Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Shaun Evans, Roger Allam, Anton Lesser, Sean Rigby, James Bradshaw, Caroline O’Neil, Sara Vickers, Simon Harrison, Richard Riddell, Alexander Hanson, Faith Omole, Zaris-Angel Hator, Carol Royle, Laura Donoughue, Michael Jenn, Precious Mustapha, Paul Jesson, Aiden McArdle, Alison Newman, Ian Saynor, Tom Gordon, Abigail Thaw, Colin Tierney, Ian Burfield.

Corruption, at any level, leaves a bad taste in the mouth, the corners cut in search of profit is exploitation and fraud, a vice which is addictive, a distortion of what we are, and it always boils down to greed and temptation. None of us are immune from the bugle call of the lure of lucre, we all belief we are worth more, perhaps even bigger in stature than we really are, and when the truth is presented to us that we are just cogs in an ever increasing wheel, we see the easy way out as a down payment for all the hurt we have endured.

It is to temptation that the final episode of the sixth series of Endeavour owes its own dues too, a series which has seen once firm allies distrust each other, families crack under the pressure of expectation and the darkness of inducing a fellow officer to look the other way and become bent, to lose the straight bat that he has always played with.

The Bugle Call, the rallying of the forces is how Degüello  plays out, the coming together of the forces of light, it is almost the pinnacle of the them vs us syndrome, the gun-fight at the O.K. Cowley, the  and one in which the side of justice tackles the shame brought upon the Oxford community, cutting corners, allowing residents to die as their homes crumble around their feet, of flooding the market with cheap cut heroin. It is in this face of corruption that the series has tended to with great care, it is one thing to uncover a policeman who is on the take, but when the perversion of justice goes higher, infiltrates the ranks, then the whole force should be seen as being rotten, it has happened across the world, and the thin line slowly evaporates because of it.

With stirring performances by the long-standing actors in the series, especially Anton Lesser who has performed with absolute conviction and admiration as Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright, the sixth series of Endeavour has been one of unmitigated brilliance, a concept of bringing a prequel to a much-loved character’s back story to the screen a continuing story of success.

Ian D. Hall