Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
Cast: Kevin Whately, Laurence Fox, Angela Griffin, Clare Holman, Honeysuckle Weeks, Jaygann Ayeh, Stephen Boxer, Serena Evans, Daniel Flynn, Paul Greenwood, Kaisa Hammarlund, Wil Johnson, Syreeta Kumar, Isabella Laughland, Bobby Lockwood, Richard Rowe-McGhie, Sally Scott, Steve Toussaint, Martin Wenner.
To forgive is divine…or so it is believed, but to truly love yourself, to not be crushed everyday by the stirrings of self hatred for any act of stupidity that may be caused by a moment of madness or reckless abandon, sometimes for peace of mind you have to let it go.
The act of forgiveness though is something that in many eyes can only be carried out by those who have been wronged and it is this conflict between souls that is the backdrop to the latest two part story of Oxfordshire’s finest, Lewis, Magnum Opus.
Chris Murray’s script is one that certainly leads the way into an area that rarely gets used on television for the ritual of the most despicable act of murder and yet alchemy, the ancient science of turning base lead into gold, is one that sits into the world of academia with almost perfect clarity and whilst the investigation itself was perhaps wrapped up too neatly, it still served its purpose to add a different dimension into the proceedings, to show just how far some rituals ask for sacrifice and their interpretations of old mystic thought.
It was very much a case of the old and the new rubbing shoulders in Oxford’s back streets and gentle scholarly world, the dropping of the sexual connotations involved in S and M, the look back at Hathaway’s life within the religious order and the inkling that at some point Detective Inspector Lewis might be made surplus to requirements as the Oxfordshire police force move on without him. All these mercurial elements combined to make Magnum Opus an episode to wallow in and enjoy, if not exactly pushing the viewer’s perception and reasoning of why the murders took place.
With Laurence Fox as D.I. Hathaway being at his absolute grouchy best in the face of staggering adversity as his father’s condition becomes worse, and the excellent Honeysuckle Weeks returning to the screens so soon after the detective drama stable mate of Lewis, Foyle’s War had bowed its last, Magnum Opus offered an insight into what faith, belief and the state of forgiveness can bring.
An episode of warmth, if not grandeur, Magnum Opus is a piece of good work by a writer deserving of bigger challenges.
Ian D. Hall