Manchester University Press
3 ‘I felt the touch of the kings and the breath of the wind’
Abstract
This chapter examines the final moment of the second series of Detectorists (2014–17), first transmitted on 5 December 2015. The series follows metal-detector hobbyists Andy (Mackenzie Crook) and Lance (Toby Jones) as they attempt to deal with the mundanity and underachievement of their daily lives by searching the fields around their Essex homes for buried treasure, invariably without success. However, in this scene, Lance finally discovers a gold, jewel-encrusted Saxon aestel; the treasure we as viewers have seen buried beneath the crowd for two series in the show’s credit sequence. This moment offers the excitement of the great find that the characters have always craved; a fulfilment of a quest to create an ‘epic’ moment in ordinary lives. Yet this chapter argues that Detectorists is a series that strives on a series of levels to make the everyday itself, epic. Detectorists’ comedy derives from empathy, from a recognition of our own struggles, pain and even joy. It confers dignity on the ordinary and everyday and on its characters, and John Ellis’s theories of television ‘working through’ are examined in this respect. The aesthetics of the series also explore this binary, making the familiar landscapes seem as beautiful and as extraordinary as possible. The chapter concludes that metal detecting becomes a metaphor for digging deeper to find out the truth about our everyday life, the buried treasure that was there all the time. This becomes the epic narrative.
Abstract
This chapter examines the final moment of the second series of Detectorists (2014–17), first transmitted on 5 December 2015. The series follows metal-detector hobbyists Andy (Mackenzie Crook) and Lance (Toby Jones) as they attempt to deal with the mundanity and underachievement of their daily lives by searching the fields around their Essex homes for buried treasure, invariably without success. However, in this scene, Lance finally discovers a gold, jewel-encrusted Saxon aestel; the treasure we as viewers have seen buried beneath the crowd for two series in the show’s credit sequence. This moment offers the excitement of the great find that the characters have always craved; a fulfilment of a quest to create an ‘epic’ moment in ordinary lives. Yet this chapter argues that Detectorists is a series that strives on a series of levels to make the everyday itself, epic. Detectorists’ comedy derives from empathy, from a recognition of our own struggles, pain and even joy. It confers dignity on the ordinary and everyday and on its characters, and John Ellis’s theories of television ‘working through’ are examined in this respect. The aesthetics of the series also explore this binary, making the familiar landscapes seem as beautiful and as extraordinary as possible. The chapter concludes that metal detecting becomes a metaphor for digging deeper to find out the truth about our everyday life, the buried treasure that was there all the time. This becomes the epic narrative.
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- Notes on contributors ix
- The Television Series xii
- Moments in Television, the collections xiv
- Acknowledgements xviii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Configurations of man, monster and hero in The Incredible Hulk 29
- 2 Game of Thrones’ Epic 9s 52
- 3 ‘I felt the touch of the kings and the breath of the wind’ 75
- 4 From the everyday to the epic and back 95
- 5 The epic in the everyday 116
- 6 Storms and teacups 140
- 7 Spies with ties 163
- 8 Columbo 186
- 9 Lost in the everyday 207
- Index 226
Chapters in this book
- Front Matter i
- Contents v
- List of figures vii
- Notes on contributors ix
- The Television Series xii
- Moments in Television, the collections xiv
- Acknowledgements xviii
- Introduction 1
- 1 Configurations of man, monster and hero in The Incredible Hulk 29
- 2 Game of Thrones’ Epic 9s 52
- 3 ‘I felt the touch of the kings and the breath of the wind’ 75
- 4 From the everyday to the epic and back 95
- 5 The epic in the everyday 116
- 6 Storms and teacups 140
- 7 Spies with ties 163
- 8 Columbo 186
- 9 Lost in the everyday 207
- Index 226
