The best episodes of Lewis
Ranked by viewer rating, highs first. Lit marks on the season rail place this list across the run. Vote on a placement to back it or contest it.
- 01
And the Moonbeams Kiss the Sea
At first the murders of Reg Chapman, a handy man at the Bodleian Library and gambling addict, and Nell Buckley, a popular Art student, seem unrelated. However, it transpires that Chapmen stole parchment from the library upon which Nell and another student persuaded Philip, a brilliant, autistic young painter, to innocently forge letters by the poet Shelley for the international collectors' market. When both victims, for different reasons, threatened to expose the mastermind behind the scam, they were killed.
- 02
Lewis investigates the garroting of an aging Oxford don planning an Wagnerian festival and discovers a tenuous connection to his former boss, Inspector Morse.
- 03
When an Oxford housewife is found hanged in her home, Lewis and Hathaway unearth a far darker murder case than the initial suicide verdict suggests.
- 04
DI Lewis and DS Hathaway investigate the murder of Dean Greely. As the investigation continues, they discover that Greely and three other men had formed a club during their Oxford student days, the Sons of the Twice Born. Today, the men have little contact with one another and initially deny that their club existed. When a second member of the foursome is murdered, it becomes apparent the they have a secret, one from 30 years ago and that someone is out for revenge.
- 05
DI Lewis is less than pleased when he and DS Hathaway are assigned to protect Nicky Turnbull, a former criminal turned successful author. Turnbull had actually cheated two Oxford colleges in his computer scam and had received death threats. Turnbull is everything Lewis dislikes but he grits his teeth does the job. Turnbull is in Oxford to make a speech at the request of the Students Union but things take a serious turn when Jo Gilchrist, a student and a member of Turnbull's reception committee, is found strangled. Gilchrist wrote for a student newspaper and was about to expose a professor's exam scam. When Turnbull is shot in the courtyard of his hotel, Lewis realizes that the man's wife was his first girlfriend. He also learns that they were on the verge of getting a divorce.
- 06
Lady Hugh, the intolerant Bible-fanatic president of Oxford's Mayfield college, turns against anything gay. Shortly after popular, decent student Will McEwan shoots himself in the head in St. Mark's church, after waving the revolver at Reverend Francis King, who is himself found torturously murdered by a hot poker in the head the next day. The link between both victims is The Garden, a pious society offering 'Christian answers to youngsters' contemporary questions', its emblem being a Fenix, which both Will's suicide note 'I lost my way between Getsemane and Calvary' and a message on King's door 'Life born of fire' refer to. Lewis's partner, Detective Sergeant James Hathaway, was a friend of gentle gay Will in school and again at university, but his brutally gay-bashing father Henry McEwan apparently repudiates Will posthumously finding out and his mother believed he was getting steady with a nice girl. Lewis keeps digging in all those circles, discovering more secrets and deceit. More blood is to be spilled, and the meaning of names proves crucial...
- 07
Lewis and Hathaway become involved in the drugging and rape of a schoolgirl and discover that it is connected to several bizarre murders.
- 08
Robbie Lewis attends a book launch for a fantasy novel penned by prodigious young research fellow Dorian Crane, with whose adoptive mother, Ginny, Robbie's boss Jean is trying to match-make him. Later that night a Czech hotel worker Marina is found murdered. Professor Deering, the uncle of Dorian's fiancee and muse, Alice, confesses to having seen Marina on a foreign website and paid for her to come to Oxford, finding her work. However, as a supposed gay man, he is keen to hush up his sex life with her. Robbie believes that Marina was killed in mistake for Alice and then Dorian is also murdered, in order to preserve a secret well beyond Robbie's imagination.
- 09
Steven Mullan, a former religious maniac who served time for running atheist writer Tom Rattenbury off the road, crippling Tom's daughter Jessica in the process, is murdered. Or rather his flatmate, who swapped identities with him to escape the wrath of his lover's husband, is. Then the real Steven Mullan is killed and Tom commits suicide, claiming he killed both lads. But Tom had an alibi and Jessica and Steven were closer than anybody guessed. Who has engineered the cover-up?
- 10
Dr Stephen Black is found murdered on a tour bus visiting Crevecourt Hall, where Hathaway's father was once estate manager so the sergeant knows the family. The murder weapon,a candlestick,is found in the family chapel and the priest once knew the victim,who was seen in the grounds a week earlier by Hopkiss the butler and Lord Mortmaigne's nephew Philip. Then the current estate manager dies,an apparent suicide,and Black seems to have known his wife Linda,who left him six years earlier.Whilst Lewis fears Hathaway's friendship with the family -especially daughter Scarlett,making a wealthy marriage to save family fortunes - makes him partial and gives him leave Black's colleague Frances Woodville tells Lewis that Black was after alleged buried treasure,dating from the Civil War, at Crevecourt Hall. No treasure is unearthed but dark family secrets are,relating to the actual fate of Linda and the reason for Black's death.
- 11
Professor Andrew Crompton,an amateur astrologist, is found dead in the university observatory after visiting a priest for confession. A note-book belonging to student Jez Haydock is found by the body and Jez's tutor, Gwen Raeburn,is quick to go through the dead man's belongings. The widow believed her husband was having an affair and obsequious porter Roger Temple names Ella Ransome, a G.P.,as the other woman - and then she too is killed. Roger proves to be a manipulator though not a murderer but his father knows the identity of the killer. He's a retired porter,now in a home where he is regarded as senile and deluded but Lewis needs him to get to the truth.
- 12
Student Amy Katz is murdered whilst taking part in a clinical trial for anti-depressant drugs, overseen by Dr. Alex Gansa, her psychiatrist following her soldier brother's death in Afghanistan. Amy captivated the other young male volunteers, including love-lorn Adam Douglas and Jack Collins - to the intense hatred of Jack's girlfriend Karen - but Amy was in love with the married Gansa. Several suspicious incidents cause Lewis to investigate the doctor.
- 13
Whilst digging in the woods botanist Liv Nash unearths the corpse of academic Murray Hawes,a man seemingly obsessed with solving the riddle of the Snark in the Lewis Carroll poem. Just before his death he had spent two hundred thousand pounds on an original copy of the poem which he felt held the key and was financing himself as a medical guinea pig to Dr Alex Falconer. Forensics show that he was killed in the Oxford Botanic Gardens and carried to the woods and amateur sleuth Michelle Marber places Falconer in the gardens at the time though he confesses to an affair ...
- 14
DI Lewis returns to Oxford after several years absence and is reluctantly assigned by his new boss, DCS Innocent, to the murder of an Oxford mathematics student who was shot while participating in a sleep study. Lewis must decipher a cryptic clue left in an old case file by his former boss, Chief Inspector Morse.
- 15
Lewis investigates the murder of student Richard Scott. He was killed just before premiering The Merchant of Venice. During the investigation Lewis gets personally involved.
- 16
Faced with the seemingly impossible task of identifying the remains of a body discovered in a well, Lewis has also got to contend with new boss Chief Superintendent Moody. Realising that the body in the well is connected to the murder of young artist Talika Desai, the police follow leads into the worlds of drugs, social media and the homeless community, but will they manage to link all the pieces together?
- 17
Thirty-five years after she supposedly drowned herself, rock star Esme Ford returns to Oxford to secretly re-establish her band Midnight Addiction with former members Richie, Mack and Franco. The secrecy extends to the band's reaction when an orphaned teenage boy is killed outside Richie's house. Then ex-roadie Bone and Richie's daughter's music tutor, who used to write the band's sleeve-notes, are also murdered. Midnight Addiction may well once have been the real thing but several people are definitely not what they first seem to be.
- 18
Six couples arrive at out of term Chaucer College for a quiz weekend with a five grand prize. One of the contestants,womanizing know-all Ethan Croft,is murdered and another,Robyn Strong, is an old flame of his, disappointed he failed to recognize her. Ethan was a brilliant linguist but he was sacked from the college years earlier after an affair with a student, now married to another quizzer,whilst Eve,Robyn's quiz partner, is the next victim,after she has been heard arguing with Ethan. Passion, however, is not the motive, the killer being one whose guilty secret was exposed by Ethan's language skills over a past business transaction - with at least two suspects in the frame.
- 19
During a Halloween one of Dr. Hobson's old college roommates is found with a stake through her heart and a garlic bulb in her mouth.
- 20
As the last remaining all-women's college in Oxford is bidding farewell to one of its most distinguished professors, murder rears its ugly head.
- 21
During an ecumenical conference in formerly Catholic St. Gerard's college, the poisoning of a female black American bishop triggers a series of bizarre murders.
- 22
Andrea De Ritter, founder of an organization that supports gifted children, is murdered after making a presentation to Zoe Suskin, only fifteen but an Oxford student. That night Andrea had resisted the advances of young student Elmo Woodeson as well as sending a copy of the autobiography of former spy mistress Dame Grace Orde to Zoe's publisher father Leon. She had added inside the book "Who Killed Mary? See Chapter 8." Both Leon and Elmo are killed shortly after and Zoe's tutor Donald Voss is poisoned though not fatally. Suskin had punched Liam Cullen, Andrea's lover...
- 23
When lonely feminist lecturer Miranda Thornton is found dead after a video she submitted to a dating agency is viciously made public on a scurrilous website,the first conclusion is suicide. But,with her answer phone removed and finger prints wiped,foul play is suspected. Miranda opposed property developer David Connelly buying land belonging to her college and had been visited,via the website by unhappily married journalist Francis Mitchell, though he states that Miranda was dead when he visited her. Embittered ex-student Sebastian Dromgoole admits to posting the ...
- 24
Nick and Honey Addams return home to find their baby-sitter,Jess Lake,murdered. She was tied to a bed and indeed often posed for bondage and fetish shots for photographer Marion Hammond. She also worked in a university lab with her boyfriend Gideon's father Dr. Massey,who is divorced from his unfeeling wife Stanza. Honey admits that Nick does not have an alibi but he seems to have no link to the next victim,Jess's house mate Silas,whose corpse is also arranged in the style of one of Marion's photos. Lewis finds himself tracking a killer who is a seemingly respectable ...
- 25
American academic Paul Yelland faces accusations of racism when he presents his theory on Criminal Dangerousness to an Oxford college and is later found murdered. Married professors Anne and Robert Fraser claim they invited him to raise their department's profile and Robert,who is having an affair with student Nina, points Lewis towards Myra Bennett's anti-fascist group. Yelland also dealt in antiques and had angered two clients with a forgery and furthermore turned out to be the father of a staff member,whose mother he deserted when pregnant. Then Nina is killed
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