Day of Reckoning

A former friend, Max Hunter, believes Lovejoy had an affair with his wife, and the bitterness has curdled into something deranged. He kidnaps Charlotte and plans to kill her. But Hunter, who has a pathological hatred of Lovejoy and a penchant for puzzles, gives his enemy a sporting chance: he leaves a series of clues and dares Lovejoy to find him in time. The clues, as befits a man who thinks of himself as clever, arrive as puzzles to be solved.

The episode turns a straightforward abduction into a race against the clock, with Lovejoy and his associates following the breadcrumbs while Charlotte's life hangs on their speed. The villain's motive springs from the domestic sphere rather than the criminal underworld, which gives the whole affair a particularly uncomfortable edge. Lovejoy has faced plenty of men who wanted his stock or his scalp, but few who wanted him to suffer slowly. The episode aired on 9 October 1994, early in series six, and it pitches Lovejoy against the most personal enemy he ever faced.

Ian La Frenais, Jonathan Gash and John Goldsmith wrote it, Paul Harrison directed. Ian McShane is Lovejoy, Dudley Sutton is Tinker Dill, and Diane Parish is Beth Taylor. Caroline Langrishe is Charlotte Cavendish, John Castle plays the menacing Max Hunter, David Ryall is Sam Cavendish, Christopher Fairbank is Foxy Norris, Eric Deacon is Det. Insp. Hardwick, Oliver Parker is Desmond Dexter, and Maggie Ollerenshaw is Kate Henshaw. Castle gives Hunter a quiet, well-spoken menace, and Sam Cavendish gives Charlotte's family a stake in the rescue.

The collision of genuine mystery with a deeply personal vendetta gives the episode real dramatic weight. A puzzle-loving murderer is the kind of opponent Lovejoy can respect and despise in equal measure, and the clue trail keeps the tension taut all the way to the end. Charlotte survives, which is the only ending the series would dare offer.