INSPECTOR ENDEAVOUR MORSE
CREATED BY:
Colin Dexter
PORTRAYED BY:
John Thaw
&
Shaun Evans
AS SEEN IN:
'Morse'
&
'Endeavour'
(respectively)
TV STATUS:
Recastaway
(Due to aging - acceptable)
TV DIMENSION:
Earth Prime-Time
From Wikipedia:
'Inspector Morse' is a British detective drama television
series based on a series of novels by Colin Dexter. It starred John Thaw as
Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis. The series comprises
33 two-hour episodes (100 minutes excluding commercials) — 20 more episodes than
there are novels — produced between 1987 and 2000. Dexter made uncredited cameo
appearances in all but three of the episodes.
The series was first shown
on Britain's ITV network, was made by Zenith Productions for Central Independent
Television. Later, it was produced by Carlton UK Productions between 1995 and
1996. Towards the series end, it was made by Carlton and WGBH.
Every
episode involved a new murder investigation featuring several guest stars, and
showed a complete story. Writer Anthony Minghella scripted three including the
first, "The Dead of Jericho", which was filmed in the summer of 1986, and aired
on January 6, 1987 featuring Gemma Jones, Patrick Troughton and James Laurenson.
Morse's first name is not revealed except for the one
occasion when he explains to a lady friend that his father was obsessed with
Captain James Cook and for this reason his first name is Endeavour. On the other
occasions, he usually answers "Morse. Everyone just calls me Morse" or dryly
replies "Inspector", when asked what his first name is.
In the series it
is noted that his reticence about his Christian name led to a public school
(Stamford School, where Colin Dexter and his brother were both pupils) nickname
of "Pagan". The origin of his name is the vessel HMS Endeavour, as Morse's
mother was a Quaker (Quakers have a tradition of "virtue names") and his father
was a fan of Captain James Cook. Morse's father was, by trade, a taxi driver and
Morse likes to explain the origin of his additional private income by saying
that he "used to drive the Aga Khan". The author of the Morse novels, Colin
Dexter, is a fan of cryptic crosswords, and Morse is named after champion setter
Jeremy Morse, one of Dexter's arch-rivals as a clue-writer in the crossword
world.
With a Jaguar car (originally a Lancia in the novels), a thirst
for English real ale and a penchant for music (especially opera and Wagner),
poetry, art, classics, classic cars, and cryptic crossword puzzles, Morse
presents a likeable persona, despite his sullen temperament.
Thaw had a
special appreciation of the fact that Morse was different from classic
characters such as James Bond and Sherlock Holmes. Morse was brilliant but he
was not always right. He often arrested the wrong person or came to the wrong
conclusion. As a result, unlike many classic sleuths, Morse does not always
simply arrest his culprit; ironic circumstances have the case end and the crime
brought to him. Also, Morse was a romantic—frequently mildly and gently flirting
with or asking out colleagues, witnesses or suspects—occasionally bordering on
the unprofessional, but had little success in love.
Morse is a character
whose talents and intelligence are being wasted in positions that fail to match
his abilities. Several references are made to the fact that Morse would have
been promoted above and beyond Chief Inspector at Thames Valley CID, but his
cynicism and lack of ambition, coupled also to veiled hints that he may have
made enemies in high places, frustrate his progression despite his Oxford
connections.
Morse's relationships with authority—the establishment,
bastions of power, and the status quo—are markedly ambiguous, as sometimes are
his relations with women. Morse is frequently portrayed in the act of
patronising women characters, to the extent that some critics have argued that
Morse is a misogynist.
Morse's appearance of being patronising might have
been misleading; he habitually showed empathy towards women, once opining that
the female sex is not naturally prone to crime, being caring and non-violent. He
was also never shy of showing his liking for attractive women, and often had
dates with those involved in cases.
Morse is extremely intelligent. He
dislikes spelling and grammatical errors, demonstrated by the fact that, in
every personal or private document he receives, he manages to point out at least
one mistake.
He claims his approach to crime-solving is deductive, and one of
his key tenets is that "there is a 50 per cent chance that the last person to
see the victim alive was the murderer". In reality, it is the pathologists who
deduce; Morse uses immense intuition and his fantastic memory to get to the
killer.
Morse is a highly credible detective and plausible human being.
His penchant for drinking, his life filled with difficult personal
relationships, and his negligence toward his health, however, make him a more
tragic character than previous classic sleuths.
Morse's eventual death in
the final episode "The Remorseful Day" is caused by heart problems exacerbated
by heavy drinking, differing from the literary character's diabetes-related
demise.
In May 2011 ITV announced that it was to make a prequel—a
two-hour special "Endeavour", with author Colin Dexter's participation,
portraying a young Morse. Set in 1965, Shaun Evans plays the young detective
constable Morse who is preparing to hand in his resignation when he becomes
embroiled in an investigation involving a missing school girl. It was broadcast
on 2 January
2012.
 |
FROM "ENDEAVOUR"
Who knew a rear-view mirror could cause a lump in the throat? |
Two for Tuesday!
BCnU!
