To Sleep No More

Sam Wendell was an old forger, and he dies of a heart attack while being pursued by a mysterious priest. On his way out he leaves behind one of his small forgeries, a piece he had told his wife was the key to a fortune. The priest soon tries to break into the Wendell house, and Lovejoy gets involved whether he planned to or not.

The widow is left with very little, and Lovejoy's aim is to unravel the puzzle and recover anything of value for her. Then a thief steals a forged snuff box, the only legacy Sam left her, and the job turns into a recovery mission. Along the way Lovejoy dresses up as a priest himself, which is the kind of decision this show makes without a second thought. A forger's riddle, a stolen fake, and a man of the cloth who is not what he seems: it all fits together better than it has any right to.

Ian La Frenais, Jonathan Gash and David G.B. Brown wrote it, Ken Hannam directed. Ian McShane anchors it as Lovejoy, with Phyllis Logan as Lady Jane Felsham, Dudley Sutton as Tinker Dill and Chris Jury as Eric Catchpole. Malcolm Tierney's Charlie Gimbert is around as usual. Norma West plays Mrs. Mattock, Robert Ashby is Smiley, John Forgeham is Arnold, Jo Ross is Helen, and Geoffrey Bateman is Dandy Jack.

The episode works as an atmospheric puzzle box. The value of the object keeps sliding away, because what Sam left behind was never really about the money. It was about the truth he could not take to the grave, and the widow who had to live with his secrets. The title comes from Macbeth, which suits a story about a dead man's secret keeping the living awake, and the episode went out on 14 February 1986. Lovejoy, of all people, understands that trade better than most.