Series 1 opens in a freshly ploughed field in Framlingham, Suffolk, the real filming location for the fictional village of Danesbury. Lance is detecting. His swing technique leaves something to be desired. His first find is a ring pull.

Your host Katie is joined by Karl (Instagram: @thementaldetector) and Ellie (Instagram: @miss_detectorist, YouTube: Miss Detectorist) to rewatch Season 1, Episode 1 of the BAFTA-winning BBC comedy drama Detectorists, written and directed by Mackenzie Crook, which first aired on BBC4 on the 2nd of October 2014.

This is the episode that introduces Lance Stater and Andy Stone, the Danebury Metal Detecting Club, Terry and Sheila, Simon and Garfunkel, eccentric landowner Lawrence Bishop and his invisible dogs, and the dream of a Saxon ship burial somewhere out there in the fields. It is also the episode where we first hear the CTX 3030, learn what a Blakey is, encounter Crystal Enigma and the tragic figure of Tony, discover that Mackenzie Crook found actual gold while filming and it is now in the British Museum, and find out that Lance's 1997 Triumph TR7 would eventually sell at auction for over thirty thousand pounds with the full cast's signatures inside the boot lid.

Johnny Flynn's theme plays for the first time. Lance and Andy sit under their lunchtime tree. There is a talk on buttons. Sophie arrives and calls them metal detectors. And the episode ends exactly as it began, with a piece of rubbish.

Featuring Toby Jones as Lance, Mackenzie Crook as Andy, Rachel Stirling as Becky, and Aimee-Ffion Edwards as Sophie.

Find Ellie at @miss_detectorist on Instagram and YouTube. Find Karl at @thementaldetector on Instagram.

For more metal detecting chat, interviews, and the history behind the finds, follow Katie and the Detecting History Podcast on Instagram and YouTube at @detectinghistorychannel, and listen on all major podcast platforms.

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