Finders Keepers

Channel 5 have been banging out a load of 4 part dramas with mixed results. Most have been crime dramas but Finders Keepers is more of a black comedy.

Fay Ripley who seems to be in all these C5 shows stars along side Neil Morrisey who along with his future son in law James Buckley, discover buried Roman artefacts worth a small fortune. The find soon turns out to be a curse leading to theft, murder and bribery.

If you can put the glaring plot holes aside you have a half decent enjoyable four hours of television.

The performances are pretty solid throughout and the aerial shots of Glastonbury are truly stunning. 7/10.

Some reviewers have the opinion that the plot was unrealistic, if they are referring to the find not being declared and an attempt made to sell it illegally, then that part is based on a real event, in 2019 two men were jailed for not declaring a Viking hoard with an estimated value of £12m.

The sweary and violent baddie was a bit cartoonish and was added no doubt for "dramatic reasons" but this is not a documentary, and no mention was made of it being based on a real event, even if it was.

It's to be hoped that this drama will put some crooked treasure hunters off not declaring, but it probably won't.

Detectorist Martin Stone takes his son in law to be out on a bonding exercise, the pair stumble upon a hugely valuable find, under UK they can't keep it, but they have other ideas, their efforts to sell it lead to major problems.

I really enjoyed this series, the first two episodes are quite amiable, quite light viewing, the third episode however gives us a massive twist, and changes the whole dynamic of the show, transforming it into a thriller.

There's a bit of everything round on here, some intrigue, some tension and definitely a few moments of humour.

This has really been unfairly maligned, and once again I feel as though some or the reviews are based on ten minutes of so, on the whole this was actually quite a good production.

Neil Morrissey is great as Martin, he leads a very capable cast, Brendan Coyle is very good, but not in it for very long.

Definitely watchable.

7/10.

It's a blatant ripoff, and we all know of what, don't we?

Casting is fine (except for Neil Morrissey, as he's always creeped me out), dialogue is fine, cinematography is fine, blah blah.

It's fine, it's just the blatant-ness of the ripped-offed-ness is so up in your face that it utterly detracts from everything else.

Perhaps it would be less problematic if everything wasn't just "fine".

Don't you find that the minimum character count on IMBD reviews these days is utterly ridiculous, and that if you did use an AI app to create one, it'd be less problematic? I didn't use an AI, and I'm struggling, TBF. Oh, wait, passed the limit.

I really do get fed up with TV writers portraying anyone outside London as dumb, floundering idiots waiting to be saved by some almighty Londoner.

In this, the stupid local police are saved by a fantastic whizz detective from London. Without her they would not know any crime was committed, wouldn't have a clue how to investigate, or assist witnesses or victims.

As we actually know it is quite the reverse as other forces outside the Met lead on most aspects of crime.

Good storyline and acting, just ruined by these clichés in the writing which show the writers to be so wildly ignorant of anyone in the Shires.