Inspector Morse

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Endeavour Morse

Morse (left) as played by John Thaw in the television adaptation, with Lewis (right) as played by Kevin Whately.
First appearance Last Bus to Woodstock, 1975 novel
The Dead of Jericho, 1987 TV
Last appearance The Remorseful Day, 2000
Created by Colin Dexter
Portrayed by John Thaw
Episode count 33
Information
Gender Male
Occupation Police Detective
Title Detective Chief Inspector
Nationality English
IMDb profile

Detective Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse is a fictional character in a series of thirteen detective novels by British author Colin Dexter, as well as the 33 episode television series produced by Central Independent Television from 1987–2000, in which he was portrayed by John Thaw. Morse is a senior CID (Criminal Investigation Department) officer with the Thames Valley Police in Oxford, England.

Contents

[edit] Novels

The Inspector Morse novels have been successful in both book and television serial form. The stories are set primarily in Oxford. With an old Mark 2 Jaguar car (originally a Lancia), a thirst for beer, intellectual snobbery and a penchant for Wagner, Morse presents a likeable persona despite his sullen temperament.

Morse dislikes spelling errors and grammatical mistakes, demonstrated by the fact that in every personal or private document written to him he manages to point out at least one spelling mistake. His approach to crime-solving, he asserts frequently, is deductive and one of his key tenets is that 'the last person to see the victim alive was the murderer'. Dexter is a fan of cryptic crosswords, and Morse is named after champion solver Sir Jeremy Morse, one of Dexter's arch-rivals as a clue-writer in the crossword world. In every novel (except the first, Last Bus to Woodstock) the surname of the killer is taken from those of winners of the weekly Azed solving competition in The Observer.[1] Indeed, for a while, Dexter wrote a weekly "How to Solve Cryptic Crosswords" column in the Observer's sister paper The Guardian.[2]

Morse's first name, "Endeavour", was kept a secret until the end of Death is Now My Neighbour (traditionally Morse claimed that he should be called 'Morse' or joked that his first name was 'Inspector'). In the series it is noted that his reticence about his "Christian" name led to a public school (Stamford School) nickname of "Pagan". The origin of his name is the vessel HM Bark 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. During the episode Cherubim and Seraphim, we learn that Morse's parents divorced when he was 12, but that he remained with his mother, until her death 3 years later. He has a half-sister, Joyce, and a dreadful relationship with his stepmother, Gwen.[1]

Morse is an interesting and complex character to assess from a social and political viewpoint. In sharp juxtaposition to the Welsh (altered to northern, Geordie, in the TV series) working class background of his assistant, Lewis (named for another rival clue-writer, Mrs. B. Lewis), Morse is ostensibly the embodiment of white, male, upper-middle-class Englishness, with a set of prejudices and assumptions to match. He is, for example, frequently portrayed in the act of patronising women characters to the extent that some feminist critics have argued[citation needed] that Morse is a misogynist.[3] Morse's relationships with authority, the establishment, bastions of power and the status quo are markedly ambiguous.

Although details of Morse's career are deliberately kept vague, it is hinted that as a schoolboy he won a scholarship to study at St John's College, Oxford. He lost the scholarship as the result of poor academic performance, which in turn resulted from a failed love affair (mentioned in the series at the end of "The Last Enemy"). Forced to leave the University he entered the Army, and on leaving it, joined the Police. He often reflects on renowned scholars (such as A. E. Housman) who, like himself, failed to get academic degrees from Oxford.

The novels in the series are:

Inspector Morse also appears in several stories in Dexter's short story collection, Morse's Greatest Mystery and Other Stories (1993, expanded edition 1994).

Dexter killed Morse in his last book, The Remorseful Day. Morse dies in a hospital bed from complications of his neglected type 2 diabetes.

[edit] Television

Main article: Inspector Morse (TV series)

The Inspector Morse novels were made into a TV series (also called Inspector Morse) for the British TV channel ITV. The series was made by Zenith Productions for Central (a company later acquired by Carlton) and comprises 33 two-hour episodes (100 minutes excluding commercials) — twenty more episodes than there are novels — produced between 1987 and 2000. The final episode was adapted from the final novel.

[edit] Radio

An occasional BBC Radio 4 series (for the Saturday Play) was made starring the voices of John Shrapnel as Morse and Robert Glenister as Lewis. The series was written by Guy Meredith and directed by Ned Chaillet. Episodes included: "The Wench is Dead" (28 March 1992); "Last Seen Wearing" (28 May 1994); and "The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn" (10 February 1996).

[edit] Further reading

  • Bishop, David, The Complete Inspector Morse: From the Original Novels to the TV Series London: Reynolds & Hearn (2006) ISBN 1-9052871-3-5
  • Bird, Christopher, The World of Inspector Morse: A Complete A-Z Reference for the Morse Enthusiast Foreword by Colin Dexter London: Boxtree (1998) ISBN 0752221175
  • Goodwin, Cliff, Inspector Morse Country : An Illustrated Guide to the World of Oxford's famous detective London: Headline (2002) ISBN 0755310640
  • Leonard, Bill, The Oxford of Inspector Morse: Films Locations History Location Guides, Oxford (2004) ISBN 0-9547671-1-X
  • Sanderson, Mark, The Making of Inspector Morse Pan Macmillan (1995) ISBN 0330344188

[edit] References

  1. ^ Crowther, Jonathan. A–Z of Crosswords: Insights into the Top Setters and their Puzzles. London: Collins. 2006. ISBN 0007229239
  2. ^ "How to Solve Cryptic Crosswords" - The Guardian
  3. ^ e.g. Review: Death Is Now My Neighbour by Val McDermid.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Inspector Morse series by Colin Dexter
Novels:
Short stories:
Characters:
TV series:
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