The production company behind Apple TV+ thriller Slow Horses is set to revive the much-loved detective drama Lovejoy, more than 30 years after the original series ended.
Based on the novels by Jonathan Gash (pseudonym of Dr Jonathan Grant), Lovejoy originally aired on the BBC in the late 1980s and ran for six series. It starred Ian McShane as the roguish East Anglian antiques dealer with a talent for spotting fakes.
See-Saw Films, which produced Slow Horses, has won a bidding war to create a new adaptation. The company told Deadline it aims to produce “a contemporary reimagining of the Lovejoy novels that will strip away the nostalgia of the 1980s adaptation and return to the unrulier spirit of the books.”
Dr Grant wrote 24 Lovejoy novels, many published after the BBC series ended in 1994. His agent Lisa Moylett said: “Jonathan Gash created an extraordinarily vivid and complex Lovejoy... It was essential that any new adaptation kept the books front and centre. See-Saw’s bold, assured vision... demonstrated exactly how to preserve the books’ wit and grit while reimagining them for today’s audience.”
The project is not currently attached to a broadcaster or streaming service, and no casting has been announced. See-Saw is also known for Heartstopper, The Essex Serpent and The King’s Speech.
