Lovejoy (TV Series) Just Desserts (1991) User Reviews

Lovejoy Returns

[gpeevers · 7/10 · 19 June 2009]

Nice re-start to the series after a 5 year gap. Though the series would run for 6 seasons the first season was broadcast in 1986 while the second would not be until 1991.

The episode starts nicely as we find Lovejoy in prison, but it's a nice slow reveal with some clues for those that are looking. This development also seems so logical as Lovejoy has always walked a precarious path where the police were concerned, and if in this case he is innocent there are other incidents where he cannot claim such. Fortunately for the story it is a rather short sentence and he is soon released to find Lady Jane waiting for him. Now Lovejoy wants to find out who set him up and why, obviously as Lady Jane suggests its going to involve a woman.

Right away one of the most notable changes in my mind is that the series just looks so much better. The advances in technology or at least the technology employed I assume are the reason, but whatever the reason the quality of the picture is a great improvement and the sound also seems better.

The other changes seemed a little more subtle but no less important, the tone of the series seems a little bit lighter and more fun. Perhaps this was a conscious change, a result of personnel changes or perhaps it's just the slight difference in the time the series was made. While the first season was made in the 1980's the second and subsequent seasons were made in the 1990's and Margaret Thatcher would step down just before the second season was broadcast.

Certainly the 90's fashions are less disturbing to watch than those of the 80's.

Great start to the new series

[keysam-02610 · 9/10 · 7 May 2024]

As others have said, this does seem like not only a new series but a reboot. They've kept the best bits of series one and ditched some others, most notably giving Lovejoy a safe place to live that brings him even closer to Lady Jane and the protection she affords by being posh and wealthy. Their 'will they won't they?' relationship is great fun, but it's these other aspects that actually Lovejoy probably needs most.

Charlie Gimbert was actually a great character. He wasn't a one note villain. On the contrary, it was clear that he & Lovejoy could actually get along fairly well in the right circumstances. I just don't think having an antagonist so close to home was necessary and the role is easily filled week to week by guest stars.

This first episode also sees the return of Antony Valentine's character from the early episode The Judas Pair. It was clear then that he was a teeny bit obsessive when it came to flintlock pistols, but now it seems he's almost as bad with other antiques, to the extent that he's the one who is really responsible for Lovejoy's 8 months in prison.

Happily, Lovejoy gets satisfaction & enough cash to resolve several issues in his life so that they don't have to be plot points going forward - alimony for example.

It's good fun, as indeed the show would continue to be.

A reboot within the same series?

[VetteRanger · 24 October 2019]

As others have commented, due to contractual complications, there was a five year gap between the first season (or series as they say in GB) and second seasons of Lovejoy.

Ian McShane comes back with long hair and a bit more trim (I disagree with another reviewer on that account, and I just watched the last episode of the first season yesterday, and this episode today). Lady Jane seems to have lost weight, also. Eric and Tinker look just the same to me.

As is usual, the episode involves Lovejoy uncovering an antiques scam -- this time by being made the fall guy for it. There were plenty of amusing moments in each first season episode, and they are present here also, including a big smile at the end, as Lovejoy enacts the ultimate revenge for his victimhood. :-)

These stories are all clever, and they don't have the same issue that some of the books do. Jonathan Gash (pen name for John Gant) sometimes rushing a flurry of events onto a short space at the end of the books, making the end of those novels a bit hard to follow. You don't have that problem in the TV series.

Just Desserts

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 13 August 2018]

Lovejoy was more popular than the BBC initially anticipated. As it was made in association with an independent company getting a second series off the ground was more complex and actor Ian McShane was busy in America.

However five years later Lovejoy returned to television and the character spent the interim period inside Her Majesty's pleasure.

Lovejoy looks to find the person who framed him as he became an unwitting accomplice in a clever smuggling scam. An old friend from the first series pops up this time he is less amiable with Lovejoy.

Writer Ian La Frenais teams up with his old writing chum Dick Clement for this opening episode. It is also a lot less grittier than the first series and the portrait of Lovejoy has changed in the opening titles, he is older and a few pounds heavier.