Latest news with #Detectorists
Daily Mirror
13-05-2025
- Daily Mirror
Fugitive metal detectorist probably sold £5m Viking hoard 'for a song'
The Mirror goes on the hunt for wanted George Powell and the missing treasure that he stole as his mother's partner says he is penniless and probably flogged off the loot for a pittance A rogue metal detectorist on the run for stealing a Viking hoard worth up to £5.2million probably sold the missing treasure "for a song", his mother's partner has said. George Powell failed to declare the coins and jewellery that had been buried for over 1,100 years and is now wanted for failing to hand it back. Powell has previously admitted his aim was to become rich and "get the payout", only for his greed to end in his downfall. Images showing him and fellow detectorist Layton Davies, 56, holding the treasure provided the evidence that jailed them. Like misfit friends Andy and Lance in the BBC series Detectorists, the pair had spent years scouring the countryside searching for treasure. Worcester crown court heard there may have been up to 300 coins - worth up to £5,285,250 - buried at the farm near Leominster, Herefordshire, where Powell and Davies unearthed the hoard in June 2015. Around 200 coins and some of the jewellery remain unaccounted for. The Daily Mirror can reveal that Powell, 45, stands accused of conning his mother's partner out of more than £20,000. Speaking from his home in Newport, South Wales, minutes after two police officers visited the flat searching for the selfish thief, Ray Gibson, 77, said: "He's had thousands and thousands of pounds out of me, giving me wonky information. He sold me Krugerrands which were all duff when I had them checked. "He sold me a Rolex watch still in the box. He said the paperwork was coming but it was a snide. He had £21,000 in cash. He's a rip off. I think it's just in his genes." Asked if he expected Powell to pay it back, Ray said: "To be quite honest he hasn't got anything." On the whereabouts of the coins, he added: "God knows, they've probably been sold for a song." Powell failed to appear at Birmingham Magistrates Court on 8 January. He was due to have been sentenced for failing to repay £600,000, the money a judge had earlier decided was his share of the missing coins and jewellery. Davies, from Pontypridd, is serving an extra five years and three months in prison for failing to pay his share. Ray said Powell had told his mother he was living in the Birmingham area and he hadn't seen him for around a year. It comes after Powell told his local newspaper in November that he wasn't on the run because he had done nothing wrong. He said: "I was convicted in 2019 for finding treasure in a field that I had permission to be on. Assumptions found me guilty and I received 6 and half years in jail. Rapists don't get anywhere near that sentence and what I did wasn't a crime because as you know, no one reported it lost or stolen with it being in the ground for 1500 years. "I was lucky enough to find it and declare the items but hearsay and the corruption sent me to prison, away from my children, family and friends." Speaking to the Mirror two years ago, Powell said he wanted to stage an archaeological excavation at the spot where he found the hoard on live TV. He wrote: "I understand that the farmer, museum will be happy for a live dig at the site of interest that could be a burial and so on which would no doubt bring in many viewers world wide." He added in another message: "This can be big done right and Im sure we all involved can make it big." Giving evidence at a proceeds of crime hearing in 2022, Powell claimed he only found 51 coins and sold the unrecovered 20 for just £10,000. He said of the money: "I gambled it away. I've got a bit of a naughty habit." Davies knew nothing about him selling any of the coins, he said. Powell said he sold 20 coins to dealer Simon Wicks who he met at M4 service stations and was later jailed for five years for concealment. Powell, who was jailed for six-and-a -half years for theft and concealment, said: "We're metal detectorists, you want to become rich to get the payout." Asked why he changed his mind and decided to give evidence, he said: "I've got nothing to lose. I've lost my partner, I'm in prison. Your honour and the public deserve the right to know the truth. Prison has made the best of me." School technician Davies, a grandfather, was said to have told Powell to hand in the treasure and had himself previously declared 100 finds. Asked if he felt guilty that his friend could now face more jail time, Powell said: "I do partially, but it's his choice, he's a grown man. If he didn't want to be there, he didn't have to be there." By law treasure must be declared and if it is later sold, the money is split 50/50 between the finder and land- owner. The hoard included a 9th century gold ring, a dragon's head arm bracelet, at least one silver ingot and a small crystal rock pendant held in thin strips of gold dating to the 5th or 6th century. Among the silver coins were the extremely rare "two emperors" depicting King Alfred of Wessex and Ceolwulf II of Mercia - which reveal how the two kingdoms were coming together in the early stages of the formation of England. The hoard was probably hidden by a retreating Viking soldier after being defeated by Alfred the Great in 878. Craig Best, from County Durham, and Roger Pilling, from Lancashire, were each jailed for five years and two months in 2023 after trying to sell 44 rare Anglo-Saxon coins worth £766,000. They were thought to be part of the hoard uncovered by Powell and Davies. The rest is still missing.
Telegraph
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The Change, series 2 review: unapologetic about burying its feet in the soil and communing with birds
Have you started your own Linda's Ledger yet? In series one of Bridget Christie's The Change (Channel 4), 50-year-old, menopausal Linda (played by Christie) revealed to her ungrateful husband and teenage children that she had been keeping ledgers of all the unreciprocated chores she had done around their Swindon home. It amounted to 6.5m minutes – roughly six-and-a-half years of thankless domestic drudgery – and Linda announced that she was taking some of that time back. She mounted her old Triumph motorbike and headed to the Forest of Dean to rediscover herself. Which she did, spectacularly, winning over the sceptical, insular rural oddbods to the extent that she became the local town's first ever 'Eel Queen' at the annual festival (a role that had only ever been an Eel King before). The appearance of husband Steve (Omid Djalili) in the final seconds of the first series, however, has thrown Linda's new life into a spin – she had told the locals she was unmarried and childless – and she now stands accused of 'maternal deception' and faces banishment from the forest. If that all sounds supremely pagan, it's because it is. The show is a blend of English folklore, folk music, ritual, tradition and eccentricity, with shades of Detectorists and Jez Butterworth's hit stage play Jerusalem (as well as Toby Jones and Tim Crouch's brilliant but cruelly overlooked Don't Forget the Driver). Appropriately, the second series is co-directed by Mackenzie Crook, who created Detectorists and starred in Jerusalem, and these six episodes feel more comfortable in their own skin than the first run. The Change no longer seems to be apologising for burying its feet in the soil and communing with birds. It's the more prosaic matter of housework that sets the second series in motion, as the women of the area learn about Linda's Ledgers. Soon, the local stationery shops have run out of notebooks and women are queuing up at Linda's caravan to ask about the rules. Is laughing at his bad jokes a chore? Is sex? En masse, women down tools, forcing men to pick up the slack and the whole thing takes on the pleasing air of an off-kilter Greek play. In one lovely moment, the local men go on a sex strike in protest, only to find that their wives are delighted. Je Suis Linda, they say. As befits modern TV comedy, it's not laugh-a-minute, but The Change is a beguiling and unusual thing (wrapped in the traditions of British sitcom) with a language and rhythm all of its own. Occasionally Christie's roots as a stand-up are revealed, as the show slips into the didactic ('Did you know that…?'), but there is so much verve and zeal in the writing that you can forgive it. In a superb cast, Jim Howick, as a disenfranchised misogynist, and Paul Whitehouse, as the pub bore, stand out. Both characters felt a little cartoonish in the first series, but here Christie imbues them with a sadness and dislocation that feels utterly real. Linda's revolution wouldn't just benefit women.
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Returning Channel 4 hit with multiple Taskmaster stars confirms release date in new trailer
Channel 4 comedy The Change has dropped a new trailer and confirmed its release date. Directed by Pirates of the Caribbean and Detectorists actor Mackenzie Crook, The Change season 2 will premiere on Tuesday, March 25. The show focuses on Taskmaster star (and the show's writer and creator) Bridget Christie's character Linda, a woman who decided to pack up and join a community in the Forest of Dean upon starting menopause. Related: Best streaming services Her new life didn't go as smoothly as planned, and she caused a lot of drama. Season 2 picks up with Linda not being the most popular person, while her husband Steve (Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again's Omid Djalili) is intent on bringing her home. But Linda has tasted what it's like to be the Eel Queen, even if only for a day, and she's determined not to let that go. The trailer promises that there will also be witchcraft, a men's revolt, and everyone tripping out on a dinner made from wild mushrooms. Alongside Christie and Djalili, the series also stars Liza Tarbuck (also Taskmaster, Pointless), Jim Howick (Ghosts), Tanya Moodie (Motherland), Paul Whitehouse (Gone Fishing), and Susan Lynch (Happy Valley), to name a few. Related: A preview event and Q&A for season 2 took place at The BFI in London on Wednesday night, where Christie showed off the first two episodes and answered fan questions. Meanwhile, Channel 4 recently debuted the new cop drama Get Millie Black, something described as Death in Paradise but with a lot more depth. The Change season 2 premieres on Channel 4 on Tuesday, March 25. Season 1 is available via Channel 4 streaming now. at at Pandora at at at at at at at at Apple at at at at You Might Also Like PS5 consoles for sale – PlayStation 5 stock and restocks: Where to buy PS5 today? IS MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 7 THE BEST IN THE SERIES? OUR REVIEW AEW game is a modern mix of No Mercy and SmackDown
