Martin has no choice in Finders Keepers

Three weeks ago, when metal detectorists Martin and Ashley unearthed a hoard of Saxon treasure, they were elated – but one reckless decision sent them spiralling on a treacherous path of deceit and deadly consequences.

It’s been quite a ride since then, and we’ve been fairly well hooked on the story involving local history nut Martin, played by Neil Morrissey, and his family – wife Anne (Fay Ripley), daughter Laura (Jessica Rhodes), son Josh (Thom Jackson-Wood), and Laura’s fiancee, the aforementioned Ashley, a wheeler-dealer type played to believable effect by Inbetweeners star James Buckley.

It was of course Ashley who drove the deceit in the first place, somewhat reluctantly joining his future father-in-law in his metal-detecting hobby, and providing his decidedly dodgy ex-con friend Rocky as a contact through which to fence their ill-gotten booty.

Martin, meanwhile, had not so much as a speed-awareness course to his name and was keen to remain squeaky clean, yet the mounting costs of life for his family – including Laura’s forthcoming wedding to Ashley, as well as a missing business partner and a suspicious deficit in his company’s accounts – meant he was eventually persuaded to stray to the dark side of criminality along with his ne’er-do-well almost-son-in-law.

As with the BBC’s recent crime drama Boat Story, in which a mismatched pair of strangers stumbled upon a boatload of smuggled drugs and decided on the spur of the moment to take it, the subsequent chain of events prove to be unexpected to say the least.

Now, shocked to his very core by his fatal confrontation with Denys last week, Martin has no choice but to finally confess all to Anne.

And it proves to be the first smart thing he’s done in a while.

Desperate to save her family – and to keep alive her dream of bringing Josh home – she hatches a plan. It involves persuading Rocky to break into Denys’s house to recover the horde.

Once he’s taken the bait, Martin informs the police that a robbery is taking place, leading to the police catching Rocky in the act, with Denys’ body at the scene.

Everything – for a change – seems to be going to plan, and sure enough Rocky is charged with murder.

Even DS Doyle (Rakhee Thakrar, excellent) is forced to abandon her relentless pursuit for justice and head back to London, and Martin dares to allow himself to breathe a sigh of relief.

However, the plan also relies on Ashley keeping a cool head.

Martin just wants to put this cursed treasure back in the ground and move on with his life, but Ashley – whose wedding now seems increasingly uncertain – has other ideas.

Will it be a case of finders keepers, or will it be more like “losers weepers” once Ashley gets desperate?