New 'Lovejoy' Reboot in the Works
'Lovejoy' is the latest series to cause a bidding war for the chance to create a hit reboot.
Most Americans aren't that familiar with Lovejoy, the mystery-crime series from the BBC that aired from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s and turned star Ian McShane into a household name in the U.K. But that didn't stop a bidding war for the rights to produce a reboot from breaking out. As PBS proved with All Creatures Great & Small and Van Der Valk, British shows from the 1970s and 80s didn't have to air under the official Masterpiece banner (or on PBS at all) for viewers to accept the modern updates. Moreover, PBS Passport recently added the first season of Lovejoy for members, with local stations airing episodes on their own schedule. Even if it wasn't a PBS show then, it is now.
That's a big part of why, when the rights to remake Lovejoy came up towards the end of 2025, multiple production studios fought for it. However, in the end, it wasn't one of the more widely recognized studios that walked away with the prize; it was See-Saw Films, the company best known for producing Apple TV's Slow Horses, Netflix's Heartstopper, and Starz's Sweetpea.
Based on the two dozen novels written by Dr. John Grant (under the name Jonathan Gash), the titular Lovejoy is a slightly crooked British antiques dealer, who is known in the trade as a "divvie," someone with a talent for recognising treasures from forgeries.
Here's the sketch outline of See-Saw Film's plans for the reboot:
Set in East Anglia, Lovejoy is about a charismatic antiques dealer with an almost mystical knack for spotting genuine artefacts and scams. He frequently pivots from dealer to detective, outmanoeuvring rivals, criminals, and occasionally the police. A contemporary reimagining of the Lovejoy novels, the new series will strip away the nostalgia of the 1980s adaptation and return to the unrulier spirit of the books.
The BBC adaptation debuted in 1986 and ran until 1994, adapting the first 12 or so books along the way. (Five more came out during the show's run; the remaining seven were released after it was canceled.) The series also made household names out of Phyllis Logan as Lovejoy's love interest, Lady Jane Felsham, and the late Dudley Sutton as Lovejoy's buddy, Tinker Hill.
No cast has been set for the reboot, nor have writers or directors been announced. Executive producers will include author Grant and Lisa Moylett, plus Lisa Gilchrist, Helen Gregory, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman & Simon Gillis for See-Saw.
Lovejoy does not have a distributor lined up yet, nor a filming schedule set. While some would assume Apple TV would be the logical place for it (especially with Slow Horses winding down), there's as good a chance for this to end up on Netflix, Hulu, Starz, BritBox, Acorn TV, or even PBS.
