The Kakiemon Tiger

Lovejoy is threatened by a debt collector. An IOU owed to a former client has been inherited by a notoriously lethal loan shark, who gives him three days to pay, or else. The menace is theatrical and entirely real, and Lovejoy's answer is the one he always reaches for in a crisis: an auction.

He hijacks a country house auction to pay his debts, using the chaos of high-stakes bidding to raise the funds. In the process he finds the lost Kakiemon Tiger, a prized piece with competitors closing in from every direction. Raising money and acquiring treasure in the same afternoon is the kind of two-for-one deal Lovejoy dreams about, and the loan shark's deadline keeps the whole thing ticking. Broadcast in late September 1993, it catches two future faces early in their careers: Colin Salmon, later a familiar figure in the James Bond films, and James Nesbitt, who would go on to Cold Feet, both appear in small parts. Kenneth Cranham gives the loan shark Litvak a quiet menace that makes the three-day deadline feel real. Watching the younger names now gives the episode a second life on repeat viewing.

Ian La Frenais, Jonathan Gash and Roger Marshall wrote it, Nicholas Laughland directed. Ian McShane is Lovejoy, Dudley Sutton is Tinker Dill, and Chris Jury is Eric Catchpole. Caroline Langrishe is Charlotte Cavendish, and Diane Parish joins the firm as Beth Taylor, learning the business on a youth employment scheme. Malcolm Tierney is Charlie Gimbert, Kenneth Cranham is the loan shark Litvak, John Grillo is Snip Saunders, Colin Salmon is Rathbone, and James Nesbitt is Jerry Boyle.

The episode merges Lovejoy's characteristic struggle against debt with the thrill of the rare object hunt. A lost tiger, a lethal loan shark, and a young woman learning the trade: the show keeps its plates spinning and lands them all. Even the auction catalogue gets a moment to shine.