“I thought all hedgehogs were flat.”

I was just wondering if the Detectorists sitcom was really all that funny, when the council highways employee made his observation. That’s the nature of it. It lulls you into this leisurely stroll through a timeless rural England where it is always summer and then jolts you into the here and now with an amusing one-liner.

Detectorists has a warmth to it. I like the unhurried muddling through of the central characters and their world-weary pragmatism in the face of day-to-day problems. I love the gaps in the dialogue and the opportunities provided for reflection on the important things in life - family, friends, the natural world and a sense of time and place.

As I crawled gingerly out of a weather-bound leisure centre car park recently, I passed a black pick-up drawing up outside the school entrance. The circular sign on the door said “Find a field.” I also caught the word detectorists, but without doing a 180 degrees wheel spin on the ice, those were the only clues I had to go on.

The Detectorist Diggers Club arranges access to sites with land owners, organises metal detecting events and charges a fee to those taking part - thus the offer to find a field. I can see the attraction, and it obviously has some shared characteristics with railway heritage - most obviously by flagging up the intrinsic historical value of artefacts.