The BEST episodes of Lovejoy season 1
Every episode of Lovejoy season 1, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Lovejoy season 1!
Lovejoy is a colourful East Anglian antique dealer who lives a somewhat hand-to-mouth life, despite being called a divvie - a man who knows in his bones the right and wrong of fine things. The Lovejoy Antiques team includes Tinker Dill, Lovejoy's barker, Eric Catchpole, his apprentice (the son of the local butcher), and Jane Felsham, the supportive lady of a local grandee. In the fifth and sixth series Lovejoy develops a special relationship with the elegant Charlotte Cavendish, who heads an auction house. Lovejoy's business rival Charlie Gimbert is both his landlord and a competitor for good buys of all kinds. Beth Taylor joins Lovejoy's team on a youth employment scheme in the middle of the fifth series. The show ran for almost nine years, from 1986 to 1994, and is still being repeated in several countries. It was created for television by Ian La Frenais and is based on the Lovejoy books by Jonathan Gash
#1 - The March of Time
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 2/28/1986
Lovejoy finds a bundle of old love letters hidden in the back of an antique clock. He quickly falls for the owner, but are the letters genuine? Under the name of 'Captain Lovejoy', he sets out to find the answer.
#2 - Friends, Romans and Enemies
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/31/1986
A robbery at the local museum seems to be connected with the death of a local forger, and Lovejoy goes on the trail of a hoard of Roman coins in the Isle of Man. Two Americans are also after the coins.
#3 - The Real Thing
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 2/21/1986
Needing a break from Charlie, Lovejoy takes a job for a few days at a new antiques market in Norwich owned by a client of Jane's. He soon realizes the boss is a con-man and sets out to expose him. Along the way, he also tries to trap a second crook who is selling fake paintings.
#4 - To Sleep No More
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 2/14/1986
Sam Wendell, an old forger, dies of a heart attack while being pursued by a mysterious priest, leaving behind one of his small forgeries. Sam had told his wife it was the key to a fortune, and the priest soon tries to break into the Wendell house. Lovejoy aims to unravel the puzzle, by way of helping Sam's widow (who's left with very little) to recover anything of value. Along the way, Lovejoy dresses up as a priest.
#5 - The Judas Pair
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 2/7/1986
The wife and brother of a man killed with a fabulous pair of Regency duelling pistols engage Lovejoy to find them and thus bring about the downfall of the murderer. In the process, Lovejoy puts Jane's life at risk and challenges Dr La Grange to a duel.
#6 - Death and Venice (2)
Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 3/14/1986
In Venice, Lovejoy gets a job working for Caterina and Lavinia, with a view to busting their scam, and meets a Scottish forger called 'Lucky' Luciano. Lovejoy and Lucky together unravel the mystery of the Island of Rats.
#7 - Death and Venice (1)
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 3/7/1986
Lovejoy travels to Venice to investigate the murder of a friend. The dead friend had bought a painting Lovejoy believed was a fake. In Venice, he is drawn into an ambitious art swindle, and identical twins Caterina and Lavinia are behind the scam.
#8 - The Sting
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/20/1986
Lovejoy sets out to help a young woman to trace a pair of Meissen figures which she sold to raise cash for a drug habit. When he comes across evidence of a double-cross by Charlie Gimbert, he decides to get even.
#9 - The Firefly Cage
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 1/10/1986
Having hired Eric Catchpole as an apprentice, Lovejoy sets out to unravel the meaning of a Japanese firefly cage.As Lovejoy and Eric are in hot pursuit (on Eric's motorbike) of a lovely lady with something they want, they hit a pool of water in the road and give a drenching to Jane (Lady Felsham), who is busy unveiling a plaque. When, later, Lovejoy rings the doorbell at Felsham Hall, complex chemistry begins, and Jane is soon showing Lovejoy around her attic...
#10 - The Axeman Cometh
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 1/17/1986
Lovejoy buys a Welsh dresser at Charlie Gimbert's auction, and hidden inside it he finds a rich Arab head-dress, festooned with gold ducats. Catesby, recently out of prison and the son of the dead man whose property was being sold at Gimbert's, says he was promised the dresser. Lovejoy sells it back to him, but without the head-dress. Catesby is soon looking for Lovejoy armed with an axe. He is in good company, as one of Her Majesty's Inland Revenue officers is also after Lovejoy.