Series four of British crime drama - quality British crime drama - Lewis, begins as all quality British crime dramas should.
The camera pans slowly from behind a tree, before the well-groomed grounds of an English stately home swing into view, then the stately home itself, and we know we are in the right place.
No matter that it is probably the same stately home used in Downton Abbey, no matter it is probably the same stately home used in Brideshead Revisited, no matter that probably Antiques Roadshow has been filmed there, no matter any of that.
If there is a stately home you are on the money.
And Lewis is on the money.
It goes for about an hour, but despite that being far too long for anything, you know the stories will always drag you in, and you know detective Robert "Robbie" Lewis is going to swan around an English country town and solve murders, in much the same way as that other fellow does in Midsomer Murders.
And it will be entertaining.
Series four begins this Saturday on Prime.
It is, as you surely already know, a spin-off from Inspector Morse, and is set in Oxford.
There is a university or polytechnic of some sort there, I understand.
Kevin Whately reprises his character as Morse's sergeant in the original series, with the help of DS James Hathaway (Laurence Fox), a well-educated young fellow who is surely the very model of the modern British bobby.
Surely.
New Zealand is just a wee bit behind, with the four episodes of series four running in the UK last year, the fifth series having run this year, and the sixth apparently already commissioned.
Episode one, which tees off at 8.35pm, starts with a serious injury and a death in quick time.
One gentleman is felled with a bullet within minutes during a mock Edwardian (or something) battle.
A second gent dies in a tour bus.
He is clearly dead, because there is that little trickle of blood emanating from the left hand side of the mouth, which usually, on television at least, means death.
Not only that, but there is an attractive young lady playing the piano in a fabulous looking stately home, and a tear is running hotly down her pretty white cheek.
Something is up.
But hope is not lost, as Lewis and Hathaway are seen in the very next shot looking thoughtful and deep as they stand thoughtfully and deeply on a beautifully-fashioned staircase.
All is right with the world; evildoers will be brought to account, and the guiltless will be judged as such.
Watch Lewis with a decent Merlot or Shiraz, a plate of fine cheeses and a tiny piece of dark chocolate.
You can't go wrong.
