[Televisionary]

Kevin Whately has been playing gruff, sensible detective Robbie Lewis on Morse and Lewis for 26 years. I speak to him about the possible end of the Oxford copper. At The Daily Beast, you can read my latest feature, "Oxford's No. 1 Sleuth: Inspector Lewis 's Kevin Whately on Morse , John Thaw, and the End of the Series," in which I speak with Kevin Whately, star of Inspector Morse and Lewis (which returns to PBS' Masterpiece Mystery on Sunday) about playing Robbie Lewis for 26 years, whether this is the end for the Oxford-set drama, and what's next. Inspector Lewis is due for a vacation. After more than 20 years playing Detective Inspector Robert “Robbie” Lewis, actor Kevin Whately has earned a well-deserved break from investigating murders beneath the Oxford spires. Introduced in Inspector Morse’s first episode (“The Dead of Jericho”), Whately’s Robbie Lewis was the Geordie sidekick of the late John Thaw’s erudite and perpetually cranky Inspector M

Inspector Morse's dogged former sidekick Robbie Lewis (Kevin Whately) returns this weekend with seven new crime-packed mysteries set in the heart of Oxford's academic community of scholars, dons, and students. Inspector Lewis (or Lewis as it's known as in the United Kingdom) kicks off on Sunday night (part of PBS' Masterpiece Mystery ) with "And the Moonbeams Kiss the Sea," in which Lewis finds himself enmeshed in an investigation involving art forgery, gambling addicts, and calculatedly brutal murder. I had the opportunity a few weeks back to watch both the first two sensational installments of Inspector Lewis ' second season and was immediately sucked into the clever plotting, deft characterizations, and witty banter between Lewis and his junior partner, the erudite DS Hathaway (Laurence Fox). (Confession: I attended Oxford University and met my wife there, so the setting alone for me is worth the price of admission.) The seven episodes of Inspector Le