Endeavour

In the late 1980s and early 1990s I loved watching the TV series ‘Inspector Morse’ based on the series of novels by Colin Dexter (which I have also subsequently read). John Thaw’s portrayal of Dexter’s erudite but somewhat grumpy, crossword solving, beer drinking, opera loving, detective working in Oxford (broadcast shortly after I had been a university student there) gave us one of THE iconic actor/TV character combinations of recent decades. Morse was always accompanied by his trusty Detective Sergeant Lewis and, once Morse left us in the 33rd episode we were treated to many series of the also excellent Lewis (now Detective Inspector). More recently, in a masterstroke of characterisation and historical setting, those of us who fell in love with Morse in the 1980s/1990s have been delighted to be able to follow the early part of his career, as the young Morse (given name: Endeavour) made his first steps as a Detective Sergeant in 1960s Oxford.

In many respects Endeavour is better than Morse. This might just be a product of it being produced in a more modern era (better production technology etc) and showing less signs of the obvious biases of the 1980s (re-watching the original episodes of Morse, as I have been, is an education into the casual sexism of the times). But I think Endeavour is also better than Morse because of the absolutely superb performances of Shaun Evans as the young Morse and Roger Allam as his mentor, Detective Inspector Thursday. Endeavour does a great job of picking up on the development of the various character traits exhibited by the older Morse and providing glimpses of what ‘later’ becomes the back-story of the original character. Morse’s simmering but, so far, unrequited relationship with Thursday’s daughter Joan has the potential to fill in a huge piece of the jigsaw that defines the older man, whose relationships with women are always tainted and constrained by an unexplained pain from earlier in his life.

The 1960s setting is wonderfully recreated. I am sure that there are some viewers who are able to pick holes left, right and centre with the details, but nothing too obvious jumps out at me.

Series 5 of Endeavour finished last night and it is amazing to realise that Endeavour is already up to 23 episodes (Inspector Morse made it to 7 series and 33 episodes and Lewis to 9 series and 33 episodes). Given that the two previous series (in terms of broadcast date, not setting date) both made it to 33 episodes it is tempting to think that there may be 10 more episodes of Endeavour to look forward too – that is the kind of symmetry and detail that the writers of all three series would have appreciated.