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.

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.

Overall an entertaining mini series worth watching once . The cast performed well and the storyline , although implausible at points was generally engaging and entertaining. The reasons for not scoring it higher are based aroind the script and plot . Whilst entertaining , bits of it were almost waiting to get going on a more involved and new tack. The kidnap , the very rich collector and the missing business partner to name just three. The portrayal of the police and some other aspects , were with a sort of comic edge but not wildly funny and it left you wondering is this trying to be comedy or drama because it didn't really sit comfortably with the level of mix.

Despite this it was definitely entertaining .

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.

I note that Fay Ripley is the latest to abandon traditional dialogue for a bastardised American version.

I couldn't believe it when she said "For God's sakes", yes with an 's' on sake. At least the English version means something, the Americanism is nonsensical. Why do we pander to potential American audiences? And what's so great about America that we have to copy everything they do?

Next thing we know she'll be washing diapers under the faucet. Take a look in the 'meer' Fay, you're English.

As for the show itself, once again a thin plot line is padded out to 6? Episodes that could easily have been 4 ............Yawn......... zzzzzz(ok...Felt like 6).