In Inspector Morse (1987), Morse and Lewis worked for the Thames Valley Police - the actual police force that is responsible for this part of the country. However in Inspector Lewis (2006), Lewis and Hathaway work for the fictitious Oxfordshire Police Force because the producers were not allowed to use the name, uniforms, or emblems of Thames Valley Police and could not film at St Aldate's Police Station. It is thought that this is due either to Home Office security restrictions in connection with the Iraq war or because of a lack of cooperation by a newly appointed Chief Constable.
The series is filmed in blocks of two episodes. It takes approximately four weeks to film two episodes. Only one of those weeks is spent in Oxford.
Only a maximum of around five minutes of screen time is achieved on a good day of filming.
The three 90-minute stories for Series 7 onwards were each shown as two 45-minute parts (in a 1-hour time slot) on consecutive weeks. This is in contrast to all the previous episodes (Series 1-6) which were each shown as a single 90-minute episode (in a 2-hour time slot).
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