Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Roger Allam, Shaun Evans, James Bradshaw, Jack Laskey, Anton Lesser, Sean Rigby, David Oakes, Lee Asquith-Coe, Jack Bannon, Samuel Barnett, Martin Bassindale, Margaret Clunie, Sam Coulson, Crystal Leaity, Ben Mansfield, Shvorne Marks, Louis Maskell, Martin Mayger, Robin McCallum, Hilton McRae, Caroline O’ Neil, Guy Potter, Dakota Blue Richards, Vincent Riotta, Lewis Rainer, Nick Sampson, Abigail Thaw, Joe Sims, Meghan Treadway, Dan Trotter, Jemima West.

The innocent will always come through in the end but it will take so much out of them that it can hardly be surprising if they turn their back on everything and everybody they know, even if it is for a short while, they will still shun the society that let them down and forced them to make the kind of sacrifice that nobody would ever voluntarily choose.

For Morse, the events that lead him to being incarcerated were beyond the pale, they spoke of a corrupt force eager to keep their own agenda and take all those who stood between them and their ultimate goals out of the picture completely. Yet Morse was also find an equilibrium, a balance in this and as the new series of Endeavour opened after a two year break, the ground he walked upon was one that was filled with the knowledge that he was not the man he was, that despite being seen still as Pagan in some circles and a bag man in others, he was, in the eyes of those that matters, a fine detective.

Whilst the series has been away the profile of Shaun Evans has perhaps arguably changed and with various other ventures running it is no wonder that the young Morse has been placed on the back shelf. However it is more than welcome to have the actor back playing a part so beloved of the British public, a role that honestly suits him down to the ground.

With Roger Allam returning to the role of Detective Inspector Thursday and David Oakes performing the difficult role of Joss Bixby with tremendous effect, the young Morse is once more tempted back to the role of policeman and detective and in Ride, the powers of deduction are pushed to straining point as the two worlds he inhabits, one reluctantly as a scholar, the other perhaps just as grudgingly as a man imbibed with a sense of duty and honour collide. The forced choice of routes to take played out with exemplary fashion by Mr. Evans and one that no one would delve into lightly.

Endeavour may have been away a lot longer than its millions of fans may have expected but its return is very much true to form; crime after all never stays away too long.

Ian D. Hall