Visit Oxford with Inspector Lewis
by Oline H. Cogdill
September 6th, 2009
It’s been a few years since I walked the lovely, narrow streets around Oxford University in England – until, that is, last Sunday’s return of the Inspector Lewis mysteries on PBS.
And what a welcomed return for these literate, intelligent mysteries.
Running as Masterpiece Mystery!, the Inspector Lewis series is scheduled to air Sunday nights through Oct. 18 on PBS. Check your local listings.
Inspector Lewis (played by Kevin Whately) began as the working-class sergeant to Inspector Morse in the long-running series based on Colin Dexter’s crime novels. Morse’s death nearly retired Lewis as he was supposed to make only one solo appearance before going into oblivion. Fortunately, the producers were attuned that Inspector Lewis was popular on his own.
The new Masterpiece Mystery! series marks Inspector Lewis’s return to Oxford, now with his own sidekick, the frequently called “dishy” James Hathaway (Laurence Fox).
As befitting the Oxford setting, Shakespeare, Shelley, Keats and “the other boys in the band,” as the Romance poets were called during the first episode, and other literary figures are sure to pop up during the investigations.
The first episode focused on Percy Bysshe Shelley and was even called “And the Moonbeams Kiss the Sea,” which comes from Shelley’s Love’s Philosophy. Can’t get much more literary than that unless it’s when Hathaway loves to quote Shakespeare, whether it’s appropriate or not.
Hathaway’s smart mouth also often comes into play at just the right time. You know that Inspector Lewis doesn’t know whether to smile or slap him such as when a janitor’s body was found in the archives. “At last,” said Hathaway, “we’ve found a body in the library.”
“And the Moonbeams Kiss the Sea” was a tightly plotted episode that included a math professor who teaches blackjack and assignments on how to use math when betting and a phony tour of secret Oxford that included a crocodile in the waters; a bango-playing J. R. R. Tolkien).
Tonight’s episode will revolve around Wagner, boxing and
East Germany’s fall.
The Inspector Lewis series works well because the characters are so believable and the far-flung plot threads eventually mesh into a cohesive story that links Oxford’s history with its present.
I don’t need to return to Oxford when I have Inspector Lewis as my guide.
PHOTO: Laurence Fox as DS Hathaway and Kevin Whately as Inspector Lewis; photo courtesy PBS
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