We tend to think of Oxford, the mother of universities in the English-speaking world, as an intellectual refuge. But in the stories of Colin Dexter and the two British television series spun from them, “Inspector Morse” and “Inspector Lewis,” Oxford is also the murder capital of the European Union. The professorial class and the student body nurture many obscure resentments and, after all, intellectual accomplishment is no guaranty of moral development. It takes some especially sharp cops to best the tenured malefactors in any game of wits.
Series IV of “Inspector Lewis” debuts on PBS in September with all its usual strengths and weaknesses. On the debit side of the ledger is a tendency toward climactic operatic melodrama. But then, reality can sometimes turn into operatic melodrama, especially among a populace conversant with the classics. The strengths, aside from gorgeous settings, are the characters and the literate script. Where else in TV drama can you find allusions to Oscar Wilde, William Wordsworth and Gerard Manley Hopkins?
The intellectual heft in the series belongs to Detective Sergeant Hathaway (Laurence Fox), a bright if moody young man who commands an arsenal of knowledge as powerful as Sherlock Holmes. His partner, Lewis (Kevin Whatley), is a regular bloke, out of his depth amid the scholarly banter but whose practical good sense sometimes saves the day. They are perhaps the most likable team of fictional detectives currently solving crimes anywhere in the world.
Alert to longtime fans: the long hinted stirrings of romance between Lewis and Laura Hobson, the Oxford medical examiner, inches forward in Series IV.
"Inspector Lewis" Series IV airs 8 p.m. Sept, 4, Sept. 18, Sept. 25 and Oct. 9 on MPTV-Channel 10.
