In the premiere episode of ITV's "Lewis" season 9 titled 'One for Sorrow,' Kevin Whately and Laurence Fox will return, reprising their roles of Detective Inspector Robert Lewis and Detective Sergeant James Hathaway.
CLICK HERE to find out what new challenges Lewis and James are going to face in the premiere episode of the latest season.
Besides Whately and Fox, Angela Griffin (Waterloo Road fame) will also join the cast as Detective Sergeant Lizzie Maddox.
Even though the long running show is always centred around the character of Lewis, Whately hinted that he may depart from the show soon.
In an interview with Radio Times, he said that the days maybe numbered for his character.
Talking about any further "Inspector Morse" spin-off, he said: "I would probably do one more. But everything has a life span and I think it's gone on long enough.
"There were 33 Inspector Morse stories and we've now done 30 Lewis. I suppose it's a sentimental thing but I wouldn't want to do more Lewis than we did Morse because I do still think of it as an offshoot."
He added that besides his interests, he is now older than John Thaw when he died (Whately is 63; Thaw was 60 in 2002 when he died). He said it is a long time to play one character, but sometimes it only feels like yesterday.
"And then I catch an old Morse on ITV3. I've never thought I looked particularly like my son. He's taller than me and blond. But when I see Lewis walk into a room with John Thaw, it's like my son has just come onto the screen. That's very strange indeed."
Undoubtedly, Whately has made up his mind to leave the series as soon as he can and that is surely going to cause some problems for ITV.
Though the network has not announced any replacement, a statement was released that mentioned the new character as a "high flyer who soon clashes with Robbie Lewis over the latter's more traditional approach to detective work."
