Lovejoy: The Complete Collection

Take home a great deal of a great dealer! Enjoy every episode of the acclaimed BBC series starring Golden Globe® winner Ian McShane (Deadwood) as a dashing crimesolving antiques dealer with an eye for beauty and a knack for finding trouble. Join the part-time detective as he wanders through musty mansions and elegant English estates looking for deals and steals-but always finds truly perplexing mysteries. Extras include an extended interview with the star.

Season 1
The Firefly Cage - Lovejoy is intrigued by a mysterious girl who buys a Japanese firefly cage at auction and later shows him another cage carved out of coal. The coal cage bears a striking resemblance to something else, but what is it that it reminds him of?

The Axeman Cometh - Lovejoy buys a Welsh dresser with a valuable Arab wedding headdress hidden inside. Will it be Lovejoy, the tax man, or a criminal with an axe who gets to keep the money?

The Sting - Lovejoy schemes, seduces and steals his way toward a pair of rare porcelain figures that he must have.
Friends, Romans and Enemies - Lovejoy pits his skills against forger and trickster, James Bexon, in a case of ancient Roman coins and intrigue.

The Judas Pair - The wife and brother of a man slain with one of a set of rare dueling pistols engage Lovejoy to find the murderer. For good reason, those Regency pistols are called The Judas Pair.

To Sleep No More - A forger, pursued by a mysterious priest, dies of a heart attack. The priest then tries to break into the dead man's house and Lovejoy is drawn into the mystery.

The Real Thing - Lovejoy cannot bear other people's art world crimes. He attempts to stop a con man and his two accomplices from bilking unsuspecting art connoisseurs.

The March of Time - Lovejoy must determine whether some old love letters found in a clock are genuine, and therefore valuable, or fake.

Death and Venice, Part1 - Lovejoy travels to Venice to investigate the murder of a friend who bought a Carpaccio painting Lovejoy believed to be a fake. Pretty soon, the murderer seems to be after Lovejoy.

Death and Venice, Part 2 - The only way for Lovejoy to make headway in the Venetian mystery is to agree to work for twin sisters who introduce him to a secret forgers' workshop.

Season 2
Just Desserts - No one frames Lovejoy and gets away with it! After his release from prison, Lovejoy sets out to exact revenge on the person who set him up.

The Italian Venus - A stingy landowner refuses to share the family inheritance with his poor brother, until Lovejoy shows the haughty aristocrat the error of his ways.

Bin Diving - Lovejoy has a knack of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He goes to value the contents of an elderly widow's house, which is promptly burgled. Finding himself the prime suspect, Lovejoy sets about clearing his name.

Montezuma's Revenge - Lovejoy is asked by the manager of a rock band to sell an ancient, solid gold statue because he believes it to be the carrier of an Inca curse.

Who Dares, Sings - Lovejoy's expert eye detects a dangerous flaw in the posh new restaurant he and Lady Jane decorate for Tinker's old army chum.
One Born Every Minute - Lovejoy finds himself in hot pursuit of an itinerant painter whose talent on the canvas is matched only by his prowess as a womanizer.

National Wealth - The lavish country estates of England's elite are under siege by a cunning gang of French thieves. Lovejoy sends Eric and Tinker to follow the chief suspect, Major Sullivan.

Sugar and Spice - Lovejoy joins ex-wife Susie at daughter Vickie's school Speech Day. He faces a moral dilemma when a teenage girl asks him to sell a set of erotic drawings.

Raise The Hispanic - Things become quite uncivilized at a society wedding when the bridegroom is murdered. Lovejoy is deemed the best man to solve the crime.

Lily's Pearls - When Lady Jane's husband takes on a shady new business partner, Lovejoy decides to do a little investigating.

The Black Virgin of Vladimir, Part 1- A devious antiques dealer has swindled a beautiful American widow friend of Lovejoy out of $500,000 in fake art objects. That same swindler is set to scam $2 million from a Japanese bank manager. Lovejoy joins the fray.

The Black Virgin of Vladimir, Part 2 - Lovejoy, his widow friend and a Japanese bank manager plot their revenge on the swindling Greek antiques dealer. Their bait is an extremely rare 14th century Russian icon. Season 3

Friends in High Places - As the third series begins, Lovejoy returns to Felsham after a long break in Spain, where he was trying (without marked success) to learn to paint. He quickly seeks out Tinker (who has joined a monastery), Jane, who has a new look, and Eric, now working as a security guard. Victoria Cavero, an old friend of Jane's, comes to stay, and Lovejoy loses no time in falling for her. Victoria wants to sell a South American gold ring, and the ring sets in motion strange events for Lovejoy and Jane, including safecracking, kidnapping, polo and betrayal.

Out To Lunch - Lovejoy is spending more and more time with Victoria, not so much on his business. Together with Jane and Alexander, he and Victoria go away for the weekend at a friend's cottage. Meanwhile, Lovejoy buys some drawings for a song and sells them to an art gallery for a good profit. He is shaken when the pictures are denounced as fakes - even the artist says they are not his, but Lovejoy is sure they are. What is going on?

No Strings - A band called 'The Hothouse Flowers' is due to appear at a local charity gig, and their manager proves to be an old friend of Tinker's. Before going away with Victoria on a little trip, Lovejoy gets Jane to agree to take in the Flowers. But then the organizer of the gig runs off with the money and one of the band decides to sell his valuable antique harp to make good some of the shortfall, but before Lovejoy can arrrange the sale, the harp also disappears. Lovejoy works his way up to proposing to Victoria, but she turns him down flat and returns to South America.

Angel Trousers - Lovejoy gets dragged into a sinister plot concerning Mussolini's nose and the burial at sea of Captain Bucknall (Jane's old house-keeper's brother). He is given the job of selling the late Captain's medals, and there is a smart fashion photographer who wants them, but then some drunken sailors come into the picture and he has to deal with the gun-toting Angelo Pantaloni...

The Benin Bronze - Greg Veitch is on a visit from Australia, looking for antiques, but especially what he calls 'my Eureka' - the thing he must have. At Sir Max Spence's house, Greg sees a magnificent bronze from Benin, in Africa, and wants it, but he can't get an export license. Then the bronze goes missing, and Lovejoy comes under suspicion - so he feels he must get to the bottom of what's going on.

Eric of Arabia - Lovejoy is asked to value an ancient Chinese terra-cotta figure of a pig. Then he falls off a bicycle and breaks his leg, landing him in hospital. The pig's owners, curiously, are doing their best to have it under-valued. Meanwhile, Eric needs to sell his ancient motorbike and comes up with the story that it once belonged to Lawrence of Arabia. And pigs might fly...

Scotch on the Rocks - Vicky finds an old claymore (a Scottish sword) in her attic. Lovejoy buys it at auction and is offered much more than it's worth for it. Puzzled, he investigates and finds the claymore is a map to buried treasure. Someone tries to steal it, so Lovejoy is not the only one hot on the trail. But the treasure is elusive - a supermarket has been built on top of it.

Loveknots - Jane decides to sell an Anatolian rug. When it comes up for auction, an old lady at the sale, Harriet Fisher, buys a Berber rug for her dog, but a young Arab who also wanted it promptly steals it from Harriet. Lovejoy is curious and decides to investigate... Meanwhile, Alexander and Jane are quarrelling badly, and they decide to split up. Smoke Your Nose - The Reverend Harry Nettles claims there is a mosaic floor belonging to a Roman villa in the field next to his church, which is about to be built on. Nobody believes him, and the county archaeologist has agreed to the plans, so Lovejoy races to thwart the developer. He also has a dance with Jane, newly separated from Alexander...

Kids - Lovejoy's daughter Vicky disappears, then announces she is living with David Herbert, a much older man whose wife has died. Susan, Vicky's mother, does not approve. When Lovejoy investigates, he finds that Vicky's boyfriend is not a widower at all. Meanwhile, Lovejoy is also busy uncovering a fake art scam being run by Jez Brightman, the son of a government minister...

Members Only - Mr Kashimoto is trying without success to join an exclusive local golf club. The club asks Lovejoy to value its finest silver trophy, but he recognizes it as a fake. Eric then accidentally shoots a hole in Lovejoy's ceiling, and in the loft above a very similar trophy is discovered... Lovejoy sets out to solve the mystery.

Highland Fling - Some old sketches put Lovejoy and Jane on a trail which takes them up to Scotland, where they uncover a plot by another antiques dealer to con one of Jane's friends. At home, Eric is involved with a young woman with some unsavory relations, but she also has an antique mirror to sell. Lovejoy and Jane are moving closer to romance... but who is the girl Lovejoy keeps seeing in the woods?

Season 4

The Napoleonic Commode - Lovejoy is evicted from his rented cottage, as Freddy the Phone, his landlord (also known as Frederick Arthur Haig Montgomery Wavell Reeve) owes back taxes on it. So Lovejoy takes to the road and acquires a commode said to have belonged to the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte... and the next thing is to hunt down a continental expert to authenticate it. Did 'Boney' really sit here?

The Ring - With the naive help of Jane, Lovejoy sets up an unusual form of dealers' ring to bump up the price of a painting he has entered in an auction. Three old friends (Matron, Gideon and Henry the Hearse) rally round, but nothing seems to go according to plan...

Second Fiddle - Lindsey Parry-Davies, a leading violinist, wants Lovejoy to arrange for his Stradivarius to be touched up so that it will pass as a fake. The Lovejoy Antiques team is puzzled, but they call in the expert advice of Tommy Norris - king of the violin fakers.

The Colour Of Mary - Charlie Gimbert returns home from overseas, popping up again in a new and unlikely role as manager to Murray McNally, a famous but disgraced snooker player. Murray wants Lovejoy to find him the billiards table which belonged to Mary Queen of Scots, and it seems that money is no object. A visit to Fotheringhay Castle leads on to a descendant of Mary's jailer, and then to an exhibition snooker match starring the real world snooker champion, Dennis Taylor.

Fly the Flag - Meanwhile, Beau Whittaker, working in a local parish church, finds a valuable old flag dating from the American War of Independence hidden behind a monument. A fierce battle quickly breaks out over the question of who is now the flag's true owner.
Judgment of Solomon - A retired senior Air Force officer wants Lovejoy to sell his large and remarkable collection of Jewish antiques, but Lovejoy's contacts the Solomons are suspicious about the provenance of the items.

The Galloping Major - On a visit to Frankie's scrap yard Lovejoy acquires an ancient cannon. He takes a trip to the Tower of London to see what he can find out about it, and while he's away an ordnance expert going under the name of Major Turpin tries to steal the cannon from under Eric's nose.

God Helps Those - In the latest of a series of antique shop 'ram-raids', a table Lovejoy has left with another dealer is smashed, and he uncovers a plan to steal a friend's silver.
Meanwhile, Jane befriends a young man while doing some charitable work on behalf of the local hospital, and Charlie Gimbert is asked to find a rather special clock for a customer.

They Call Me Midas - Jim Leonard (Lovejoy's antiques mentor) resurfaces, wanting Lovejoy's help with a harmless little scam to catch out a famous dealer. The plot centres on a fake painting by Klimt... Eric plays the role of a rich gentleman farmer, Tinker falls heavily for Jim's wife, and Jane is also drawn into the scheme, but Lovejoy finds out just too late that he too is a victim.

Irish Stew - The Lovejoy Antiques team is in Ireland looking for new stock (and also hoping to find a painting by Jack Butler Yeats, for Jane to give her uncle). A bungled robbery leaves them in possession of a page from a rare ancient book, and the search is on for an expert - Brendan Hennessey.

Dainty Dish - The Lovejoy Antiques team is in Brighton, scouring the town for a really grand set of old china. Charlie Gimbert (as ever) causes some havoc, and then there's the story of the antique chairs...
While on the china trail, Lovejoy chances on a stunning rip-off with hundreds of porcelain plates.

Taking the Pledge - Jamie, an old friend of Lovejoy's, turns up on his doorstep needing help with an urgent problem. He can't afford to retrieve a wonderful painting from a pawnbroker, and there are only a few hours to go. Lovejoy agrees to help Jamie raise the cash - but Jamie's estranged wife is also on the warpath...

Lovejoy Loses It - Lovejoy makes an exhibition of his 'sixth sense' for antiques on a television programme. Later, working on a house clearance, he overlooks an important item and starts to think he may be abusing and losing his talent. After he gets a letter, Lovejoy goes to see another 'divvie' who has lost the magic touch.

Season 5
Pig in a Poke - Lovejoy becomes involved in returning a stolen antique to its rightful owner. The police are on his tail, but Jane saves the day.

Who is the Fairest of them All - Lovejoy is worried by Jane's behavior until he realizes that her husband Alex is back. But Alex's return heralds the sale of Felsham Hall and Jane's departure.

A Going Concern - In running a scam at the vacant Felsham Hall, Lovejoy crosses swords with the glamorous Charlotte Cavendish. When the Hall is sold, Lovejoy rents the stables on the Felsham Estate for Lovejoy Antiques.

The Kakiemon Tiger - Beth, an employment trainee, joins the Lovejoy team. Lovejoy is menaced by a London loan shark and "hijacks" a country house auction in order to pay his debts.

Three Men and a Brittle Baby - Charlotte's ex-boyfriend arrives from New York and asks her to live in Paris with him. Gimbert is conned into buying copies of an expensive Bow Lady and Cow-creamer, but Lovejoy catches the villain.

Duckling and Diving - While Eric "holidays" on the Essex Marshes, helping out in his uncle's pub, Lovejoy is lumbered with the world's largest sideboard. In his attempts to sell it, Lovejoy uncovers a smuggling racket.

Stones of Destiny - Lovejoy goes on the trail of a rare Celtic cross. His search takes him, and a suspicious Charlotte, to Wales. But other, more unscrupulous people want the cross as well.

Poetic License - Charlotte asks Lovejoy to value the contents of a private Nursing Home. When attempts are made on Lovejoy's life Charlotte realizes that Lovejoy resembles a dead poet and begins to suspect who might be behind them.

Peking Gun - Gimbert asks Lovejoy to value a colonial widow's treasures. He notices an unusual Chinese cannon and asks for Charlotte's advice. The cannon turns out to have immense significance for a dangerous Chinese gang and Lovejoy and Charlotte end up fleeing for their lives.

Goose Bumps - Charlie Gimbert plays Lord of the Manor and asks Charlotte to play hostess at the annual Dog Show and Wildlife Auction at Felsham Hall. Lovejoy organizes a private auction between two collectors of china geese.

Swings and Roundabouts - The fair comes to town and Lovejoy calls on his old friend Boswell who owns the carousel, but is thinking of retirement. A history of burglaries is linked with the visits of Boswell's fair, and he is arrested when stolen candlesticks are found amongst his own.

Never judge a Book by its Cover - Lovejoy and Charlotte are in Cambridge at an Antiques Fair. Lovejoy is invited by two elderly sisters to value their belongings. Their brother refuses to sell the only valuable object they appear to own, a rare edition of the Bible.

The Price of Fish - Lovejoy is invited to spend the weekend with Charlotte and her best friend in order to value a clock. Meanwhile, to thwart Gimbert's plans to convert Felsham Hall into a health spa, Tinker provides a twelfth-century charter and a flock of sheep.

Fair Exchange  - Charlotte has a new boyfriend called Gordon, an insurance man. She buys a valuable portrait from a hard-up Polish couple, the Tabors, but it is stolen by someone who drives off in Lovejoy's truck. Wnen the police find the painting hidden at Lovejoy's, his only alibi is that he was in bed with Mrs Tabor at the time, but she flatly refuses to back him up. Out on bail, Lovejoy finds Charlotte's painting is a fake. With the help of Beth and Tinker, he needs to find the Tabors to save himself from gaol.

Day of Reckoning  - A former friend, Max Hunter, who believes Lovejoy had an affair with his wife, kidnaps Charlotte and plans to kill her. But he gives Lovejoy a sporting chance to find him by leaving a series of clues.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow  - Tinker disappears, and Lovejoy sets off to find him. He arrives in Devon, where he discovers that Tinker's real name is Archie and that he has a sister whose hotel business is threatened by a rogue property developer. Charlotte and Beth join them and they look for ways to raise money to save the hotel.
Meanwhile, Tinker has lost the key of Charlotte's safe-deposit box.

Double Edged Sword  - A tough-talking business man hires Lovejoy to recover a sixteenth-century samurai sword which has been stolen from him. Another dealer, Lovejoy's mentor Jim Leonard, buys the sword at an auction, but it is promptly stolen from him by Joanna, the daughter of the original owner. Lovejoy stays on the trail.

Guns and Roses  - Lovejoy takes an antique gun to a London gunsmith to be repaired, but the armorer is having landlord problems. Meanwhile, an acquaintance of Lovejoy's, Texas Greenberg, is on his way over to buy something special.

The Last of the Uzkoks  - Lovejoy is called in by Lord Dunwich to value a silver communion set, and Lady Dunwich wants him to find her some antique prints of the lost town of Dunwich-by-the-Sea (which is now under the sea). Charlie has done a moonlight flit, leaving his old dad in charge of Felsham Hall, and there are some unlikely characters around - a mad Greek priest, a Dutch civil servant, and a strange woman...

Breaking the Broker  - The police set up Tinker, so that they can get a favour from Lovejoy. They want him to check out an up-market pawnbroker who is suspected of receiving antiques stolen overseas.

Fruit of the Desert  - Lovejoy has a dangerous plan, which includes putting himself in the hands of a notorious moneylender and risking the future of his daughter, Vicky. But then, "Those who hazard all do it in hope of fair advantages..."

Holding the Baby  - Lovejoy buys a nineteenth-century dresser for a song, after getting advice from a Caribbean specialist.
Meanwhile, Charlotte has mixed feelings about being left holding someone else's baby.

Last Tango in Lavenham  - In the last episode of Lovejoy, our hero gears himself up to marry Charlotte, and his old life begins to splinter. Jane Felsham returns with a splash, and without Alexander in tow - will Lovejoy have to choose between her and Charlotte?

The Christmas Specials
The Prague Sun - Lovejoy is likely to be on his own for Christmas. However, a violent attack on an old Czech fighter pilot leads Lovejoy and Eric to Prague on a treasure hunt. Jane, who was on holiday with friends in Austria, joins Lovejoy in Prague to help solve a mystery of missing diamonds.
Tinker is left to mind the shop and make preparations for Christmas.

The Lost Colony - Lovejoy meets distant cousins from America, who are visiting England.
As well as a female ghost, old Lord Wakering has treasures which once belonged to Sir Walter Raleigh, and both Lovejoy and Mary-John Lovejoy, his American cousin, want them. Some of Lord Wakering's things are stolen, and Lovejoy travels in hot pursuit to the Carolinas, where he is not made welcome. Charlotte has to fly over to get him out of trouble.

 

Lovejoy	---	Ian McShane
Tinker Dill	---	Dudley Sutton
Eric Catchpole	---	Chris Jury
Lady Jane Felsham	---	Phyllis Logan
Charlie Gimbert	---	Malcolm Tierney
Charlotte Cavendish	---	Caroline Langshrie
Beth Taylor	---	Diane Parish
Lord Alexander Felsham	---	Pavel Douglas
Katie Henshaw	---	Maggie Ollerenshaw
Dandy Jack	---	Geoffrey Bateman

Written by Terry Hodgkinson, Ian La Frenais, Roger Marshall, Jonathan Gash
Directed by Baz Taylor, John Crome, John Woods, Francis Megahy, Ian McShane, Jim Hill
Produced by Richard Everitt, Colin Shindleer, Robert Banks Stewart
Executive Produced by Allan McKeown, Tony Charles
Original Music by Denis King
Cinematography by John Baker, Alec Curtis, Peter Hall, Colin Case, ian Punter, Richard Terry
Film Editing by Anthony Combes, Ian Farr, Martin Sharpe
Costume Design by Betty Barnard, Andrew Duckett, Colin May