Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Kevin Whately, Clare Holman, Laurence Fox, Peter Davison, Rebecca Front, Babou Ceesay, Tom Brooke, Simon Wilson, Mark Powley, Lia Williams, Lucy Speed, Camilla Power, Harriet Ballard, Taron Egerton, Nicholas McGauhey.
The second of the new series of Lewis sees the more human side, a nod to the domestic that forever eluded the Inspector’s old boss Morse in an episode where the deduction of just exactly who was killed caused more of a problem than finding the murderer. With Hathaway enjoying his first holiday away from the treacherous and murder filled streets of Oxford, the position was effectively vacant for a new side-kick to help Lewis solve the case.
In The Ramblin’ Boy, Lewis is tasked with breaking in a new Detective Constable, played with quiet determination by Babou Ceesay as Alex Gray, who had his own reasons to volunteer to help the Inspector. The Inspector’s boss who has been portrayed with some gusto by the great Rebecca Front since the series started and the ever loyal Doctor Hobson who has been around since the redoubtable Coroner Max passed on during the Morse days. By having this continuation from the days of the John Thaw, Claire Holman has become one of the great pieces in the life of the Oxford Detective and they certainly seem to have a huge rapport together on screen.
In one of the longest television blossoming romances, it was about time fans of the show were able to see Lewis open himself up to the ever-likeable Doctor Holman and have a sense of purpose away from the criminality of Oxford.
The Ramblin’ Boy had one of those moments where you find out why someone become a policeman in the first place and in Detective Gray, the twinkle in this young man’s eyes as he related to the two young people in his care the real reason and the sense of familiar was again well noted by any long term fan. The episode also had a nod to one of the great episodes of the John Thaw era in the use of smuggling drugs from abroad, the classic Deceived By Flight. Instead of a wheelchair being used by the cricket captain though, you get the disturbing thought of human cadavers transporting the thousands and thousands of Class A drugs through border control.
The programme was only spoilt by the insistence of splitting the episode in two. It is enough to have sent Morse scurrying to the pub for a pint of real ale whilst he penned a stern letter to the I.T.V. bosses.
Ian D. Hall