Staying awake through Lewis

On Wednesday I was at the press screening for the first of three new Lewis episodes, which begin their run on ITV1 mid February. Now, my problem is I’ve always found Morse deeply soporific. I even invested in a box set of the whole lot a year or so back, but failing to get through a single episode while remaining conscious, I ended up flogging it at a loss on ebay. I was poorer in the pocket, but richer in waking hours.

So, Lewis was always going to be a challenge. Nonetheless, I thought it was OK, and managed to keep my attention focussed on the screen for most of the time. I did lose about three minutes halfway through. There’s an explicit Morsereference in there, and indeed a character who I gather was in one of the original films – Professor Gold. “You were with Morse last we met,” she says to the DI. “Shame about that”. All very beautifully shot and performed, just not my bag. It was wasted on me.

Before going into the screening, I nipped to the toilet. Standing at the urinal, I was aware of another chap beside me. As we were both doing our business, he started talking to me. At which point, I realised it was Kevin Whately. He seemed very jolly. Less so at the Q&A afterwards, where he was fairly guarded. He confirmed, though, that there’ll be a Morse reference in each of this year’s Lewis eps. Oh, and they’ll be filming more in the summer.