Finders Keepers episode 1 has got the series off to a great start as Neil Morrissey plays family man Martin Stone, who discovers some buried Anglo-Saxon treasure while out with his metal detector. But soon the find turns his life upside down and he lands himself in a whole world of unwanted trouble.
Here's everything that happened in Finders Keepers episode 1...
The opening scene of the series sees what looks like a dead body being taken out of a van in the middle of the night, and dragged to the edge of a cliff, where it is then thrown off and disposed of. This is all we see, before the opening credits roll and we are then taken back in time to three weeks earlier.
At a family dinner, we meet Anne and Martin, parents to Laura, who is getting married to her fiancé Ashley. They are all having Sunday lunch together, and as well as discussing the upcoming wedding, they are also talking about how expensive things are these days from weddings to houses.
As Anne and Laura chat about going to see a wedding venue the following weekend, they suggest Martin and Ashey could use it as a chance to do some bonding and Anne tells Martin, who is a historian and an avid metal detector fan, that he should take Ashely detecting with him.
It is clear that neither of them wants to spend their Saturday together but are too polite to say so, and soon they find themselves in the car together, heading out for the day.
Meanwhile, we flash to Parkerstone Engineering, the business that Martin runs and Laura works at doing the company accounts. Laura warns her dad that the business is £90,000 in debt, and he tells her not to worry as someone called Jack is in Bangkok drumming up business. However, when he tries to get hold of Jack, he appears to have vanished and isn't answering calls or emails.
Martin and Ashely head to a local farm, which belongs to Nick, Martin's brother-in-law and Anne's brother, and despite being family, Martin is doing everything by the book and getting written permission to go detecting on Nick's land and gets paperwork to confirm this.
Ashley and Martin head up to an area of a field that Martin has meticulously marked on his map. He tells Ashely that he has been searching this area, which is a renowned major Saxon settlement for the last six years and Ashely is baffled that someone would invest that much time in something like this. At first, all they find is a coke can, and Ashley is quick to joke about what a waste of time Martin's hobby is, but soon they come across a stash of gold coins, broaches, pendants and rings, leaving them both speechless.
The pair gather together their treasure and put it in the back of the car, but as they do, they are interrupted by a man with a shotgun. At first, they think it is someone coming for the gold, but it turns out to be Adam, a poacher who works for Nick and once he sees they have got the right paperwork to be digging on private property he lets them go.
Martin and Ashley talk about their findings and Ashley is stunned when he finds out their treasure could be worth £500,000. But while Ashley has pound signs in his eyes, Martin breaks the bad news that they can't keep it. They have to declare anything they find to the Crown, and eventually, they will be given whatever is deemed an appropriate reward... half of which will go to Nick because it was found on his land.
Ashely is fuming that they won't get the money they deserve, but Martin is a man who likes to do things by the rules and tells him to do anything else would be illegal. However, when he is having dinner with Anne later on, he doesn't tell her about the treasure and pretends they didn't find a thing.
After another failed attempt to track down the mysterious Jack, and with final demand bills coming out of his ears at work, Martin goes to the police and tries to report Jack missing, but they tell him that until he has been gone for another month they won't look into it.
As Martin gives a lecture on local history for the Middlebrow Historical Society, Anne goes to see their son, Josh, who lives in an assisted living home. She is appalled to see that his room hasn't been cleaned properly and complains to Martin that evening that she wants him to come home and live with them and suggests they could get a carer to help them. Thinking of the money that the treasure could get him if he sold it illegally, Martin agrees and Anne is thrilled.
Ashley tells Martin that he knows someone who has contacts in antique dealing and although Martin isn't sure, especially when Ashely lets slip the man, Rocky, used to be in prison, he agrees to meet him. The trio meet in a local pub and head to London together to meet Rocky's contact, and once there the antiques dealer, Gregory, offers the men £200,000 for the lot. Ashley is thrilled, but Martin knows it is worth twice that and refuses to sell, leaving everyone annoyed.
But what the men don't realise is they have been caught on camera by the police who are doing surveillance on Gregory, knowing he is a crooked private dealer, and now they have Martin and Ashley on camera too.
With the police now on to them and Rocky demanding his cut of the cash despite the Saxon treasure not yet being sold, Ashley and Martin are now in more trouble than they realise.
The next episode of Finders Keepers airs on Channel 5 on Wednesday 24 January at 9pm.
