Mackenzie Crook announces new series of hit BBC4 comedy Detectorists

Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones will return for one final series of BBC4's Detectorists later in 2017

Mackenzie Crook’s comedy Detectorists is returning for one final series.

The third instalment of the Bafta-winning show, which co-stars Mackenzie and Toby Jones as metal detecting enthusiasts Andy and Lance, will screen on BBC4 later this year.

It will be the first new episodes of the comedy, which is written and directed by Mackenzie, since the Christmas special in 2015.

Mackenzie, who shot to fame in The Office, suggested it would be the show’s final outing, saying: “After a year away I decided I missed my friends in Danebury so much that I had to go back to the world of Detectorists one more time to see what Andy and Lance could dig up.

“The prospect of filming another summer in the beautiful English countryside is a good one, and I’m very proud that the third series will premiere on BBC4 where it all started.”

Shane Allen, controller of comedy commissioning at the BBC, said: “Mackenzie has created and beautifully crafted a modern masterpiece, bursting with warm-hearted comic joy.

“It deserves its place in that rare sweet spot of record-breaking channel audiences and huge global critical acclaim.”

He added: “How can I possibly resist jumping on the bandwagon of all those who said the show has unearthed comedy gold? There. I did it.”

Detectorists will shoot this summer before screening in the autumn or winter this year.