Lewis

It’s the first preview of a new student production of The Merchant of Venice. Before the critics and agents descend like a pack of ravening wolves comes a final chance to brush up on lines and perfect stage moves in the college grounds. But halfway through the half-price performance comes a drama certainly not penned by Shakespeare. The student Shylock, Richard Scott (Daniel Sharman), is found dead backstage, the production’s sharp prop knife plunged into his chest. A note found by the body quotes from Hamlet: “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.” Called to the open-air theatre, Lewis (Kevin Whately) and Hathaway (Laurence Fox) are struck by the lack of grief amongst the cast, in particular Emma Golding (Daisy Lewis), the fiercely ambitious director who, furnished with another student word-perfect in the role, is determined that her show must go on. Lewis’s questioning of Golding’s professor – and landlady – Denise Gregson (Maureen Beattie) reveals that the dead student had an expensive life-style and owed money to cast members and beyond. Interviewing cast and audience, Hathaway becomes suspicious of Simon Monkford (Ronan Vibert), an out-of-town playgoer, who seems a little too eager to present his ticket stub as an alibi. And later, as the officers enjoy a post-work drink at the Randolph, they hear the hotel may have been the victim of a scam perpetrated by the self-same Monkford. The next day, after agreeing that the press night performance can go ahead, Lewis meets former student turned freelance journalist Amanda Costello (Shereen Martineau), who reveals that Scott was suspected of theft from dressing rooms and digs during the students’ visit to the Edinburgh Fringe. His alleged haul included a laptop from student playwright and now cynical Oxford dropout Phil Beaumont (Bryan Dick), who is among the crowd at the post-show party as The Merchant of Venice finally gets under way. But death intrudes once more on the student thespians when Amanda Costello is found dead in the bar’s cellar, with another Shakespearian line by her body, this time Puck’s “I will lead them up and down”. At the office of a student paper, where Costello was one-time editor, Lewis learns that she was researching what she claimed was a huge news story. Even with a double murder to investigate, Hathaway is intent on unearthing more about “Simon Monkford, conman, the early years”. His contacts with the Met and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police finally provide him with the answer he expects. “But I’m not sure whether it’s the answer I wanted,” he tells a mystified Lewis, just as a phone call alerts them to a break-in at Professor Gregson’s house. The Quality of Mercy is directed by Bille Eltringham, and this series of Lewis is produced by Chris Burt.