Originally published by L.S. Media. January 4th 2012.
L.S. Media Rating *****
Cast: Shaun Evans, Roger Allam, Patrick Malahide, Danny Webb, Abigail Thaw, Flora Montgomery, James Bradshaw, Rachael Heaton.
I admit; I was quite prepared to hate it. However, the moment Barrington Pheloung’s musical composition started, a new dawn in the life of Morse began. This though wasn’t the chiselled, finally tuned, instinctive Morse that viewers first came across 25 years ago, this was a Morse that was nervous, shy, prone to mistakes, somewhat damned egotistical but still instantly loveable.
Endeavour is Morse before Morse, a man beset with a brilliant brain but with the baggage of a past that hints, twists and leaves clues that in some cases never got fully answered even at the very end in the Remorseful Day.
Endeavour is planned as a one off, a nod to the shows 25th Anniversary of its first appearance on I.T.V. and it was a nod that should become a full bloodied series. The ingredients are there; the characterisation is excellent and on the evidence of the one story shown, a future hit for the beleaguered station.
The only thing missing is of course the superb John Thaw, who in all the right ways was Morse. Nobody can ever take the place of this detective, it would be almost sacrilegious to the fans of John Thaw and more importantly Colin Dexter, the creator of the much loved policeman to think of someone else redoing stories such as The Way Through the Woods and The Dead of Jericho. Saying that, there is a past to Morse that needs exploring and this story shows this in a captivating and worthy way.
Thankfully Oxford hasn’t changed that much, sure its modernised and residents of Oxford would point to odd features that were never there or have changed beyond recognition from 1965 when the story is set. It’s the quaintness, the colleges that make up the character of Oxford and which are so intrinsic to the story that remain the same. What fan of the Morse stories that has been to Oxford hasn’t walked round the University’s many buildings and stared at the imposing seats of learning. The shot of Morse looking up at the outside of one of these colleges was touching and the first in many moments that caught the viewer’s attention.
The story itself sometimes can be second place when you have blinkers on but there were so many moments within the script that, as with the Sky television production of Treasure Island, it was a tale that demanded attention all the way through. Not a programme to dip in and out of!
If you own the box-sets of Morse, enjoy but in Shaun Evans the makers of the programme have found an actor of quiet undemanding quality who not only captures the mannerisms of the late John Thaw but also the imagination of the viewer. If the show isn’t commissioned and the great Colin Dexter consulted about it, then I.T.V. doesn’t deserve the goodwill shown to them with their other hits such as Downton Abbey.
Ian D. Hall