The Indelible Stain 

A visiting lecturer at the college of criminology who holds controversial theories on genetic predisposition toward criminal behavior is found hanged.

Director:

Tim Fywell

Writers:

Colin Dexter (inspired by the Inspector Morse novels of), Simon Block (screenplay)

Stars:

Harriet Madeley, Richard Southgate, David Soul

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Harriet Madeley	...	Emily Robinson
Richard Southgate	...	Will Pascoe
David Soul	...	Paul Yelland
David Calder	...	Andrew Lipton
Kevin Whately	...	DI Robert Lewis
Pippa Bennett-Warner	...	Nina Clemens (as Pippa Bennet-Warner)
Clare Holman	...	Dr Laura Hobson
Jason Durr	...	DI Peterson
Jake Curran	...	Adam Pettle
Laurence Fox	...	DS James Hathaway
Nancy Carroll	...	Anne Rand
Patrick Baladi	...	Robert Fraser
Nina Sosanya	...	Lilian Hunter
Sian Webber	...	Myra Barnet
Rebecca Front	...	Ch. Supt. Innocent

Storyline

American academic Paul Yelland faces accusations of racism when he presents his theory on Criminal Dangerousness to an Oxford college and is later found murdered. Married professors Anne and Robert Fraser claim they invited him to raise their department's profile and Robert,who is having an affair with student Nina, points Lewis towards Myra Bennett's anti-fascist group. Yelland also dealt in antiques and had angered two clients with a forgery and furthermore turned out to be the father of a staff member,whose mother he deserted when pregnant. Then Nina is killed after Anne has discovered the affair. Lewis must not only expose a killer whose motive goes back many years but battle with tooth-ache in the light of his fear of dentists.

---

Plot Keywords:

teacher student affair | teacher student relationship | lecture | professor | criminologist | 

---

Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

---

Certificate:

TV-PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

"Stay one day longer with me. They who go feel not the pain of parting; it is they who stay behind that suffer." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, "Michael Angelo: A Fragment" (1883)

---

Goofs

Nina receives racist abusive text messages, and says does not know who they are from as the number is 'withheld'. Unlike voice calls, it is not possible on UK networks to withhold the sender's number from text messages, unless you are using a commercial bulk text service.

In any event, the police have powers to easily trace anonymous senders, and this is never mentioned.

---

Quotes

Ch. Supt. Innocent: [to Lewis and Hathaway] Why are you just sitting there looking at me like dogs being shown a card trick?

---

Soundtracks

Inspector Lewis Main Theme
(uncredited)
Composed by Barrington Pheloung

User Reviews

don't give up on us, baby

Inspector Lewis and D.I. Hathaway work on "The Indelible Stain" in this season 6 finale of the Inspector Lewis series.

This is another complex Lewis mystery. An American professor, Paul Yelland, with his outrageous theories, comes to Oxford to lecture and becomes the target of a group opposed to his ideas, which are considered racist.

Yelland is later found dead by hanging. He had been invited to speak by married professors, Anne and Robert Fraser, in order to bring attention to their department. Robert is having an affair with one of his students, Nina. Nina has been receiving hate texts telling her to go home. Fraser believes an antifascist group is responsible for Yelland's death. But it turns out that Yelland has an interesting history in the area - he had sold forged antiques to two clients, and he was the father of a staff member and had left the mother before the child was born.

Then another death occurs.

Somehow I recognized Starsky and Hutch star David Soul as the professor. He moved to England in the 1980s and has enjoyed an interesting stage career over there, including starring in "Jerry Springer, the Opera," "Deathtrap," "Mack and Mabel," and "Blood Brothers," as well as TV and film there. I give him a lot of credit.

This is a good mystery. I like the Lewis series very much and hope they continue to film them.

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 July 2012 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Oxford Union, Frewin Court, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

ITV Studios, Masterpiece, The Paperback Company Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

16:9 HD