Hathaway, like Inspector Morse, Lewis' old boss from his days as a Detective Sergeant, is cerebral. Unlike Morse, Hathaway trained in Theology, and was a rather successful athlete, as his nickname 'Atta-way Hathaway' (revealed by a rival coach at Oxford) would attest, being a rowing star while at Cambridge. In the last episode of series 5 Hathaway informs Lewis that he was talent spotted for MI5 in university; this is neither confirmed nor denied by the end. In "The Soul of Genius", the first episode of series 6, it is hinted that Hathaway is well known in the Oxford theology faculty. Conor Hawes shows interest in Hathaway after he makes a comment on the subject he is discussing with Lewis, asking with a curious look, "What did you say your name was?" To which Hathaway replies, "Detective Sergeant Hathaway" with some coldness in his tone. He subsequently trained for the priesthood in Oxford and entered the seminary. He later left the seminary guilty over the orthodox but ultimately deadly advice he gave a gay friend about coping with his homosexuality. This was detailed in the third episode of the second series ("Life Born of Fire"), unlike Lewis, Hathaway's guilt at sharing the homophobic attitudes of some of his fellow trainees is revealed when he discovers that a suicide he is investigating is a former friend, Will McEwan, who broke off his friendship with him when Hathaway urged him to reject his homosexuality and that he would be punished by God for it. Hathaway acknowledges that he was blinded by religion and did not realize how he hurt Will. In the episode "Old School Ties" we are told by an ex-schoolmate of Hathaway's that he had been Head Boy of his "posh" school and nicknamed 'W.C.' - short for 'Wolfgang Christ' - because he "didn't know whether he wanted to be Mozart or Jesus". Hathaway enjoys playing music and is first seen playing an acoustic guitar with a group in the Series 1 episode "Old School Ties." At the beginning of the episode "Your Sudden Death Question," he gets ready to head to a festival of world music, toting his guitar, a Gibson L-5, which he refers to as "she." Later on in the episode, it's revealed that the guitar is worth over three thousand pounds. Hathaway has been described as "chain-smoking, moody and emotionally buttoned-up", a "dryhumoured intellectual".