LEWIS: ONE FOR SORROW - PART ONE (ITV)

[Spoiler-Free] Oxford-set British detective drama Lewis (Inspector Lewis in the US), a spin-off from Inspector Morse, was launched in 2006. Although it was assumed that Series 7 would be its last, Kevin Whately and Laurence Fox returned as Lewis and Hathaway for an eighth series last year on ITV.  

Series 9 premiered yesterday in the U.K. (Lewis is co-produced by the American network PBS) with the first part of One for Sorrow.

DI Robbie Lewis, pathologist Laura Hobson (Clare Holman) and DS Lizzie Maddox (Angela Griffin) try to identify the remains of a body found in a well. Meanwhile DI James Hathaway visits his estranged father Philip (Nicholas Jones), who's now in a care home because of dementia. Young avant-garde artist Talika Desai (Shanaya Rafaat) and her agent Sean Wilkinson (Ralf Little) open an exhibition of her artwork mixing video and taxidermy. But she's found dead the next day from an apparent drug overdose. Joe Moody (Steve Toussaint), the new Chief Superintendent, is dubious about Lewis's motivation for coming out of retirement and he threatens his position as a consultant for Oxfordshire Police.

Since 2013 each series of Lewis consists of stories split by ITV in two 60-minute instalments. This inappropriate change, conveniently turning three episodes into six, breaks the momentum of the story. Thankfully, feature-length versions are still aired on PBS or French public broadcaster France 3. Directed by Nick Laughland (Midsomer Murders), One for Sorrow is written by the talented Helen Jenkins, behind the return of Lewis and Hathaway in the excellent Entry Wounds last year. The cast, which also includes Emma Cunniffe, Steve Pemberton, Helen Schlesinger, and Tim Piggott-Smith, is really great.

The portrayal of Philip Hathaway by Nicholas Jones is touching. Dementia is approached with sensitivity in this very good episode (1). Angela Griffin returns to what successfully became a detective trio in the previous series. The only problem for now is the new boss, CS "Don't bother with the 'Sir' thing, it's Joe" Moody, whose only purpose is to be the perfect idiot. Of course, it's hard to replace Chief Superintendent Jean Innocent, played by Rebecca Front, but let's hope that the character will evolve rapidly in the second half (2). Lewis is a co-production ITV Studios and Masterpiece. The music, composed by Barrington Pheloung, is orchestrated and conducted by Matthew Slater.

(1) Interestingly, Kevin Whately investigated the subject of dementia in a formidable 2009 documentary produced for ITV's programme Tonight (http://tattard2.blogspot.fr/2009/03/tonight-kevin-whately-on-dementia-itv1.html).
(2) The two-part format definitely doesn't help.

http://www.atvtoday.co.uk/92812-itv/

See also:

http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/

LEWIS: ENTRY WOUNDS (PBS/ITV)

Oxford-set British detective drama Lewis (Inspector Lewis in the US), a spin-off from Inspector Morse, was launched in 2006. Although it was assumed that Series 7 would be its last, ITV announced in February 2014 that DI Robbie Lewis (Kevin Whately) and DS James Hathaway (Laurence Fox) would return for an eighth series.

Series 8 premiered last week on American network PBS (Lewis is co-produced by ITV Studios and Masterpiece) and will start tomorrow night in the U.K. 

The previous series of Lewis split the traditional feature-length episodes in two 60-minute instalments aired over two consecutive weeks. This inappropriate change in the momentum of each story (conveniently turning three episodes into six), added to a drop in quality, didn't hurt the ratings. Kevin Whately and Laurence Fox having expressed their desire to move on, the elegant last scene of Intelligent Design, the "finale" episode, saw Lewis and Hathaway enjoying a pint as the former retired and the latter left the force. PBS and French pubcaster France 3 stuck to the two-hour format.

Given all this, the commission of six new one-hour episodes (three films) looked rather surprising if not unnecessary, especially with the seventh series being such a letdown. But at least the return of Lewis and Hathaway in Entry Wounds, written by Helen Jenkins and directed by Nicholas Renton, was done properly thanks to everyone involved. Robbie lives with pathologist Laura Hobson (Clare Holman) and struggles to adapt to retirement when Chief Superintendent Innocent (Rebecca Front) uses a little trick in order to get his return on a contractual basis.

After an extended break from the Oxfordshire Police, James is now a Detective Inspector. He investigates his first murder case, a neurosurgeon shot in the head, with his partner DS Lizzie Maddox (the excellent Angela Griffin) when his ex-boss arrives. Far better than the whole previous series, Entry Wounds is a successful balance between a well-handled relaunch and a good story. Fans of Lewis won't be disappointed and let's hope the couple of other two-parters will keep them satisfied.

Ace Bhatti and Kara Tointon are amongst the guest stars. Lewis is exec produced by Michelle Buck and produced by Chris Burt. Rebecca Eaton is the executive producer for Masterpiece. The music, superb as usual, is composed and conducted by Barrington Pheloung.

http://www.itv.com/presscentre/press-releases/itv-commissions-new-series-lewis
http://www.itv.com/presscentre/ep1week41/lewis-1
http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2013/jan/17/itv-lewis-shorter-split-timeslots
http://www.pheloung.co.uk/index.html