| Lewis | |
|---|---|
Cover of the DVD of the first series |
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| Also known as | Inspector Lewis |
| Genre | Crime drama |
| Starring | Kevin Whately Laurence Fox Rebecca Front Clare Holman |
| Composer(s) | Barrington Pheloung |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 20 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Location(s) | Oxford, England |
| Running time | 93 minutes (pilot – series 3) 89 minutes (series 4 onwards) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV (ITV1/STV/UTV) (also ITV1 HD/STV HD/UTV HD) |
| Original airing | 29 January 2006 – present |
| Chronology | |
| Preceded by | Inspector Morse |
Lewis is a British television detective drama made as a spin-off from Inspector Morse, and set in Oxford. Kevin Whately reprises his character Robert "Robbie" Lewis, who had been Morse's Sergeant in the original series. Lewis has now been promoted and is assisted by DS James Hathaway (Laurence Fox).
The series is produced for ITV. Following the airing of a pilot in 2006, a first series of three episodes was broadcast in February/March 2007. A second series of four episodes aired in early 2008. A third series of four episodes was aired on ITV1 and ITV-HD from March–April 2009, but this was not shown in Scotland. A fourth series aired throughout the UK (including ITV1-HD where available) from 2 May 2010, and a fifth series from 3 April 2011, each again of four episodes. In June 2011, ITV announced that a sixth series of 4 episodes has been commissioned for airing in 2012.[1] PBS broadcasts the series, as Inspector Lewis, in the United States and British Columbia, Canada, as part of its Masterpiece Mystery series.[2]
Contents |
Colin Dexter, the author of the Inspector Morse novels, makes a very brief cameo appearance in several episodes, including one as a porter at Wadham College. The Lewis episodes in most respects scrupulously respect Dexter's approach, but each of their scripts is credited to one of several other writers including, most frequently, Russell Lewis, Alan Plater, and Stephen Churchett.
The music for the series was composed by Barrington Pheloung, who created the music for the original Morse series.[3]
The majority of the series is filmed in and around Oxford. Some scenes are also filmed at Brunel University, London
| Date | Episode | Viewers (millions)[4] |
|---|---|---|
| Pilot | ||
| 29 January 2006 | Lewis! | 11.31 |
| Series 1 | ||
| 18 February 2007 | Whom The Gods Would Destroy | 8.11 |
| 25 February 2007 | Old School Ties | 7.81 |
| 4 March 2007 | Expiation | 8.85 |
| Series 2 | ||
| 24 February 2008 | And The Moonbeams Kiss The Sea | 8.90 |
| 2 March 2008 | Music To Die For | 8.50 |
| 9 March 2008 | Life Born Of Fire | 8.19 |
| 16 March 2008 | The Great And The Good | 8.70 |
| Series 3 | ||
| 22 March 2009 | Allegory Of Love | 7.54 |
| 29 March 2009 | The Quality Of Mercy | 7.19 |
| 5 April 2009 | The Point Of Vanishing | 6.83 |
| 12 April 2009 | Counter Culture Blues | 6.61 |
| Series 4 | ||
| 2 May 2010 | The Dead Of Winter | 8.70 [nb 1] |
| 9 May 2010 | Dark Matter | 8.23 [nb 2] |
| 16 May 2010 | Your Sudden Death Question | 7.29 [nb 3] |
| 30 May 2010 | Falling Darkness | 7.10 [nb 4] |
| Series 5 | ||
| 3 April 2011 | Old, Unhappy, Far Off Things | 7.10 [nb 5] |
| 10 April 2011 | Wild Justice | 6.48 [nb 6] |
| 17 April 2011 | The Mind Has Mountains | 6.78 [nb 7] |
| 24 April 2011 | The Gift Of Promise | 6.33 [nb 8] |
PBS owns the exclusive rights to both broadcast Lewis and to manufacture DVDs for North America. This is in contrast to Inspector Morse, which was commissioned by British company Carlton Television (originally Central Independent Television) and which included all original broadcast footage, even if that footage was edited on North American TV stations. PBS edits 10 minutes out of every Lewis episode so that it fits into the 90 minute Masterpiece Mystery time slot; this includes a preview of the episode's contents narrated by Alan Cumming before the episode and commercials for other PBS programs at the end of this slot. Even Barrington Pheloung's end credit music is abruptly cut for this purpose. For the Pilot, Inspector Lewis 1, and Inspector Lewis 2 DVD sets, PBS Home Video releases what was broadcast on-air in the US as opposed to the UK DVD content. However, for the new Inspector Lewis 3 DVD set, PBS Home Video has released the unedited UK version of the programs contained in the set.
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