Life and times

The actor and writer on fulfilling a boyhood dream, finding treasure and eyeballing Robert Mugabe

Actor and writer Mackenzie Crook

SINCE I WAS A BOY I have wanted to tame a wild robin so that it would feed from my hand. I must have read somewhere that with time and patience these little birds will learn to trust you and come to you for food.

This year I found the time and patience to do that, and ‘Winter George’ (as I’ve named him) has become a constant companion in my garden. It started with me throwing him a worm as I was gardening and, over the weeks, he became braver and braver, until the triumphant day when he took a wriggling centipede from my fingers. As we got to know each other, he persuaded me to buy a tub of live mealworms from the pet shop and, soon after, he started showing up at the back door several times a day demanding to be fed.

One day, Winter George turned up with a girlfriend (who always kept her distance). They made a nest in a yew tree and over the course of the summer they raised three broods – 18 chicks in total. During this time he would think nothing of coming into the house, perching on my shoulder and shouting at me while I was cooking for my family. He is brilliant and fearless and I now dread the day he doesn’t show up. Mealworms are costing me an absolute fortune though.

AT THE END OF A PEACEFUL and meditative day walking up and down a ploughed field in Suffolk earlier this year, I found treasure. I’d been using my metal detector – it gave a beautifully clear signal and, about six inches beneath the surface, I unearthed a piece of Roman gold. Roughly the size of a penny, it was part of a pendant or earring, beautifully made from three pieces of gold sheet embossed with the design of a long-necked bird.

Metal detecting is not as easy as it looks. Detectors these days are sophisticated pieces of technology that take time to learn how to use, not to mention the problem of finding land that you have permission to detect on.

I’d never attempted to use one until I started working on the BBC Four series Detectorists, three years ago. A desire to be accurate in my writing made me buy one and I am now a committed and – dare I say it?– successful detectorist.

After finding the Roman gold, I handed it to the Portable Antiquities Scheme (a government-run programme that records small finds of archaeological interest discovered by members of the public) and it is now awaiting a coroner’s inquest. If it is declared to be treasure, it will be valued and offered to local museums to purchase. I would love to see something that I found in a museum but, honestly, in the two weeks that I had the piece, I showed so many people (bewildered strangers, some of them) that I’m sure it would reach a wider audience if it was returned to me...

THE RECENT NEWS STORIES about Robert Mugabe reminded me of the time I once made eye contact with Zimbabwe’s former leader.

It was 1980 and I was eight years old, visiting my cousins in the newly independent Zimbabwe. Mugabe was yet to declare himself president and was merely prime minister when his motorcade swept into the gold-mining town of Kwekwe. The whole town had turned out – not to cheer, just to see. And, as the limo passed, I swear his eye caught mine and I think I might even have waved. He eventually took my Uncle Chris’s farm and gave it to his friend, who wasn’t a farmer and ruined it. In hindsight, I wish I’d flipped him the finger. Detectorists series three and the complete series-one-to-three box set are available on DVD from 18 December

The robin persuaded me to buy a tub of live mealworms from the pet shop