February 10, 2007
WELCOME BACK:
Inspector Morse and the strange case of the vanishing force (Martin Delgado, 10th February 2007, Daily Mail)
[F]ans will be astonished to discover that Lewis, who returns in a spin-off TV series of his own next Sunday, is now employed by Oxfordshire Constabulary, which was actually abolished when it amalgamated with neighbouring forces to form Thames Valley Police in 1968.Morse's dramatic death in 2000 - he collapsed on the lawn of an Oxford college in the final episode - pulled in more than 13million viewers. John Thaw, the actor who played him, died of cancer two years later at the age of 60.
In the new three-part series, the newly promoted Det Insp Lewis, played by Kevin Whately, is a widower, living alone in Oxford and anxious to prove he is as skilled as his former boss in nicking villains. In the first episode, which co-stars Gina McKee, he investigates the murder of a young female student in a hotel.
Who cares, as long as Lewis is back. His first solo mystery featured a nice (if labored) Hamlet theme, some help from the departed Morse, and the best sidekick in quite some time, but we were starting to fear it was a one off.