Long before Ian McShane gave US audiences a profanity laden acting masterclass as the magnificently layered saloon owner Al Swearengen in HBO’s Deadwood, he was giving aging housewives weekly groin twinges as charismatic antiques dealer Lovejoy. If you want to know why the BBC suddenly went nuts to recapture the youth audience with shows like Dr. Who, Torchwood and the revamped Top Gear, it’s because it realized it had driven them all away to rival network ITV with shows like Lovejoy, a piece of bourgeois-centric fluff so light it has to be weighted down to keep from floating away.
Based on a series of picturesque novels by the unfortunately named Jonathan Gash (a pen name he chose no less) the character of Lovejoy is depicted as a loveable rogue who navigates the high seas of regional antiques dealing by his wits! Lovejoy doesn’t have a first name – it’s part of his enigma you see. Set in rural East Anglia the series follows Lovejoy’s exploits, along with his cohorts: the stiff-upper-lipped and lovable Tinker, and the bungling Eric who serve as the comic relief while our hero attempts each week to essentially make a bit of cash.
In its fifth season (it ran for six) the series was in what would have to be considered top gear and, in an effort not to go stale, rang in the changes. Out went series mainstays Eric and Lady Jane Felsham (with whom Lovejoy had enjoyed a will-they-wont-they storyline for some time) and in came antiques house owner Charlotte Cavendish and Lovejoy’s new apprentice Beth (seemingly the only black person in all of East Anglia).
Lovejoy is a show that could never survive in the US, where networks are jam packed with high-stakes, hi-octane dramas and procedurals that are, you know, actively engaging. Lovejoy by contrast belongs to a country so choked up on its own decadence that an afternoon cup of tea is an event and a show about a maverick antiques dealer is considered exciting. It’s also a show that’s so fantastical it makes Buffy The Vampire Slayer seem grounded and realistic. These are people who are so delightfully middle class and oh-so English that they simply don’t exist outside the likes of Richard Curtis’ imagination. The show’s idea of a gag would be to have Eric drive to Ipswich to visit a shop that he has a lot of trouble finding that in the end turns out to be closed (our sides!).
A typical Lovejoy plot would involve something along the lines of Lord and Lady Appleshite of Wankerton mistakenly purchasing a dodgy piece of porcelain that once belonged to some obscure member of high-society. Of course they can’t simply turn it in (preposterous idea) because they’re hosting a royal gala on behalf of Diddlypong from Bibblygong, and this would upset the something-or-other and mean that Lord Appleshite (probably a wealthy pig farmer) won’t get his knighthood for services to the pig industry. So they call Lovejoy who uses his connections and affable charm to ensure the safe return of the thingy to the rightful owners, while protecting the reputations of all involved and perhaps making a buck in the process.
Given the show's astoundingly non-threatening nature the blue rinse brigade went, unsurprisingly, positively weak at the knees at the mere sight of McShane's floppy perm, leather jacket, and cheeky grin. Lovejoy is the kind of thing that is just inexplicably there on the shelf the second a woman turns forty, along with Ghost, The Bodyguard, and the anniversary edition of Dirty Dancing.
DVD Bonus Features
Each season set of Lovejoy features an extract from an interview Ian McShane recorded in California, presumably after he had broken big in the States considering the location, during which he looks back on the series and shares his recollections. While it has little appeal to the non-fan, what is amusing is the somewhat disguised head scratching from McShane as he attempts to put his finger on why exactly the show proved to be so popular. The books, it seems, were really good and he was happy to be in work. But the books were also a bit dark and a bit violent and were subsequently toned down into what we see on the screen. Pure, escapist, television pap of the highest order.
"Lovejoy: The Complete Season Five" is on sale May 12, 2009 and is rated NR. Drama, Television. Directed by Baz Taylor, John Crome, John Woods, Francis Megahy. Written by Terry Hodgkinson, Roger Marshall, Ian La Frenais, Douglas Watkinson, Jonathan Gash. Starring Chris Jury, Dudley Sutton, Ian McShane, Phyllis Logan.
