Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Shaun Evans, Roger Allam, Sean Rigby, Anton Lesser, Caroline O’Neill, James Bradshaw, Sara Vickers, Abigail Thaw, Kevin McNally, Leo Starr, Richard Hope, Jake Kenny-Byrne, Bill Skinner, Todd Bell, Milo Mackenzie, Shaheen Khan, Ayesha Antoine, Jack Bannon, Michael Keane, Paul Bazely, Simon Harrison, Laurence Spellman, Jack Laskey.
The pieces are coming together, but even when the puzzle is complete, the chances are that the revealed picture will be one that still won’t give all the answers that are being sought by the armchair detective and sofa sleuth alike.
The penultimate episode of Endeavour sees old ground re-explored, and it is fitting that the lines of enquiry in several cases are converging, consistently Uniform in their ability to surprise and entangle the viewer in knots and infinitely close detail; for as with any mystery, you have to go back almost to the start to see the smallest clue take root.
It was once a symbol of your place in life, the uniform you wore, the club you belonged to, the way you treated those who had fallen on harder times, those you may have perceived you were above; and yet the blurring, rightly, of those symbols, and the damage wrought by men and women who wished to misuse the trust of the public, can be plainly observed throughout the episode, as brotherly issues, subtle clues in an age old murder, and corrupted police officers show their prominence in the life of the Oxfordshire detective.
Morse’s greatest strength of virtue is his biggest downfall, it was true in the Colin Dexter source material, it remains consistently so with Shaun Evans portraying the role originally made famous by the much-missed John Thaw. This effect, this emotional backdrop is perhaps given greater presence than at any time since the original series finale, The Remorseful Day, and whilst not as absolute, the viewer cannot but help draw lines of connection, that in which Prelude kicked off season nine, is but the drawing of breath between this and the start of Morse in The Dead Of Jericho.
With an ever consummate performance by Kevin McNally as Kenny/Superintendent Jolliphant, and Sean Rigby showing his considerable talent off to full effect as DS Strange, the penultimate episode of Endeavour is a gripping, tense, almost apprehensive episode which lives completely up to the legend to come.
Ian D. Hall