Double Edged Sword

A tough-talking businessman, Frank Whymark, hires Lovejoy to recover a samurai sword that has been stolen from him. The deadline is three days, and the alternative is left firmly unspoken. Lovejoy takes the job and gets on the trail, which is exactly what Whymark expects of a man who owes him nothing but has a professional weakness for a good object. The episode aired on 23 October 1994, and Julian Glover gives Whymark a menace that never needs to be shouted.

The trail leads through auctions and rival dealers. Lovejoy's old mentor, Jim Leonard, buys the sword at an auction, but it is promptly snatched from him by Joanna, the daughter of the sword's original owner. The ownership of the blade keeps shifting, and with it the loyalties of everyone involved. Lovejoy stays on the trail, because in this trade the sword is never just a sword. Whymark's three-day deadline keeps the clock visible, and the auction scenes give the chase its busiest moments.

Ian La Frenais, Jonathan Gash and Roger Marshall wrote it, Alex Kirby directed. Ian McShane is Lovejoy, Dudley Sutton is Tinker Dill, Caroline Langrishe is Charlotte Cavendish, and Diane Parish is Beth Taylor. Dinsdale Landen returns as Jim Leonard, Julian Glover plays Frank Whymark, Julia Sawalha is Joanna, Frank Harper is Harry Whymark, John Warnaby is the Auctioneer, and Richard Earthy is Jack. Julia Sawalha, then early in her career, plays Joanna with more claim to the blade than Whymark will admit.

The episode gets its tension from the constant shifting of the prize. A stolen blade, a mentor with fast hands, and a daughter with a claim older than the businessman's: the sword passes through so many hands that the question of who deserves it becomes the real mystery. Three days is plenty, as it turns out, for Lovejoy to sort the whole thing out and annoy everyone equally.