Inspector Lewis (UK) (PBS)

[filmnoir5]

I watched all of the Inspector Morse episodes when they aired on A&E and PBS and checking out VHS titles from the library. Has anyone who lives in the UK seen "Inspector Lewis" I read where it will become a series. I also have seen the "pilot" advertised after the current Mystery airings.

[janetcatbird]

According to the monthly guide for my PBS station, "Inspector Lewis" is supposed to air in North Carolina near the end of July.

I only saw one episode of "Morse", the one dealing with a cricket game where Lewis went undercover as a porter/cricket ringer. I liked it, and liked Lewis. My mother adores the Morse series and it almost broke her heart when they did the finale (and John Thaw died not long after). So she's looking forward to it.

--Catbird

[filmnoir5]

Thank you. It looks like it will be airing on July 30 on my PBS station as well. I definitely think I will like Lewis better than the Agatha Christie remakes.

[filmnoir5]

It finally airs next Sunday night on most PBS stations (July 30)

[janetcatbird]

Yep--Mom and I were watching "Miss Marple" last night, and they were running the promos for Inspector Lewis. Looks like the first episode, at least, will be very Morse-sniffly. (Like I said earlier, I only saw one episode of "Morse", but it looked cool.) I for one am getting excited, and I'm not even a big mystery buff.

I remember reading somewhere that Kevin Whateley's accent is very distinctly region-specific. I think Newcastle but I'm not sure. Apparently it's unusual for actors to retain that specific dialect, so he stood out. Janethyland, or any other UK residents, can you 'splain that to me? Does that region have a negative stereotype or something? (I know that in the Cadfael mysteries they had very few Welsh accents because some BBC poll of different accents/dialects put Welsh near the bottom of listener-appeal, comprehension, etc.) I'm a (US) southerner, so I can relate to being perceived as backwoods hicks.

--Catbird

[janetcatbird]

BUMP!

OK, double post but it's been a while. Watched this with my parents at the beach last weekend, and enjoyed it. And thanks to five minutes on Wikipedia, I knew enough about Morse to keep up with the sniffles and rememberances. (What? Not like I was using it for a source for a research paper.)

Poor Lewis, losing the wife. I liked the coroner. At least they acknowledged the Hamlet parallels. While I hope they don't turn Lewis into Morse 2.0, personality-wise, I would love to see more "Lewis" mysteries.

--Catbird

[filmnoir5]

Thank you for your review. I have not watched it yet but hopefully I will get it watched this month since there will not be any new mysteries until Inspector Lynley returns in September.

I just watched it and it is a very good movie that will probably make a very good series.

[janetcatbird]

Unfortunately this spurred on one of my phases where I have to track down everything I can find about the actor and the show--retroactively including Morse.

From what I've seen Kevin Whately has been fairly active in various charity/humanitarian efforts in the UK, so I respect him for that. Plus, he--and Lewis--just give off this ordinary nice guy vibe, which I like. Any reccomendations for other projects he's done?

Any word on future episodes? I know this first one was a one-off, and all the fan forums I've seen have been encouraging. (Generally along the lines of "Yes, we miss Morse, but this was still good on its own".) On some obscure site I saw something about four episodes commissioned, but please don't take that as certain from me. Perhaps our UK people know more on this?

I wish they had managed to retain some element of Lewis as family man. I'm not the first to mention this online, but were they just trying to have the lead-detective-as-lone-figure-with-emotional-trouble stereotype? Perhaps they can arrange for the nurse daughter to get back to Oxford. Not necessarily living with her Dad, but a job transfer or something to allow the occassional dinner together, referenced in a throw-away line. But then I'm a sap for family/personal elements, so I'll trust the experts on this. I did read that Colin Dexter--original author--was pretty involved in the process, so one trusts that they know what they're doing.

And I know I need work to do. Last night and this morning I found myself musing on the similarities between Morse/Lewis and CI. Eccentric, atypical detectives of a cerebral bent, literary references. Mainly the sidekicks with contrasting families and down-to-earth natures; I would love to see Eames and Lewis work together. (If nothing else I want to see Eames' reaction to the phrase "rumpy-pumpy".)

No way an exact crossover can happen, I'm sure copyright lawyers would go ballistic. But change the names, and if Morse/Lewis had been incolved in the investigation of the disappearance of "Elizabeth Hitchens" type person, well...like I said, I need more to do. Some of this I mentioned on a new "Morse" thread. And I'm certainly not about to inflict fanfic on everybody, but hey, a little harmless daydream never hurt anybody.

--Catbird

PS: (Date Fri Aug 18, 2006) To answer my own question about future episodes...Yesterday when tooling around various interviews and articles, I saw in one of the newspaper archives that the TV network did in fact commission four more "Lewis" films. In a radio interview from April or May, Kevin Whately said that they were currently in development hell. Not only do you need time to get the things written, but once that's taken care of they'll still have to wait for "long vacs" (I'm presuming that's vacations) in order to actually film around Oxford. No idea when they'll air in the UK, and given the time lapse to cross the pond I doubt they'll get over here before next year. Grumble. But at least it's a good sign!

[janetcatbird]

BUMP!!!

I know there's not much point in reviving the thread for discussion, but a couple little things I've hunted down. (I ordered the DVD which arrived last Wednesday and I got to watch it Monday night. Yay! Little bits came to me on second viewing but I'll hold off.) Unless of course, other people got the DVD, in which I'd be glad to babble--er, exchange thoughts!

PBS message boards have a couple of spotty participation. According to one member--who seems to be a resident of Oxford--here are some things:

• Four episodes have been commissioned, three are being filmed now.
  
  
• 1st episode is working on location shooting in Oxford and have completed non-Oxford shots. They hope to be through in November, and one imagines they'll work on some of the other episodes while they're at it.
  

The poster who provided this information gave a link so we can see some pictures he/she took while hanging around the filming in Oxford. So far there are pictures for the one-off "Resurrection", which was aired back in July in the States (I think January/February in the UK). Titles listed for the next two are "Whom Gods Would Destroy" and "Old School Ties", but the webmaster/photographer said they would wait until the episodes were shown on TV before putting the pictures online. Tentative ETA of February 2007.

fp.martinunderwood.f9.co.uk/Lewis/

Digression: The pictures of "Resurrection", by the way, aren't too bad. Nothing especially stand-out, but he/she did provide captions to explain what's going on. Setting up camera shots, behind-the-scenes makeup touch-ups, passersby at the cars, etc. You can see pictures of Colin Dexter (Morse author) and Barrington Pheloung (composer for Morse and Lewis) hanging around the set.

So, hooray for progress! ARGH for the wait! If the original aired in UK in February of 2006, and the States got it in late July 2006, I'm hoping and praying they'll keep a similar timescale for the episodes. (I'd love it sooner, but I won't hold my breath.)

--Catbird