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Tonight's episode on Mystery! featured Inspector Robert Lewis, who all of us nutcase fans know as Inspector E. Morse's old partner. The British network ITV did this because the Morse character, who died of complications from alchoholism in 2000, was incredibly popular and they believed that fans were looking for a follow-up.

(I found another review of the program (programme?) here.)

The movie, called, oddly enough, Inspector Lewis, had all of the elements that Morse fans had come to expect. Lewis's wife had died a few years before, plus he still is not over the death of his mentor, thus making Lewis into the same sort of morose cynic that Morse was. In addition, there are "clues" that Morse left behind that relate to his current case. The clues would seem contrived to anyone that did not know the character of Morse. If you know his character, the clues make perfect sense.

Lewis is now in charge, and his assistant is a character named DS James Hathaway, a former seminarian who takes Morse's place as the highly educated more cultured counterweight to the working class Lewis. It seems that Hathaway has taken to Lewis a lot faster than Lewis took to Morse.

The character of Dr. Laura Hobson made a return. The writers had planned a return of Superintendent Strange, but the actor that played him, the wonderfully named James Grout, was too ill to be cast in the show. Strange has been replaced by a woman named Superintendent Innocent (great name for a homicide cop) who doesn't seem to have any use for Lewis at all, and only communicates with Hathaway. The actress playing Innocent is Rebecca Front, who usually does comedies (she appeared in Absolutely Fabulous), but made several appearances on John Thaw's other series, Kavanagh, QC.

As with many episodes of Inspector Morse, Morse creator Collin Dexter makes a cameo as a "scout" (sort of like a RA) at the fictitious Oxford college Lonsdale. Fans of the old series will remember that murders always seem to take place at Lonsdale.

This was a sort of pilot. I don't know if it will be made into a full blown series.


A couple of little details: I saw an interview with the wardrobe guy for the old series. He said that he always made sure that Lewis wore matching shirt and tie and Morse would look disheveled. This was to indicate that Lewis was a family man whose wife would never let him out of the house looking bad, but Morse was a bachelor with no one at home. In last night's movie, Lewis looks like hell. He got back from an assingment in the Virgin Islands with a tropical shirt and a grey jacket over it, and wore that for what he admits was 22 straight hours.

By the way, Hathaway was wearing a grey jacket with a bright red lining. I am only noting that because it bugged me.


Another little detail: Lewis had apparently been gone to the Virgin Islands for a while, and missed out on such innovations as the Blackberry. It made me remember that things have changed an awful lot over the past couple of years.



Morse was an incredibly engaging character. He loved to appear a cynic, but had hope about him that he liked to hide. His bitterness at his own class and his alcoholism alluded to demons that viewers were never quite let in on. He would lord his education over Lewis, and Lewis eventually learned to respond by saying things that he knew would irritate Morse. This movie (pilot, series?) serves to remind us what a great character Lewis was too.



Hasta la proxima. Do zobaczenia.