Inspector Morse (TV series)

Inspector Morse
Format	Drama
Created by	Colin Dexter Tony Warren
Starring	John Thaw Kevin Whately James Grout
Country of origin	UK
No. of series	7 full series and 5 specials
No. of episodes	33 (List of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	Zenith Productions Central Independent Television Carlton Television
Running time	100 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ITV
Picture format	4:3 (1987-1993) 16:9 (1995-2000)
Original run	6 January 1987 (1987-01-06) – 15 November 2000 (2000-11-15)
Chronology
Related shows	Lewis

Inspector Morse is a detective drama based on Colin Dexter's series of Chief Inspector Morse novels. The series starred John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis. Dexter makes a cameo appearance 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.

Anthony Minghella scripted the first Morse episode, The Dead of Jericho, which aired on January 6, 1987 and featured Gemma Jones.

The series comprises 33 two-hour episodes (100 minutes excluding commercials) — 20 more episodes than there are novels — produced between 1987 and 2000. The series remains popular and is frequently repeated on ITV1 and ITV3 in Britain.

Production

Morse was played by John Thaw, and the faithful Detective Sergeant Lewis by Kevin Whately. The character of Lewis was transformed from the elderly Welshman and ex-boxer of the novels to a much younger Geordie police sergeant with a family, as a foil to Morse's cynical streak. Morse's first name isn't 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.

John 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 wasn't 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 were being wasted in positions which 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 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.

Morse interests

Morse had 'highbrow' passions: music (especially opera; Mozart and Wagner among his favourites), poetry, art, classics, British real ale, classic cars, and cryptic crossword puzzles. When seen at home, Morse is usually listening to music, solving a crossword, reading classic literature, or drinking ale. While working, Morse subsists on quickly downed pints of ale in pubs, usually bought by Lewis who struggles to keep up. Many of his cases touch on Morse's interests and it is often his knowledge that helps him solve them.

In "The Death of the Self", the episode ends with Morse seeing one of the characters, an opera singer recovering from a long absence through stage-fright, make her 'comeback' performance at the amphitheatre in Verona, while in "Twilight of the Gods", he investigates the life of one of his opera idols, Gwladys Probert, a world-famous soprano. In "Who Killed Harry Field?", the murder victim is a painter, and in "The Way Through the Woods", Morse researches the pre-Raphaelite movement to aid his investigations.

In several episodes, Morse's crossword-solving ability helps him to spot where people have changed identities by creating a new name which is an anagram. In "Masonic Mysteries", he is maliciously implicated in the murder of a woman when his Times newspaper is placed in the victim's house, with his handwriting filling in the crossword. In the same episode, the writer names Morse's old Inspector from when he was a detective sergeant as 'Macnutt' in homage to D.S. Macnutt, better known as the famous and influential Observer puzzle setter 'Ximenes'.

In "The Sins of the Fathers", he investigates a murder in a brewery-owning family while, in the first episode, "The Dead of Jericho", he compares the life of a dead woman with that of Jocasta, the mother of Oedipus. The same episode also introduced his Jaguar Mark 2 car (which is damaged at the start and end of the story). His interest in classic cars is also explored in "Driven to Distraction" where, he suspects a car-salesman of murder. He so strongly seems to dislike Jeremy Boynton that he refers to Morse's own Jaguar as "she", which makes Morse convinced of his guilt.

In "Cherubim and Seraphim", he investigates the suicide of his niece and discusses with her English teacher about her interest in the poet Sylvia Plath, who also killed herself. The teacher defends the teaching of Plath's poetry to students and says that her suicide will not influence students to do the same. In "Second Time Around", investigating the killing of a retired detective, Morse is haunted by an early case of his in which a young girl had been murdered and an obvious suspect could very well be innocent.

Music

The theme and incidental music for the series was written by Barrington Pheloung and utilises a motif based on the Morse code for "M.O.R.S.E.". In the documentary, The Mystery of Morse, Pheloung states that he occasionally spelled out the name of the killer in Morse code in the music, or alternatively spelled out the name of another character as a red herring. The series also included opera and other classical genres as part of its soundtrack, most notably pieces by Richard Wagner and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (whose Magic Flute is a significant plot device in one episode).

Locations

• Beaumont College (in the TV episode, "The Last Enemy") and Lonsdale College (in The Riddle of the Third Mile, the book on which "The Last Enemy" was based) are both fictional Oxford colleges. The real Brasenose College and Exeter College were used to represent Lonsdale, while Corpus Christi was used for Beaumont. Both fictional names are from real streets in Oxford. There is a Lonsdale College at Lancaster University. St Saviour's College in the episode, "Fat Chance" is also fictitious, though New College was used as the location for it. Merton and University College were used for the fictional Beaufort College in the episode, "The Infernal Serpent". Christ Church appears in "The Daughters of Cain" as the fictional Wolsey College.

• Eton College was used extensively as an alternative set to depict various parts of Oxford through the series, notably the county court in the episode, "The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn".

• Many of the generic locations used throughout the series, including Morse's house, were situated in Ealing, London amongst the residential streets to the north of Ealing Broadway.

• Some scenes were also filmed at Brunel University, London.

Props

The Jaguar Mark 2 car (with number plate 248 RPA) used in the television series became synonymous with the character, and in November 2005 sold for more than £100,000.

Spinoffs

Lewis

Main article: Lewis (TV series)

A pilot episode, Lewis, starring Kevin Whately as the now-promoted (and widowed, making the character's situation closer to Morse's) Inspector Lewis went into production in July 2005. This pilot was broadcast on ITV on 29 January 2006, and in the US it aired on PBS on July 31 of the same year under the title Inspector Lewis. A further three episodes were broadcast on ITV in February and March 2007. April 2011 saw the fifth series finish its run.

Endeavour

Main article: Endeavour (TV series)

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.

See also

• List of Inspector Morse episodes

External links

• Granada International's Official Inspector Morse website
• Official Inspector Morse website
• Inspector Morse at itv.com.
• Inspector Morse at the British Film Institute.
• Inspector Morse at the BFI's Screenonline.
• Inspector Morse at the MBC's. Encyclopedia of Television.
• Inspector Morse at the Internet Movie Database.
• Inspector Morse episode guide
• http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092379/episodes