Small Prophets: Review

In Detectorists, Mackenzie Crook and Toby Jones took on the quiet search for treasure - both in life and under the ground. A beautifully observed and beloved series, it gained a fervent audience of passionate supporters and diehard fans.

Small Prophets is not a direct follow-up to Detectorists, but this latest, written and directed by Mackenzie Crook, carries much of the same DNA through its veins.

Its protagonist, Michael Sleep, a wonderfully dry and heartfelt Pearce Quigley, is a man stuck in a routine and in a life that's on hold waiting for a return which may or may not come. Working in a local DIY store, run by Crook's Gordon, he finds solace in winding up customers and seeing through his days before going to see his father (Michael Palin) who's in a nursing home.

And to say any more about Small Prophets is to deny it its simple pleasures and its curiously offbeat tale as it plays out. Suffice to say, there's an intriguing lore at play here and scenes which are low-key but tremendously affecting. 

Some will no doubt baulk at the whimsy, others will be frustrated by the conclusion and many will appreciate this in the same way they embraced Detectorists. `The pleasures come in the interactions, the surprises and the nuances of the relationships.

Quigley is eminently watchable in this, a seemingly sad man whose heart is guarded, but whose warmth is contagious for all those who come into contact with it. In many ways, there feels like similarities with Robin Williams' character from The Fisher King, but there's much more going in with Quigley's turn here - it's one to soak up the gentle edges of and get lost in.

From a frustrated neighbour to a seemingly insignificant oil leak from a car, there's much that raises a wry smile and gentle humour. With fantasy and supernatural thrown in to the suburban tale, Small Prophets is a bizarre pearl of a series that succeeds in digging its claws in in much the same way Detectorists did.