Why two blokes digging up ring pulls is compulsive viewing
IS "gentle comedy" another way of saying that basically a show isn't especially funny? It might raise a wry smile, rising to the occasional parp of laughter. But by the main measure of a sitcom - whether it can leave you howling for more - it is an abject failure. This might be why The Detectorists' creator Mackenzie Crook initially pushed back against the "gentle" labelling when the show debuted in 2014. Isn't it the "edgy" comedies which clean up at award shows and win armies of devotees? Except his passion project is in every aspect a massive success; so much so that, at this point, I'd suggest any headlines describing it as "a hidden treasure" are more to do with lazy sub-editors than anything else. It's a series about two middle-aged mates - Lance and Andy - who go looking for ancient artefacts. Hence "hidden treasure". Geddit? Yet the programme bagged a Bafta in its first year, was later named among Britain'