Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Shaun Evans, Roger Allam, Sean Rigby, Anton Lesser, James Bradshaw, Caroline O’ Neill, Sara Vickers, Adam Ewan, William Sebag-Montefiore, Anna Burnett, Adam Mirsky, Ray Emmet Brown, Chirag Lobo, Martin Hutson, Marion Bailey, Matthew Marsh, Ben Bishop, Estelle Daniels, Jennifer Kirby, Abigail Thaw, Anthony Flanagan.

When one of the great detectives of British television pays homage to one of the finest, if not the best of murder mystery writers, the outcome, can either be one of forced recoil, almost a cringe of mixed volatility, or as in the case of the Endeavour episode Terminus, can leave the armchair detective almost hugging themselves with glee as the script unfolds, loving the delicate balance created between sheer admiration and genuine impressive insight.

In a series which has more than lived up to its predecessor’s towering presence on television, and which gives the beloved Oxford detective, Morse, his beginnings in the police force, Terminus is surely to be seen as one that is not afraid to walk down the road of Agatha Christie, whilst retaining the overriding elements of the central character and the support from the more grounded, earthy types, around him.

With the young Morse struggling with the demons of alcoholism, the nightmare of a year in which the world turned darker, uglier, further from the days of the insistent divide between law and order and that of anarchy, the latest series takes a delicious turn with the final episode of the series as the mysterious happenings inside an old abandoned hotel, the scene of a deadly killing spree some eight years earlier, and the worst snow storm for a number of years to hit the county, all combine to bring a classic murder mystery to the screen.

Russell Lewis’ script is an absolute detective delight, all the elements of deduction are in place, and even then, the result is one that leaves the armchair detective having their initial suspicions confirmed, and then superbly pulled from underneath them, leaving them doubtful of their own senses, their own reason.

In the same vein as Agatha Christie, Russell Lewis pulls the audience in, he presents a victim and then offers various solutions with an intricate detail of the human condition, one heightened by the setting, the past, and with Endeavour Morse unable to trust anyone around him, including himself. It is classic detective drama, and quite by some distance the finest of the Endeavour series so far.

With sterling contributions from the ever-reliable Roger Allam as DCI Fred Thursday, Caroline O’Neill as his suffering wife Win, Sara Vickers as his daughter Joan, and Ray Emmet Brown as the Oxford Bus Driver, Terminus is detailed, beautifully paced, attention packed to the delight of the sudden closed door of investigation, and the prospect of being, as the armchair detective occasionally wishes to be, completely wrong in the reveal.

A superb piece of television drama.   

Ian D. Hall