Public TV Pick of the Week

This week’s Public TV Pick of the Week is yet another Masterpiece Mystery! Full disclosure – I love just about anything British and mysteries are the best!

One of my favorite series in the past was Inspector Morse, which starred the late John Thaw as Morse and Kevin Whately as his beleaguered subordinate, Sergeant Lewis.

Well, Morse also has died, and Lewis has returned to the force as an Inspector, following the death of his wife. The three-part Inspector Lewis series finds him working to rebuild his life – confronting his past, future and fear of public speaking. He has a younger sidekick -- Detective Superintendent James Hathaway (Laurence Fox, Gosford Park), who bears a few similarities to Morse.

Lewis is also bent on proving himself to his dubious new boss, Detective Chief Superintendent Jean Innocent.

As they rack up professional successes, Lewis and Hathaway find themselves developing a growing respect and personal fondness for one another. Lewis learns that Hathaway, a former seminarian, isn’t quite as straight-laced as he seems, while Hathaway discovers that behind Lewis’s bluster there’s a broken heart trying to heal.

I haven’t been able to preview any of these, but they begin in most markets on Sunday, June 22, at 9 p.m. In the first program, a middle-aged Oxford graduate turns up dead near his run-down houseboat, sending Lewis and Hathaway down a twisting trail rife with literary allusions and unexpected associations. The detectives discover that back in his undergraduate days, the victim was a member of a club with roots in the Greek myth of Dionyssus. But when they look to his former schoolmates for help, no one is talking. Anna Massey (Sense and Sensibility) guest stars.
By the way, Masterpiece Mystery! has a new host – Alan Cumming. The host doesn’t do much, but I thought I’d include it for Cumming fans!