Morse spin-off gets mixed reaction (From thisisoxfordshire)

Morse spin-off gets mixed reaction

8:55am Tuesday 20th February 2007 in

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More than seven million people tuned in to Lewis, ITV's Inspector Morse spin-off, on Sunday - although there were some poor reviews of actor Kevin Whately as the star detective.

The Oxford-based police drama drew a third of the audience share at 9pm on Sunday night with 7.4m viewers, nearly 4m down on last year's pilot show.

The programme was well ahead of BBC1's Waking the Dead, which attracted 5.4m viewers in the ratings war.

Series writer Colin Dexter said: "It was on very much later. A couple of people said to me that's why they missed it.

"I think people are pleased about Laurence Fox as Lewis' sidekick, DS Hathaway. Kevin Whately had a good deal of hand in his casting."

Sunday's show was the first of three two-hour long episodes, which were filmed in Oxford last September.

An ITV spokesman said: "Lewis easily won its slot with a 31 per cent share of Sunday night's audience.

"ITV is thrilled with the ratings for the first of the three new Lewis films, which proves the audience still appreciates clever storytelling, beautifully filmed."

The first episode centred around an Oxford University drinking club, whose members had killed a woman on a wild night out.

DS Hathaway helped Lewis discover the secret behind a series of brutal murders.

Reviewers were unsure about Lewis being repeatedly outsmarted by Laurence Fox as DS Hathaway.

Tim Teeman in The Times wrote: "Poor Lewis - outflanked by his number two. Perhaps the show should be renamed Hathaway."

Matt Baylis in the Daily Express was concerned that the programme was "bog-standard Morse" and the balance was wrong between the two main characters.

Filming for the new episodes took place almost six years after the last Morse episode, The Remorseful Day, killed off Inspector Morse in November 2000.

John Thaw, who played Inspector Morse, died from cancer in February 2002.

Antony Richards of the Inspector Morse Society, who was consulted about the scripts of Lewis, said: "I think what they are trying to do is hard, because Lewis is a weaker character. I've got reservations about the series. Maybe they should have stopped with the pilot."

The next episode of Lewis will be shown on Sunday at 9pm.