Scotch on the Rocks

Vicky finds an old claymore, a Scottish sword, in the attic of her new flat, and Lovejoy ends up owning it. Then a man called Kinloch offers him far more than the blade is worth, claiming a family connection. A suspicious Lovejoy refuses, and the sword promptly becomes the subject of a bungled burglary. Lovejoy is not the only one on the trail. Vicky, for the record, is Lovejoy's daughter, and her attic discovery lands in his hands before anyone else can get a look at it.

Investigation reveals the claymore is a map to buried treasure, a cache of French gold hidden in the ground. The catch is a good one: Tartan Transactions, a controversial firm in which Kinloch has an interest, has just built a supermarket directly over the spot. The treasure is there, unreachable under the frozen peas and the tinned soup, and getting it out means dealing with the man who put the concrete down. It went out on 23 February 1992, and the image of a supermarket sitting on buried gold stays in the mind.

Ian La Frenais, Jonathan Gash and T.R. Bowen wrote it, Baz Taylor directed. Ian McShane is Lovejoy, Phyllis Logan is Lady Jane Felsham, Dudley Sutton is Tinker Dill, and Chris Jury is Eric Catchpole. Edward Hardwicke plays Kinloch, James Grant is Montrose, Paul Brooke is Gently Bentley, Amelia Shankley is Vicky Lovejoy, Kate Williams is Bella, and Bill Leadbitter is a Celtic Supporter. Edward Hardwicke, best known to many as Dr. Watson opposite Jeremy Brett's Holmes, gives Kinloch a plausible veneer of respectability.

The episode juxtaposes deep historical secrets with the mundane intrusion of modern commerce, and the supermarket is the best villain in it. A sword that points the way to French gold, and a car park standing on top of the answer: even Lovejoy's sixth sense has to queue for a trolley.