Lewis (ITV1, 8pm)
Felicity Kendal’s Indian Shakespeare Quest (BBC2, 9pm)
Secret Eaters (C4, 8pm)

THE regular actors in Lewis shared screen time with some unusual performers as well as the usual famous guest stars in the new series.

Laurence Fox, who plays the detective’s sidekick, Hathaway, explains that this latest run also sees him and Lewis (Kevin Whately) acting with primates when a future episode takes them into a laboratory researching monkey behaviour.

It wasn’t an experience the actor relished.

“I have a sort of innate fear of monkeys that I can’t explain,” he says.

“I didn’t want to go anywhere near them, but I had to go in the compound with them at one point, but they freaked me out. I’m afraid I’m not a big fan, even though I’m not that scared of animals.

“There was a moment when Kevin put his hand on a monkey’s head and the monkey trainer said, ‘Don’t do that if you want to keep your fingers’. We also weren’t allowed to look them in the eyes; they take it as a threat.”

There are some changes in Oxford this time. “There is a slight shift this year. The films feel a bit riskier and a little darker.

There are a couple of stories that are very up-to-date and modern. There’s also a bit of action,” says Fox.

“I love doing scenes with action. It’s great fun and makes a change from the more sedentary aspects of the plot.”

In tonight’s episode, botanist Liv Nash (Nadine Lewington) unearths the body of English professor Murray Hawes. The police discover that the academic had been obsessed with solving the riddle of Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark, but surely that wouldn’t be enough to get him killed?

But as Lewis and Hathaway try to sift through the clues, they come up against amateur sleuth Michelle Marber (Celia Imrie), who thinks she has already found their murderer, in the shape of medical researcher Dr Falconer (James Fleet).

Has the wannabe Miss Marple beaten the police at their own game, or will the viewers do a better job of working out whodunit? And is it a good idea for Hathaway to get close to one of the witnesses?

MOST people were first exposed to Shakespeare at school. Felicity Kendal’s experience was very different though – she got her introduction to the Bard by travelling across India with her parents’ theatre company, Shakespeareana.

Now, she’s returning to the country she still thinks of as home to learn more about how India embraced the works of Britain’s greatest writer in Felicity Kendal’s Indian Shakespeare Quest.

She discovers that during the days of the Empire, the plays were initially seen as a symbol of British dominance, but were soon absorbed into the Indian culture, to the point that they were even used in the fight against political repression in the post-independence period. The influence lives on, not only in Bollywood movies, but via other methods.

Kendal, who speaks Hindi, journeys to bustling cities and remote villages, theatres, prisons and schools to find out how Shakespeare continues to be a part of Indian life, often in surprising ways.

THE next time you judge an overweight star, you might want to put down the ice cream and have a quick peek at your own weight on the scales.

That’s because Britain has, quite literally, got a big fat problem.

Year upon year, we’re getting fatter, with many people unable to put their finger on why we’re piling on the pounds.

In new series Secret Eaters, Anna Richardson is on a mission to expose the nation’s eating habits.

Households will be put under roundthe- clock surveillance for five full days.

While they’ll be aware that everything that passes through their lips inside the home will be monitored, what they won’t know is that two top private investigators will be watching their every move outside the house.

First up are siblings Jill Hamill and Stuart Raphel. They’re convinced they don’t eat enough, but will they be able to change their ways when they learn the shocking truth of their diet and eating habits?