It’s no secret that I love Oxford – city of dreaming spires, home to one of the world’s most ancient and beautiful universities, site of my starry-eyed study abroad semester in college and my blissful year in graduate school. I never tire of it, and I regularly read books set there. But I’ve recently been revisiting Oxford in cinematic form, via the Inspector Lewis TV series.
(Image from pbs.org)
Lewis is inspired by the Inspector Morse novels of Colin Dexter (whom I met long ago in Oxford), which follow Morse and his sergeant (Lewis) as they solve crimes in and around Oxford. I watched an episode or two of the Inspector Morse TV series during my first semester in Oxford, but I’d never watched Lewis until my friend Amy convinced me to give it a shot. She predicted I’d enjoy both the plotlines and the Oxford setting. She was right on both counts.
When Lewis opens, Morse has died and Lewis has been promoted to inspector, and paired up with a new sergeant: James Hathaway (the tall blond bloke above), a former seminarian who left the ministry for a police career. Like every good pair of detectives, they are opposites in some ways. Lewis is an agnostic workingman who grows impatient with Oxford’s intellectual snobbery; Hathaway is brainy, Cambridge-educated, and harbors complicated feelings for the church he left. They make an excellent team, though, and their sly asides to one another are one of the show’s great pleasures. (Like Castle, which I also love, Lewis has a few other recurring characters: Dr. Laura Hobson, the sharp-tongued, kind medical inspector, and Jean Innocent, the keen-eyed superintendent and Lewis’ boss.)
My husband doesn’t always join me in my TV obsessions, particularly the British ones (see: Downton Abbey), though we do watch Castle together and we both adore Friends. But after listening in while I streamed my first episode of Lewis, he asked to watch the next episode with me. Two days later, we were checking out an earlier season on DVD from the library.
J has visited Oxford several times, though he doesn’t love it as I do. But we’re both enjoying the intricately plotted mysteries, though he does laugh at me when I squeal at the sight of a familiar Oxford spot (there are many) or point out a geographical error (there are very few).
The Radcliffe Camera
According to our usual TV-show pattern, we discovered Lewis just as it was ending, so we’re saving the series finale for some later date. (Since it usually takes me about a year to get through TV series – Friends, Gilmore Girls, Mary Tyler Moore – I’m assuming I’ll get around to the finale months from now, which means I’ll have to find it on DVD.)
For now, though, we’ve got a slew of episodes to work through, a few dozen cases to solve alongside our crack team of detectives, and many hours to spend in my favorite city.
Have you watched Lewis or Morse (or Endeavour, the new prequel to Morse)? Are you a fan?
cakes, tea and dreams 
Love all three! Endeavour is currently showing on PBS,
Thanks! New to me and they sound wonderful! Have you heard of the series “From Larkspur to Candleford”? Only 4 DVDs in that series and not enough for me.
“Lark Rise to Candleford” is one our favorites. Didn’t want it to end! So wanted to see the rest of the story. Our library has delineated a section just for Brit films. yay! We just started at the top and are working our way down. Love “Midsomer Murders”, too!
Another one to add to my list – thanks!
I love Lark Rise! I watched it all this winter and was sad when it ended.
Love, love, love Lark Rise to Candleford – and will watch it whenever it is on, which it has been all summer on one of the local PBS stations.
We just discovered these on Masterpiece. Like you, we are coming in late, so we may have to go back and start over.
I felt very nostalgic having read your article. Once upon a time, back in the eighties, I too was a member of the Oxford community being a graduate student of St. Hilda’s. It’s so very easy to fall in love with Oxford once you spend some time there. The pictures you posted have taken me back to my happy, carefree student days.
Oh, these are among my favorites. I adored Inspector Morris, cried at the end. Thoroughly enjoy Lewis, which is running on local PBS currently. When you are through with Inspector Lewis and Hathaway (he has really grown on me), you will want to watch Endeavor.
Katie, I love Masterpiece’s Inspector Lewis series and just watched all the Endeavour episodes. I now want to go back to the beginning — with Lewis and Morse. I was going to recommend this to you! So glad you took Amy’s advice — I’ve never been to Oxford but love the location and atmosphere (and the classical music to boot!) and thought you especially would love it too!! Nancy
I’ve watched all three, as well as read all the Morse novels. I am also enamored on the city of Oxford, which I visited (albeit briefly) many years ago. What I enjoy most about these three series, aside from the brilliant actors, intricate stories and the spectacular vistas in and around the city of Oxford is the music featured in each episode, the seamless blend of classical music, opera and original music composed by Barrington Pheloung. Also love the fact that Colin Dexter had a Hitchcock-like cameo in the majority of the Morse/Lewis series (as far as I could tell, Mr. Dexter had a brief cameo in the pilot episode of Endeavour), and the fact that the late great John Thaw’s daughter is a recurring character in Endeavour.
I’m a great fan of British mystery series, especially Poirot, Foyle’s War and Sherlock Holmes (the Granada series with Jeremy Brett).
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I absolutely hate that they are canceling “Inspector Lewis”. How can we voice the disappointment in losing this show. It is so good and you can see the influence from MORSE. PLEASE do not cancel it.
I’m not sure what to say here…..as I live in Norfolk in the UK (40mins away from Cambridge, an hour and a bit away from Oxford…..although if it is down to rowing i’m supporting Cambridge!!).
It is so lovely to read other people’s accounts of “our” lovely places, and how much they mean to you, or have made an impression for people so far away. I think I forget sometimes how much history we have here going back such a long, long time. I’ve been watching “The Tudors” on tv….it’s amazing and bringing to life all the old castles etc we went on school trips to… (which seemed very dull at the time….).
Reading the comments has made me think that I should appreciate our heritage a bit more (we do take it for granted a bit here).
If anyone wants to see a series of very pretty English villages and crimes etc then you should watch “Midsomer Murders”, it is all set in an English village, with a detective etc, a bit like Morse but with prettier houses and in the countryside here…. it’s a great series and us here in the uk love it.
I love it as it is a bit like where I live – (we have a thatched bus shelter!!).
x K x