A FOURTH series of the Oxford detective drama Lewis will be made, despite ITV’s cash crisis.

The return of the popular crime series has been welcomed by Oxford’s tourism bosses, who say it will encourage more visitors to the city .

In March, Kevin Whately, who plays the title role, said he feared the popular ITV drama could be axed because of the company’s cutbacks.

He revealed other ITV dramas had been told to expect cuts to their budgets and feared the third series, shown earlier this year, could be the last.

But the series, a spin-off of Morse, attracted more than six million viewers and a new series of four episodes has now been commissioned, with filming expected to start in Oxford next month.

Producer Chris Burt held a casting session for the new series yesterday in London.

He told the Oxford Mail: “It’s very good news and I am delighted that we will be back in Oxford next month. Kevin Whately is over the moon.

“We are hoping to film at one or two Oxford colleges, although we haven’t finalised the deal yet.”

Inspector Morse author Colin Dexter said: “I have already seen two of the scripts and should be getting the third soon, which is good because they start shooting in July in Oxford.

“I think we have a new audience of female viewers who all like Hathaway (played by Laurence Fox).

Colin Cook, who holds the tourism portfolio for the city council, said: “Lewis brings nothing but credit to the city and the drama is the world’s window on Oxford.”

David Robertson, the county councillor for economy, tourism and skills, said: “This is fantastic news because Lewis encourages people to visit Oxford.

“However, I sincerely hope tourists don’t think there are as many murders in Oxford as there are in the show.

“Local people also watch it to see the Oxford locations.”

Anne Gallagher, team leader of Oxford Tourist Information Centre, said: “It is great news. Visitors come to the city after watching the series, and want to follow in the footsteps of Morse and Lewis.”

In the last series, film crews were on location for several weeks in Oxford, visiting High Street, the King’s Arms pub, the Randolph Hotel and University College.

ITV spokeswoman Janice Troup said: “ITV and ITV Studios are in the process of finalising the deal to produce four new episodes of Lewis.”

  • ITV first screened a pilot episode of Lewis in January 2006, and it won 11.4m viewers – making it the most watched drama of the year across all channels.

The second series of Lewis attracted eight million viewers per episode, leading to the commissioning and filming of the third series.

Viewing figures for the third series averaged 6.3 million viewers – a 26 per cent share of the audience.

Inspector Morse ran from 1987 to 2000 and there were 33 episodes.

The final three episodes were seen by 18m people, nearly a third of the British population.

  • See tomorrow’s Oxford Mail for an exclusive interview with Colin Dexter.