acquitting Jeffrey Dahmer because he’s full.”

        • We had to start fast forwarding through the therapist scenes. I’m pretty impervious to bad language but it was just so gratuitous it was an insult to be expected to listen to it TBH

  15. I hope Simon and Garfunkel are back. Garfunkel was also good in Ghosts.

    This Country had some of that gentle pathos stuff. Gone Fishing had it in spades, but fewer laughs.

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