LEWIS star Kevin Whately has said he only wants to appear in one more series of the Oxford-based TV drama.

The actor, 63, has been playing detective Robbie Lewis for nearly three decades, first with John Thaw in Inspector Morse.

Now Lewis is returning to ITV for an eighth series, just two years after Mr Whately and co-star Laurence Fox appeared to call time on it.

In 2010 Mr Whately told the Oxford Mail that the fifth series could be the penultimate one, but four years on it is still going strong.

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Now Mr Whately has told the Radio Times: “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.

“There’s the age thing as well — I’m older than John Thaw was when he died.”

Mr Whately revealed that before he teamed up with Mr Fox he imagined playing alongside a different actor.

He said: “When this whole thing was being set up, I said I wanted a young female Muslim sidekick — I just thought it would be more interesting.

“These cop shows can be pretty samey and it was one variation that I didn’t think had been done.”

Entry Wounds, episode one of series eight, the first of six new episodes, will be shown on ITV on Friday, October 10, from 9pm to 10pm.

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