| dbp:shortsummary
|
- Andy tries to convince Becky that he is not having an affair. She shows him the photograph but does not know who took it. Lance helps out at Maggie's shop, where she pressures him to give her a large loan. Later, he and Sophie encounter the Antiquisearchers, who announce that they now have the sole right to search Bishop's Farm. Andy storms up and accuses them of taking the photograph. When Sophie sees it, she is outraged at this attempt to destroy Andy's personal life and denounces the Antiquisearchers, revealing that they sent her to spy on Lance and Andy's detecting activities. The DMDC are on the verge of disbanding when Terry returns and takes back the club's presidency. Bishop is arrested on suspicion of murder when the archaeological excavation turns up bones on his land. (en)
- Lance and Andy camp out at the field. Lance leaves a message for Toni in which he lies that Kate has not taken up his offer to use his car and visit friends. Toni goes to Lance's and finds Mags there, Kate having let her in as she herself left. Lance intends to catch a "thieving" magpie. Varde gives a talk to the group. Toni confronts Lance about Mags. Andy admits to Veronica that he quit his job after she spotted him doing agency work. Kate finds out that Mags is after Lance's money and kicks her out. (en)
- Trouble stalks the Danebury Metal Detecting Club when the local council propose demolition of their base, the local scout hut. The club missed out on a large finder’s fee , which instead went to "Simon and Garfunkel", and need to find a way to raise funds to save the hall.
Lance secures permission to detect on of previously unsearched land and things take a turn for the better when he and Andy start to find artefacts from an important medieval battle. However, when Lance makes an important discovery he breaks protocol by wanting to withhold the information from the authorities and the DMDC, threatening his friendship with Andy and the club's survival. (en)
- Russell and Hugh begin the search for the mayor's missing chain of office. Sophie and Peter discover Lance buying flowers and chocolate – apparently preparing for a date – and, on Andy's instructions, spy on him as he meets the mystery woman again. It transpires that the crash site is on the Mayor's land, leading Terry to suggest that the club should ask for permission to search his land as a reward for finding the chain. Becky tries to persuade Andy to consider volunteering abroad; she has found an archaeological dig in Botswana and set him up for an interview. Lance reveals to Andy that Kate is his estranged daughter. The chains of office are discovered, along with an unspecified unpleasant item on it. (en)
- Andy and Lance get an unexpected visit from rival detectorists the "Antiquisearchers", who know all about the artefacts after Bishop showed them. Deciding they need to act fast, Lance and Andy get the club involved, and Terry — the club president, who is a retired police officer — is only too keen to muck in if he can prove that Larry Bishop murdered his wife. Meanwhile, the open-mic event turns into a disaster. Andy cringes with embarrassment after performing Lance's song, prompting Sophie to take his hand to console him. Becky walks in on this scene and reacts furiously, accusing Andy of having an affair. (en)
- Lance's lucky strike, a late Saxon gold and jewelled aestel, is on display at the British Museum but seems to have used up all his luck, as he has not had a single find since , and he suffers a series of misfortunes which his club-mates consider to be "the curse of the gold." (en)
- Six weeks to go before the fields become a solar farm. Lance and Andy are making interesting finds. Andy unearths a section of Roman mosaic at the development where he is employed as part of an archaeological team inspecting a site before building work begins. Toni suggests Lance has hypnotherapy so he can stay with her. Terra Firma get permission to search the fields which leads to a confrontation with Lance and Andy, though it is resolved after an intervention by someone representing the site's new owners. (en)
- Lance dreams about detecting with Linda Lusardi. He picks Andy up and they race Terra Firma to the fields. At work, the mosaic has been removed, so Andy resigns realising that the archaeological investigation is a sham. Becky has arranged to view a flat, based on her assumptions about Andy's steady employment. Lance goes into work and sees Toni. Mags turns up at Lance's home and is let in by Kate. Lance returns home and finds Mags there. Lance finds a gold coin but a magpie takes it. He tells the DMDC. Mags rings to say she's found a bottle of wine. Lance and Andy camp out at the fields after Andy finds signs of a Roman burial suggesting that more is to be found. (en)
- Baby Stan has arrived, Andy has qualified as an archaeologist but has no work, and Becky is off with Gay Martin, talking about VSO. A young German man, Peter, turns up at a meeting of the DMDC, telling them he is looking for the wreckage of a Junkers World War II bomber. His grandfather was one of the crew members when it crashed somewhere nearby in 1941. Sophie offers to help him research the location of the crash site. Andy and the other members of the DMDC, worried that Lance is becoming lonely, try to persuade him to try internet dating. Later Lance receives a call from a mystery woman called Kate. (en)
- "Simon and Garfunkel", noticing Lance and Andy concentrating on a small area of their field, launch a drone to spy on them but it crashes. A contractor comes to chop down an ancient oak tree in the field where Andy and Lance are detecting, and the pair want to stop them. Kate visits Toni on her narrowboat and tells her that she is thinking of moving out of Lance's home, and Lance asks Toni to move in with him. Andy stumbles across a dilapidated cottage and goes to see it with Becky. Andy installs a bat box in the tree, knowing that bats on the site will stop the tree being cut down. He rings a bat helpline for advice about how quickly the bat box will be occupied, which turns out to be run by "Simon and Garfunkel". They offer to help but want something in return. (en)
- Lance and Kate go to Toni's narrowboat, where Kate is going to live, whilst Toni is moving in with Lance. Terry publishes a book on buttons of north-west Essex. Lance and Andy plan a rally and make "Simon and Garfunkel" an offer: access to their fields in exchange for a bat preservation order on the oak tree. Andy and Becky want to buy the cottage they have seen at auction. Andy wonders why he and Lance go metal detecting; to be "time travellers", Lance replies. As the show ends, Lance and Andy walk past the oak tree and notice the coins that have just fallen from the magpie nest above them. They've found their gold. (en)
- An energy company plans to build a solar panel array on a farm in Danebury. Lance is finding Kate staying to be disruptive. Andy is not enjoying his mother-in-law's hospitality and does not find his job rewarding. A newspaper has an article about Russell and Hugh finding a prison tag, as well as a piece about the proposed solar farm. Lance is dating a work colleague, Toni, but dislikes staying on her boat because of "seasickness" and she does not like staying at his flat when Kate is there. (en)
- Andy gives up detecting, hoping that by selling his detector he can prove his devotion to Becky. He proposes to her and she accepts. Lance discovers that the only reason Maggie keeps in contact with him is that she knows he has substantial lottery winnings saved. Sophie visits the DMDC to apologise, explaining that she was used by the Antiquisearchers and will undo the damage her actions have caused. Bishop is released without charge when it turns out that the bones found on his land were from a dog. He invites Andy, Lance, Sophie and Becky back to his land to detect, giving the detectorists one last chance to discover their hearts' desire: the burial place of King Sexred of the East Saxons. (en)
- After striking an unexploded bomb while digging on Bishop's land, Terry is hospitalised and announces that he is standing down as president of the DMDC. Sophie calls Andy, telling him she has bought a new detector and the two go out detecting. Andy is jubilant when he finds his first gold coin, but Lance resents him for going detecting without him and refuses to talk. They find themselves on opposite teams in a pub quiz, with Andy trying to keep the peace between Becky and Sophie, who are openly hostile, and Lance having to endure the company of Tony, who mocks him in front of Maggie. Later, Becky is sent an incriminating photograph of Andy sharing a celebratory kiss with Sophie and storms out on him. (en)
- Lance suggests to Andy that they perform a song he has written at a local pub open-mic event, hoping to impress Maggie. Andy tries to persuade his girlfriend Becky to come along, knowing that she resents the time he spends out detecting with Lance. At Bishop's Farm, they are approached by two rival detectorists who also intend to search the site. Wary of others muscling in on their patch, Andy and Lance decide to keep their operations secret, but Sophie seems to know more than she should. Farmer Bishop shows the detectorists a couple of Saxon artefacts that were ploughed up on the farm decades ago, which seems to confirm that the site of the ship-burial is nearby. (en)
- Lance is preparing to meet the mystery woman, but keeps it a secret. Andy heads to the library to join Sophie and Peter with their research, but gets the impression they do not want him around, so leaves them to it. Meanwhile Becky's patience with the petty politics at her school is at breaking point and she walks out of a staff meeting. Andy spots Lance in a cafe with the mystery woman, who is much younger than he is. Danebury's mayor seeks the DMDC's help finding his chain of office which he has lost at a dogging site. Whilst out detecting Andy and Lance encounter their old rivals – now renamed the "Dirt Sharks" – who suggest that Peter might have other motives for finding the plane than simply to lay a wreath. (en)
- Andy fears the uncertainties of providing for his family in Botswana and conceals that he has been offered the job, leading to Becky becoming angry and telling him she and Stan are going to Botswana regardless of whether Andy accompanies them. Sophie manages to contact Peter, who tells her he has been offended by the accusations Terry made against him and is going home. Meanwhile Andy and Lance call an emergency meeting of the DMDC when they discover Peter has met with the Dirt Sharks and carries a Nazi gold coin in his wallet. Sophie defends Peter, accusing the others of paranoia, but later discovers he was lying to her all along. The other club members stake out the field at night and catch the Dirt Sharks nighthawking, though Peter escapes. Lance makes several unreturned calls to Kate. (en)
- Andy and Lance are approached by Sophie, who explains that she is a student with an interest in metal detecting. They invite her to attend the next meeting of their detecting club, the DMDC, where she is enthusiastically welcomed. Lance finds an excuse to visit his ex-wife Maggie at her shop, in the hope of reviving their relationship, but she is never far from her obnoxious new boyfriend Tony. Andy is convinced that a royal Saxon ship-burial is located on a nearby farm. The landowner, the eccentric Farmer Bishop, permits Andy and Lance to search his land, with the exception of one field, where it is rumoured that he has buried his wife. (en)
- The DMDC hold their rally at the Junkers Ju 88 crash site. Peter, who Sophie learns has been twice convicted of disturbing war graves in Germany and is banned from using a metal detector there, skulks in to search and is caught by Terry, who calls the police on him. Kate arrives and is reconciled with Lance. After speaking with Veronica, Andy rushes to Becky at the school's Dickens-themed fete and they agree to have an adventure in Botswana together. Andy and Lance are returning from their last detecting session before Andy leaves for Botswana, when Lance hears horses near the fallen standing stone. Lance digs and uncovers the aestel, and joyously dances the gold dance with Andy and Sophie. (en)
- The mayor – unwillingly, but with the threat of blackmail from Russell and Hugh – agrees to let the DMDC search his land. Sophie and Peter have been spending a lot of time together, and when Peter asks her to go travelling with him in the summer, she accepts. Andy's interview goes disastrously at first, but his enthusiasm for archaeology shows when he presents some clay pipe pieces he found in a flower-bed. Terry receives the licence from the MOD to excavate the crash site, which reveals there were no crewmen on board when the plane crashed. He challenges Peter, who is apparently taken aback at this news and hastily departs. Lance attempts to connect with Kate, but she is overwhelmed by 20 years' worth of birthday and Christmas presents and leaves him. (en)
|