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The Gift of Promise
Season 5, Episode 4
Hathaway and Lewis investigate the murder of a businesswoman connected with an organisation that supports gifted children, who had apparently been blackmailing the father of one particularly promising youngster. Further deaths follow, and as the body count rises, they realise there is a decades-old secret at the heart of the case. Matters are complicated still further by the presence in Oxford of former MI5 spymaster Grace Orde, who is visiting to sign copies of her tell-all memoir - which provides a vital clue to the killer's identity. Detective drama, guest starring Anna Chancellor and Cherie Lunghi, with Kevin Whately and Laurence Fox
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Detective/Thriller
Movie/Drama
Cast & Crew
Kevin Whately
(Actor)
.. DI Robert Lewis
Laurence Fox
(Actor)
.. DS Hathaway
Clare Holman
(Actor)
.. Dr Laura Hobson
Rebecca Front
(Actor)
.. Ch Supt Innocent
Anna Chancellor
(Actor)
.. Judith Suskin
David Westhead
(Actor)
.. Leon Suskin
Cherie Lunghi
(Actor)
.. Grace Orde
Mark Aiken
(Actor)
.. Donald Voss
Lucy Boynton
(Actor)
.. Zoe Suskin
Lorcan Cranitch
(Actor)
.. Liam Cullen
Elize Du Toit
(Actor)
.. Andrea de Ritter
Matt Orton
(Actor)
.. Elmo Woodeson
Gabrielle Lloyd
(Actor)
.. Eileen Norman
Charlie Roe
(Actor)
.. Ronald Marsden
Leanne Rowe
(Actor)
.. Carly Cliff
Joy Blakeman
(Actor)
.. DC Madge
Sagar Arya
(Actor)
.. Doctor
Michelle Luther
(Actor)
.. Nurse
Dusty Hughes
(Writer)
Stephen Churchett
(Writer)
Metin Huseyin
(Director)
Chris Burt
(Producer)
More Information
Did You Know..
Kevin Whately
(Actor)
.. DI Robert Lewis
Born:
February 06, 1951
in
Newcastle upon Tyne
Best Known For:
Playing John Thaw's right-hand man Lewis in Inspector Morse.
Early-life:
Kevin George Edward Whately was born on February 6, 1951, in Hexham, and grew up in the remote Northumberland countryside. His father was in the Navy, and Whately only saw him two or three times a year. He began acting at the age of four and it remained a passion throughout school, alongside a short-lived desire to be a doctor. When his careers teacher advised against acting, he went into accountancy for three years. He later trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama. His brother, Frank, is a drama lecturer.
Career:
Whately's TV debut came in a 1979 episode of Shoestring. Two years later he had a six-week stint on Coronation Street. His big break came in 1983, when he landed the role of Neville in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. In 1987, he made his first appearance as Sgt Lewis in Morse, and has since appeared in Peak Practice, the TV dramas Trip Trap, Gobble, and The Broker's Man, as well as Oscar-winning drama The English Patient. Other projects include Paranoid, Silent Cry, Murder in Mind, Purely Belter, Promoted to Glory and The Children. He's now the star of hit Morse spin-off Lewis.
Quote:
On John Thaw: 'John had a wonderful sense of humour which is belied sometimes by journalists' impression of him as irascible. He was a wonderful mimic, particularly of people on the set rather than famous people.'
Trivia:
Married to actress Madeleine Newton, who appeared alongside him in both Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and Inspector Morse. They have two children, Kieran and Kitty. His daughter is an acclaimed opera singer.
Laurence Fox
(Actor)
.. DS Hathaway
Born:
May 26, 1978
in
Yorkshire
Best Known For:
Lewis.
Early-life:
Laurence Paul Fox was born in Yorkshire on May 26, 1978. Born into a theatrical family, he is the son of actor James Fox and the nephew of actor Edward Fox and theatre and film producer Robert Fox. Acting relatives also include his brother Jack and sister Lydia, and cousins Emilia Fox and Freddie Fox. Two years after leaving Harrow, Laurence developed a love of acting and enrolled at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Rada). During his time there, he appeared in a number of stage productions.
Career:
Fox was still studying at Rada when he landed a role in his first feature film, 2001 horror-thriller The Hole. He went on to star in Gosford Park (2001), TV miniseries Island at War and TV movie Colditz. His big break came in 2006 when he was cast alongside Kevin Whately in Inspector Morse spin-off Lewis. Other credits include Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), Becoming Jane (2007), W.E. (2011) and TV movie Fast Freddie, the Widow and Me. Fox has also featured in a number of stage productions, including Strangers on a Train at London's Gielgud Theatre.
Quote:
'Acting can be a great job, but you do have to make up things to do when you're not working.'
Trivia:
Wed fellow actress Billie Piper in 2007.
Clare Holman
(Actor)
.. Dr Laura Hobson
Rebecca Front
(Actor)
.. Ch Supt Innocent
Born:
May 16, 1964
in
Stoke Newington
Best Known For:
The Thick of It.
Early-life:
Rebecca Louise Front was born in Stoke Newington on May 16, 1964. She comes from an artistic family - her father is an artist, her mother writes children's stories and her brother Jeremy writes (he and Rebecca often write together, most notably Radio 4's Incredible Women). Rebecca knew she wanted to act from the age of six or seven. After leaving school, she studied at St Hugh's College, Oxford, where she began performing with the Oxford Theatre Group.
Career:
Front's comedy career took off with the Radio 4 show The Bobo Girls, the second series of which was produced by Armando Iannucci, with whom she's worked with numerous times since, most notably on The Thick of It. Other comedy projects include On the Hour, The Day Today, Absolute Power, The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer, The Spa and various Alan Partridge projects. Front has also dabbled in drama, with roles in The Rotters' Club, Kavanagh QC, Lewis, Jonathan Creek, and Humans.
Quote:
'I'd love a role in Sherlock. Or maybe I could play a Doctor Who monster or something. That'd be brilliant.'
Trivia:
Front's father, Charles Front, designed the title logo for The Beatles album Rubber Soul.
Anna Chancellor
(Actor)
.. Judith Suskin
Born:
April 27, 1965
in
Richmond, Surrey
Best Known For:
Punching Hugh Grant at the altar in Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Early-life:
Anna Chancellor was born on April 27, 1965, in Richmond, Surrey, into an aristocratic family. She was the daughter of the Hon Mary Joliffe (daughter of William Jolliffe, 4th Baron Hylton, of the Baron Hyltons) and John Chancellor. Her uncle is journalist Alexander Chancellor and her eight-times great aunt was author Jane Austen. She has spent time living in several countries around the world and has a particular attraction to Zimbabwe. She trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, but left at the age of 21 when she became pregnant with her daughter, Poppy.
Career:
Although Chancellor's first love is the stage, she has extensive film and TV credits to her name. She appeared in Inspector Morse, Poirot and Comedy Playhouse before her big break came in 1994 playing 'Duckface', Hugh Grant's largely hated bride-to-be in Four Weddings and a Funeral. Since then she has had small-screen success in Kavanagh QC and Tipping the Velvet, and appeared in such big-budget outings as A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Agent Cody Banks 2, Breaking and Entering and St Trinian's. She also had a regular role in Spooks.
Quote:
'I do try and curb my mouth, but I find it really hard. I wonder how many jobs I've talked myself out of!'
Trivia:
Chancellor is one of the Honorary Patrons of the London children's charity Scene & Heard.
David Westhead
(Actor)
.. Leon Suskin
Cherie Lunghi
(Actor)
.. Grace Orde
Born:
April 04, 1952
in
London
Best Known For:
The Manageress and a series of coffee adverts.
Early-life:
Cherie Mary Lunghi was born on April 4, 1952, in Nottingham, the daughter of an Italian and his English wife. She was raised in London by her mother and her aunts after her father returned to Italy. Cherie began acting as a child on radio and in TV and eventually studied at Homerton College, Cambridge. Her acting training came at the Arts Educational School and the Central School of Speech and Drama. She has also been keen on dancing, aerobics, horse-riding, painting and playing the piano from an early age.
Career:
Lunghi started out on stage, but made her TV debut in a 1968 episode of the BBC's classic Sherlock Holmes series. She's worked steadily ever since on the small and big screens, cropping up in the likes of Edward & Mrs Simpson, Excalibur, Tales of the Unexpected, The Monocled Mutineer, The Mission, and Ellis Island. However, it was popular footballing drama The Manageress which made her a major TV star in 1989. Since then, Lunghi has appeared in the likes of The Buccaneers, A Question of Guilt, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Jack and Sarah, EastEnders, Cutting It, Midsomer Murders and Casualty 1906. She was a Strictly Come Dancing contestant in 2008.
Quote:
'It's intriguing to get your head around people who have evil intent. It's pretty complicated.'
Trivia:
Lunghi has narrated Who Do You Think You Are?
Mark Aiken
(Actor)
.. Donald Voss
Lucy Boynton
(Actor)
.. Zoe Suskin
Lorcan Cranitch
(Actor)
.. Liam Cullen
Elize Du Toit
(Actor)
.. Andrea de Ritter
Matt Orton
(Actor)
.. Elmo Woodeson
Gabrielle Lloyd
(Actor)
.. Eileen Norman
Charlie Roe
(Actor)
.. Ronald Marsden
Leanne Rowe
(Actor)
.. Carly Cliff
Joy Blakeman
(Actor)
.. DC Madge
Sagar Arya
(Actor)
.. Doctor
Michelle Luther
(Actor)
.. Nurse
Dusty Hughes
(Writer)
Stephen Churchett
(Writer)
Metin Huseyin
(Director)
Chris Burt
(Producer)
