User Reviews

A lot of people (though not apparently IMDB reviewers) do like this episode. They find it sweet and heartbreaking. I am not one of them. I think it's downright poor in places. And the writing and plotting is pretty bad.

It seemed to drag, which is always a bad sign.

The Lovejoy/Victoria romance comes to an end but is very badly handled as it does so. First, Lovejoy does a half-baked proposal, which Victoria turns down but also in a very unclear way. She explains more to Jane later than she ever does to Lovejoy.

That said, if you're turned down for marriage, walking off in a huff is not the correct reaction. Just because someone doesn't want to get married doesn't mean it's all over! This crops up in a few shows & movies I've seen and it strikes me as misogynistic. Usually a bloke decides to offer marriage. The woman declines, but almost always not in a rude or rejecting way, just turning that institution down really, not the man. Man decides well, in that case, he's off! It's basically saying the woman has no right to decline without losing the whole relationship.

Anyway, Victoria then, having only just a) said she fancies touring the UK and b) pursued Lovejoy to say 'I wasn't turning YOU down, just marriage' hoofs off back to Peru. This is a really poor bit of writing. Her actions makes NO sense in the context.

Nor is the subplot of the dodgy promoter very well handled. It's too rushed. Blink, and you would miss the bit where Lovejoy tells Eric (iirc) to 'Call Uncle Bill' ie get the police to come to arrest Morgan for stealing the £100,000.

Then, all of a sudden out of nowhere, NUNS! Convents aren't common in the UK (Henry 8th &c) and finding a convenient one to donate the harp to stretches the credulity, though the player does a lovely job. (The harp got mended a bit fast too, didn't it?)

Finally, I like Hothouse Flowers and they were very pretty to look at but OMG they can't act! Still, the music was enjoyable, what little we heard of it.

All in all this is NOT vintage Lovejoy. The line about friends being better than lovers though, that's a good one.

Edit to add - nearly forgot, there's more evidence of poor writing with the whole Lovejoy on a boat thing. It's mentioned briefly in goofs, here, but he was literally on a boat in the very first episode, then again in the Venice double bill and again in the one with the French thieves who were clearing out mansion houses. Yet here, he turns to camera and claims never to have been on one before. What?!