Laurence Fox never watched Morse while he was growing up. But he has ITV to thank for getting him up to speed.
He admits “I’d never watched any Inspector Morse before I took the role of Hathaway but now they’ve started repeated them during the afternoons I have seen a few and I really like them.
“They haven’t dated at all. They are beautifully shot, there’s nothing small about them. And I hope Lewis has that timeless quality, it certainly looks expensive on screen.”
Hathaway might be Lewis’ intellectual sidekick but he was most excited about having an action scene to play in the series screened in winter 2007.
“I wanted action and I got.” laughs Laurence. “I had to hang out of a window in Oxford with a stunt man. It was a dramatic way to end the series.”
And Laurence was flattered that the pilot episode of Lewis claimed the title of ITV’s highest rating drama of 2006.
“But it meant I had to try and remember what was so good about the first one when we returned to film these three,” he says. “And then try to inject that element back into it this time around.”
Laurence believes Hathaway is a vocational policeman despite having begun to train for the priesthood.
“He’s obviously into justice and morality. I think he realises he didn’t want to be a priest. He wanted to do something more proactive, something day-to-day, hands on in a challenging and demanding way.”
And how has the relationship between Lewis and Hathaway progressed?
“Lewis is still quite sterile toward him, but he does warm to me a bit during the series, which is a nice thread that goes through it. My character is quite grumpy and aloof too and although they have a few common reference points, fundamentally they are very different people.
“Hathaway is slightly embarrassed of his learning and he doesn’t want it to come between him and Lewis.”
“Lewis is very much a salt-of-the-earth type, they are such different people, and Hathaway is sensitive to the fact that he is telling someone older and wiser than him stuff that he’s learnt as part of his formal education.
“He’s a modest sort of chap. He doesn’t want to scream and shout about how good he is at various things, which is often the way with talented people. But he tries not to get involved unless he absolutely has to.
Play"Billie and I have Mr and Mrs Fox tattoos," reveals newly-married Laurence. And he also talks about his major role as the 'prototype' Morse
