“Tinker Dill: Antiques, real antiques are a way of life, especially to Lovejoy. He’s a divvy, y’know? That’s somebody who knows the right of things, without knowing why. It’s instinct, a feeling, it brings some divining, like water.”
Years before there was Antiques Road Show to instruct the television audience how to tell Auntie Ruth’s rubbish from a priceless treasure, there was an excellent antiques themed mystery series from Great Britain called Lovejoy.
In the late 80’s, we watched in fascination as Lovejoy (no first name, no “Mr.”) led a Robin Hood sort of existence among the antiques dealers. Lovejoy (Ian McShane) and his friends Eric Catchpole (Chris Jury) Tinker Dill (Dudley Sutton) and the beautiful Lady Jane Felsham (Phyllis Logan) rescued priceless treasures (and sometimes people) that had fallen on hard times. Often they out-conned the cons in the business and were all the while talking about what makes a fake obvious to the trained eye, and best of all, what is the real thing.
Lovejoy’s associate Tinker Dill, (in spite of an enjoyment of fine beverages), has an encyclopedic knowledge of antiques, dealers, thefts, and history. Then there is the connection with Lady Jane, whose long suffering husband Alexander says that he understands her friendship with Lovejoy is very important, just try and stay out of trouble.
Put these quirky characters onto a mystery connected with antiques, and add wonderful bits of knowledge (such as the Georgian lady’s dress in the painting is lemon yellow, a dead giveaway it is a fake, they didn’t have lemon yellow at that point in history), and you have the heady blend that is Lovejoy.
Lovejoy – The Complete Season 1 is now available at Amazon and AmazonUK . Visit the DVD database for more information.
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