The BEST episodes of Lovejoy season 5

Every episode of Lovejoy season 5, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Lovejoy season 5!

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

Last Updated: 3/19/2024Network: BBC OneStatus: Ended
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star
8.07
15 votes

#1 - The Lost Colony

Season 5 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/27/1993

When a descendant of Sir Walter Raleigh sells his home and its contents, Lovejoy meets an American woman whose name is also Lovejoy. Several antiques go missing along with the woman and Lovejoy tracks them back to North Carolina. Lovejoy discovers that the woman and her brother are operating a scam to claim an inheritance. The pair get Lovejoy put in jail, but Charlotte arrives to help him and together they set about bringing the Americans to justice.

Who is the Fairest of Them All?
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7.95
79 votes

#2 - Who is the Fairest of Them All?

Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/12/1993

Jane's old dance teacher wants Lovejoy to sell a mirror. This then leads to a deal which involves the apparently one-eyed Roderick Frew. Jane informs Lovejoy that Alexander is broke, Felsham is in the hands of the receivers, and she is leaving.

Directors: Baz Taylor
Writer: Jeremy Paul
Three Men and a Brittle Lady
star
7.77
106 votes

#3 - Three Men and a Brittle Lady

Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/3/1993

Charlotte's former lover arrives from New York and invites her to live with him in Paris, but she turns him down.A forger cons Charlie Gimbert into buying some fake porcelain, but Lovejoy catches up with him. In doing so, he discovers a good artist.

The Price of Fish
star
7.60
77 votes

#4 - The Price of Fish

Season 5 - Episode 13 - Aired 11/28/1993

Lovejoy is invited to spend the weekend with Charlotte at her best friend's house. The friend is short of money and has a clock she wants valued, but Lovejoy finds a stuffed fish which is worth selling, and misunderstandings arise... Meanwhile, Tinker is keen to thwart Charlie Gimbert's plans to turn Felsham Hall into a health farm, and after studying a twelfth-century charter he starts grazing a flock of sheep around the Hall. Charlie responds by threatening to evict Lovejoy Antiques from the stable yard, so Tinker and Beth take a trip to a health farm.

Directors: Jim Hill
Stones of Destiny
star
7.57
74 votes

#5 - Stones of Destiny

Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/17/1993

A rare Celtic cross is stolen from Charlotte's aution house, after Lovejoy asked the porter to let a friend look at it. Charlotte and Lovejoy set out on the thief's trail and find themselves on a treasure hunt in the west of Wales. But they are not the only ones after the cross.Charlotte turns down Lovejoy's invitation to share a bedroom at a village inn.

Directors: Jim Hill
Writer: Alan Clews
Watch Now:Amazon
Poetic Licence
star
7.55
136 votes

#6 - Poetic Licence

Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/24/1993

A friend of Charlotte's who runs a nursing home has asked her to sell some things, and Charlotte wants Lovejoy's help with valuations. One patient, Virginia, believes she has a very rare bureau. Then somebody tries to kill Lovejoy. When Charlotte recognizes his resemblance to a dead poet, they begin to suspect who might be behind the attempts on his life. Tinker and Beth are sent off to London in search of the answers.

Directors: Gordon Flemyng
Writer: John Milne
The Peking Gun
star
7.54
74 votes

#7 - The Peking Gun

Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 10/31/1993

Charlie Gimbert asks Lovejoy to value a colonial widow's Chinese treasures. Lovejoy is interested in an unusual Peking cannon and gets Charlotte's opinion on it. The cannon has great significance for a Chinese tong, and Lovejoy and Charlotte are in danger as the Chinese community prepares to do battle over it.

Directors: Ken Horn
Writer: Mike Ripley
A Going Concern
star
7.53
77 votes

#8 - A Going Concern

Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/19/1993

Lovejoy has been left to look after Felsham Hall until it has been sold, and he uses the house as a furniture showroom. He thus crosses swords with the beautiful Charlotte Cavendish, who is the auctioneer selling the Hall. At the auction, Charlie Gimbert buys the property, and Lovejoy agrees with him to rent the stables for Lovejoy Antiques.

Directors: Ian McShane
Ducking and Diving
star
7.49
76 votes

#9 - Ducking and Diving

Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/10/1993

Tinker and Eric take a break at Eric's Uncle Jack's pub. Meanwhile, Lovejoy is asked to show a visiting couple around the antiques shops. Trouble is, he also has a very large Welsh Dresser to get rid of. Eric decides to stay on and run the pub.

Directors: Jim Hill
Writer: John Milne
The Kakiemon Tiger
star
7.46
79 votes

#10 - The Kakiemon Tiger

Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 9/26/1993

Lovejoy is threatened by a debt collector and hijacks a country house auction to pay his debts. In the process, he finds the lost 'Kakiemon Tiger', but he has to deal with competitors for it. Beth Taylor joins Lovejoy Antiques on a youth employment scheme, to learn the business.

Pig in a Poke
star
7.37
106 votes

#11 - Pig in a Poke

Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/5/1993

Lovejoy buys a set of James Gillray drawings, which turn out to be copies. While trying to sell them, Eric finds a stolen statue with an aristocratic connection at the house of some friends of Jane's. Then there's a Royal Visit to consider...

Directors: Baz Taylor
Goose Bumps
star
7.31
49 votes

#12 - Goose Bumps

Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/7/1993

After a dealer apparently disappears over the side of a cross-channel ferry, Lovejoy acquires two china geese. Charlie Gimbert, in pursuit of local ambitions, decides to impress the community and asks Charlotte to act as hostess at a Dog Show and Wildlife Auction at Felsham Hall. Lovejoy organises the auction, including his geese - and Charlotte invites him home for a dinner for two.

Directors: Gordon Flemyng
Writer: Jeremy Paul
Swings and Roundabouts
star
7.28
75 votes

#13 - Swings and Roundabouts

Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/14/1993

Boswell, a friend of Lovejoy's who runs a travelling fair, asks Lovejoy to sell some silver candlesticks for him. However, the police arrive, saying they are stolen property, and Boswell is arrested. Meanwhile, an American friend of Charlotte's wants to buy the fairground Carousel.

Directors: Ken Horn
Watch Now:Amazon
Never Judge a Book By Its Cover
star
7.22
76 votes

#14 - Never Judge a Book By Its Cover

Season 5 - Episode 12 - Aired 11/21/1993

Lovejoy takes Charlotte to an Antiques Fair at Cambridge, where the elderly Doncaster sisters, who have financial problems, invite him to value their belongings. Lovejoy finds what seems to be a very rare bible, but the sisters' brother, a Cambridge don, opposes its sale. Lovejoy then discovers the bible is a fake and suspects mischief. Meanwhile, Beth's father wants her to leave Lovejoy Antiques for something better.

Directors: Jim Hill