Finders Keepers — A very British cautionary tale for treasure hunters

Review by C.J. Bunce

Great Britain seems to have won the lottery when it comes to discovering hoards of medieval treasure, with new finds popping up every few years, often discovered by someone trolling about with a metal detector. In the 2024 UK Channel 5 series Finders Keepers, one such metal detector hobbyist discovers a valuable hoard in his first outing with his new son-in-law to be. It turns out the Crown doesn’t let hunters keep their finds, however, instead requiring them to be reported, with the possibility of a reward to be issued in the sole determination of the royals. But how do you hand over potentially a million pounds in wealth when your business is going under, your partner embezzled funds and left town, your daughter wants a nice wedding and a big, new house, and you want to bring your disabled son to live at home?

Now streaming on BritBox, Roku, Tubi, and Pluto, Finders Keepers is a low-budget, easy-to-watch, four episode series that feels a lot like the Crown issued the series with the fair warning: crime does not pay.

Only that might not be how the story ends.

Neil Morrissey plays Martin Stone, an expert in the history of Somerset and nearby Glastonbury and Buckinghamshire. He has an arrangement with a local farmer to search his land as a hobbyist but should he find any gold or the like he’ll split 50-50 whatever the Crown awards after turning it all in. Viewers catch up with Martin, a bit of an absent-minded professor type, just as he’s getting to know his daughter’s fiance. Jessica Rhodes plays his daughter Laura, and James Buckley plays her fiance Ashley. Martin’s wife Anne, played by Fay Ripley, is eager for Martin, somewhat of a curmudgeon, to get along with Ashley. How about Ashley tag along on Martin’s next weekend treasure hunt outing?

Unfortunately Martin and Ashley have nothing in common. In fact Ashley and Laura seem a bad match, too. On their outing, Martin stumbles upon a large hoard of gold and jewels. Dullard Ashley is dumbfounded by all of it, and can’t seem to fathom there’s this ruling body that will put you in jail if you don’t comply with the Treasure Act.

Martin is ready, willing, and even eager to comply, and meets up with the new local magistrate Samira, played by Nimmi Harasgama. But Ashley has gambling debts and he wants Martin to sell the hoard on the black market. Martin has no interest in breaking the law, except he soon discovers the partner who left without notice absconded with tens of thousands of pounds of company funds.

Worse, the group home his son is living at isn’t up to par, and his wife wants to get him out of there. And the young couple wants that nice wedding and someplace to live other than a simple flat. Temptation is too much for Martin. Ashley introduces Martin to local black market thug Greg “Rocky” Rock, played by Shane Attwooll. Martin doesn’t think there’s a fit and backs out on the black market concept. But it’s too late–Rocky wants in, or else.

Better written is Rakhee Thakrar as newly assigned DS Carole Doyle. She’s not happy with the lazy old white men who run the local constabulary–barely. She’s adept in the kinds of crimes happening under the radar locally, and she’s a good reader of people. After Martin tries to sell the hoard to a local benefactor named Denys Elland, played by Brendan Coyle, Elland takes the hoard and denies having it, knowing full well Martin and Ashley won’t enlist police help. There are more villains than meet the eye in this tale.

With a couple dead bodies, the spiraling circumstances make for some watchable drama. The series has a similar tone to The Lost King (reviewed here), a better made, true story about the discovery of King Richard’s body under a parking lot. But the missing element here is humor and fun. This is a fictional story, yet there isn’t a scintilla of excitement or thrill of the chase. These are unhappy people who don’t deserve to find such a rare discovery, like those happy winners of It Could Happen to You.

But somehow this limited series works. It’s a one-and-done story, with no risk of a second season. The choices made for the resolution are surprisingly satisfying. Just desserts are well served. Morrissey is well cast as Martin–he brings the right, believable level of temperament. Fay Ripley is a good anchor for the show as his wife, except when she gets sidetracked into a strange subplot at a dance club with new arrival Adil Kumar, played by familiar character actor Ace Bhatti. DS Doyle is a smart character deserving of her own further stories.

Maybe there’s only enough content here for a 21st century-era “made for TV movie.” But each episode plants enough seeds to keep viewers coming back. It’s refreshing to find a less than four-hour commitment with a good payoff instead of a filler-laden season stretched too long all to land on a cliffhanger keeping you hanging until a possible second season.

For a quiet tale of temptation and the eyes of the Crown watching down on you, catch Finders Keepers now on streamers BritBox, Pluto, Roku, and Tubi.

Catch up with our reviews of other quality British TV series (including Australian and New Zealand shows you’d find on PBS, BritBox, Acorn TV, and Hulu) beginning with our Top 10: Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes, Zen, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?, Mr. Selfridge, Guilt, The IPCRESS File, The Hour, The Gentlemen, Black Doves, and Shetland—especially the first seasons. You could stay pretty busy with our full list of top British TV recommendations: Legends, Deadloch, The Artful Dodger, Van Der Valk, the first season of Sherlock, Troppo, Case Histories, This is Going to Hurt, Black Snow, Mystery Road: Origin, Death Valley, Dept. Q, Bodkin, The Bletchley Circle, Good Cop/Bad Cop, Grace, Steeltown Murders, Hinterland, Glitch, Mystery Road, Culprits, Harrow, Annika, Young Sherlock, The Day of the Jackal, Code of Silence, Luther, Professor T, and Supacell.

After you’ve seen all of those, try Viva Blackpool, Marchlands, Lightfields, State of Play, After the Flood, I, Jack Wright, Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials, Population 11, Sunny Nights, Protection, Traces, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Finders Keepers, Scrublands, The Survivors, Ordeal by Innocence, Unforgotten, The Bay, Wild Bill, Quirke, The Hatton Garden Heist, Requiem, The Gloaming, The Clearing, The One, The Tourist, The Tower, Collateral, Gone, Roadkill, Stay Close, The Salisbury Poisonings, and A Confession.

Other British series across genres that are worth checking out (a few still to be reviewed here) include fun romps like Monarch of the Glen, Para Handy, Cranford, Viva Blackpool, and As Time Goes By, and cozy mysteries Rosemary and Thyme, Father Brown, Hetty Wainthropp, and Death in Paradise. One of the best of all British productions is the reboot of All Creatures Great and Small, which is in our British Top 10 (and the original is good, too). Of course there’s always Doctor Who for your sci-fi fix (and spin-offs Torchwood and Class), The Watch for your fantasy fix, Truth Seekers and Sea of Souls for your supernatural fix, and Spaced for more sci-fi fun, and we really should add House, MD, for Brit lead Hugh Laurie’s one-of-a-kind performance. (We’ve also reviewed but don’t heartily recommend so much Dublin Murders, The ABC Murders, The Pale Horse, Reef Break, The One That Got Away, The Silence, The Five, The Missing, Thirteen, or Broadchurch, as well as No Offence, which could have merited a review for its first season but, like Sherlock, its later episodes were a disappointment).