Episode 3 of the first series focuses on cross- and double-cross, the intense rivalry between Lovejoy and Gimbert, and offers up a feast of one-liners and asides to camera as McShane and his cast continue to relax into their characters. 

This begins with the slow pan across the auction house owned by Charlie, with Lovejoy characteristically breaking the fourth wall to inform us that behind the genteel exterior and amid the garbage of the general sale lie raw emotions of greed and envy and also a few hidden gems. 

It’s another example of the series bringing back the experience of ‘junking’ I had as a youth accompanying a relative to auctions held in cattle markets or antique fairs held on what seemed to be surviving WW2 bombsites. This is a world which gentrification, access to information online, and new marketplaces like Ebay have largely erased, especially post COVID which saw the demise of auctions I loved like Greenwich, alongside many of those who frequented them.

Here, the intrigue is alive and well as Lovejoy takes on an assignment from a posh but troubled young woman who engages him to recover some family items before it is noticed they are missing. The plot is convoluted but not quite ridiculous, and sets up the action nicely. The client and her dealer/boyfriend are well-observed pastiches of late 80’s style who wouldn’t look out of place in a Wham video or the Princess Diana ‘set’ of the time. 

Ian Le Frenais turns out to be lead writer on this episode which explains the quality of dialogue, and Director is Baz Taylor, who was on a career high at the time having previously directed both Dempsey and Makepeace, and Shine on Harvey Moon, two series which while now largely forgotten at the time were huge – I can still hear the theme tune to the latter in my head now. 

While Lovejoy continues to charm and enlist the help of comrades and associates, including a talented but ‘retired’ forger, he is still on the edge of the law and polite society, casually breaking and entering, fixing auction lot prices, and up for a hookup with Gimbert’s sister. What‘s also evident is a culture of drink driving, whether driver (Gimbert coming back from the pub after numerous light ales) or Tinker as passenger toting a hipflask “I’m wearing my seatbelt”. 

Needless to say, the villainous pusher is pushed off by Lovejoy’s mate the binman (who will return as a minor star later in the series) and Gimbert outsmarted in a tense and enjoyable series of swaps and auction house moves which I won’t reveal and spoil here. This episode builds out another branch of what made Lovejoy so successful and well-liked – auctions and interest in bargains was high in this period where Antiques Roadshow regularly attracted 10 million viewers each week and colour supplements fuelled the dream of hidden riches. Riches elude Lovejoy here but as ever, he lives and loves to see another auction and feel that rush…