Lewis – It’s not boring, it’s cosy!
Everything is fine. People can relax. All the stresses of life are cured. Because Lewis is back on TV. If you want to feel bruised and psychologically assaulted, as if you’ve just been dragged by the ankles around a museum of torture that uses sandpaper for carpet, then watch Waking the Dead (which ends forever this week) over on BBC One HD. But if you want something calm, soothing, loving, nurturing and warming turn to ITV1 HD where you will find Inspector Morse follow-up Lewis, now on its fifth series. It is the television equivalent to Horlicks and a hot bath.
Actually, last week it did get a little barmy towards the end – it featured Juliet Stevenson dousing herself in petrol before burning alive without uttering a sound. And this week there are suspicious Monks and church groups – it’s like The Da Vinci Code, but with less flagellation.
There is something really nice and welcoming about the way it meanders through a story, touching here and there on different topical issues in society, but never gets caught up in its own hysteria. In fact, there is very little hysteria, and when there is it only occurs at the end to reward the viewer for being so patient. Although patient implies there is something boring about the slow pace Lewis stretches out over its two-hour running time, but there is nothing boring about Lewis. It takes its time, but doesn’t fail to offer up some wonderful observations on human nature. Kevin Whately and Laurence Fox are the perfect double-act as Inspector Lewis and Detective Sergeant Hathaway, respectively, and it’s understandable why people are so willing to put themselves in their hands each week.
It is also important crime TV shows don’t feel they have to be high on Red Bull to get audience figures. It may be fashionable to be sneery about Lewis’ indulgent pace, but sometimes the episodes make a lot more sense than Silent Witness, CSI or, yes, Waking the Dead. Lewis actually outperformed W the D last week with 6.3 million viewers to the latter’s 5.43 million.
There is room for edgy drama. There is a space for the crazy and the surreal. I will mourn the end of Waking the Dead this week because, much as I slag it off, it is actually weirdly brilliant. But it is important to remember there is always a need for calm, good, honest storytelling. And Lewis is exactly that. It is the Agatha Christie for our generation (and the aging Christie generation too). I hope it continues for years to come.
Viewing figures source: DigitalSpy
