Endeavour Morse (Detective Chief Inspector Morse) is the primary character of the Inspector Morse Television Series and Novels. Morse is a CID officer for the Thames Valley Police in Oxford. In the series, Morse is noted for his Jaguar Car, thirst for beer and passion for music, literature and art. Morse is also well noted for his sullen temperament, yet likeable persona. He is portrayed by John Thaw followed by Shaun Evans in the prequel TV movie and the follow up series Endeavour.
Origins of the character[]
The author of the Morse novels, Colin Dexter, was a fan of cryptic crosswords, and Morse is named after champion solver Jeremy Morse, one of Dexter's arch-rivals as a clue-writer in the crossword world. Dexter used to walk along the bank of the River Thames at Oxford opposite the boathouse belonging to 22nd Oxford Sea Scout Group, the building is named "T.S. Endeavour". Morse went to the same public school, Stamford School, that Colin Dexter and his brother were both pupils in.
Biography[]
Name and family[]
Morse's unusual Christian name "Endeavour" is due to a combination of his parents' interests. Its origin is the vessel HMS Endeavour, as Morse's mother was a Quaker (Quakers have a tradition of "virtue names") and his father was a fan of Captain James Cook. Because of his unwillingness to use his Christian name and his insistence on simply being referred to as "Morse", his Oxford friends gave him the nickname "Pagan" (Deceived by Flight). The first (and only) person he reveals his name to is Adele Cecil, and even then he does so indirectly, by giving her an anagram to solve. He seems quite distressed when she is able to do so and expects both her and Lewis to laugh at him. He is relieved when Adale decides to keep calling him by his surname (Death Is Now My Neighbour).
Morse's father was, by trade, a taxi driver and Morse likes to explain the origin of his additional private income by saying that he "used to drive the Aga Khan". When Morse was a child his parents divorced and he stayed with his mother, but had to go to live with his father's new family after her death.[1] He had a dreadful relationship with his stepmother, Gwen, and claims he only read poetry to annoy her and that her petty bullying almost drove him to suicide (Cherubim and Seraphim). He isn't really welcome at Gwen's house even when his father is gravely ill. Similarly, his father seems to have no feelings for him whatsoever, even on his death-bed. Morse has a half-sister, Joyce, with whom he is on better terms, and they clearly care about each other (Home). He is devastated when Joyce's daughter, Marilyn, takes her own life caused by the pills supplied by Desmond Collier (Cherubim and Seraphim).
Career[]
Although details of Morse's career are deliberately kept vague, it is hinted that as a schoolboy he won a scholarship to study at Lonsdale College, Oxford. During his time at Oxford he was apparently talent-spotted and was considered for a job in the intelligence services (Quartet). He lost the scholarship as the result of poor academic performance, which in turn resulted from a failed romantic relationship (The Last Enemy). After leaving Oxford he joined the Army where he worked as a cipher clerk in the Signal Corps (Girl). Upon leaving the Army, Morse became a policeman, which led him back to Oxford on which was supposed to be a one-case trip and which instead turned into a permanent engagement as he became Fred Thursday's bagman (Overture). He holds the rank of Detective Constable for a number of years, with a number of obstacles stopping him from getting a promotion to Detective Sergeant. He is considering leaving Oxford for London to take a job there that would come with rank when he is finally promoted to Detective Sergeant as he receives the George Medal "for special services in defence of the realm" (Harvest). When the City and the County police merger into Thames Valley is announced, Morse's future in the force becomes as uncertain as everyone else's. He ends up in Woodstock and with the local CID closing due to budget concerns, he is faced with the choice of either becoming an uniformed policeman again or leaving the force, eventually deciding on the former. He is transferred back thanks to Strange using his masonic connections, although he never learns it was Strange who organized this transfer (Pylon). He continues to serve under Ronnie Box, and then after Thursday again when the latter is reinstated to the rank of Detective Chief Inspector. Eventually Morse himself is promoted first to Detective Inspector and then to Detective Chief Inspector, although the precise timeline of these promotions is not known. In the late 1980, he is considered for a promotion to Detective Superintendent, but is deemed unfit because of his difficult temperament and lack of interest in internal politics (The Dead of Jericho). After his death, Morse becomes something of a cautionary tale about not quitting the job when one should (What Lies Tangled).
Personality and habits[]
Morse is ostensibly the embodiment of white, male, upper-middle-class Englishness, with a set of prejudices and assumptions to match. He may thus be considered a late example of the gentleman detective, a staple of British detective fiction.
Both extremely intelligent and well-educated, Morse should be called a classicist. He is fluent in Latin and very well-read, being capable to quote both a great number of poems and seemingly most of the Bible (despite being an atheist) from memory. He enjoys intellectual challenges, such as crosswords and anagrams. Because of his education, he gets easily irritated by spelling errors (Rocket) and anything he considers to be an incorrect usage of the English language, a subject on which he lectures Lewis on a regular basis (The Way Through the Woods).
Morse's greatest passion is art and he enjoys literature (mostly poetry), painting, and especially opera. His favourite composer is Wagner, but he also enjoys other classical composers and often listens to opera albums. He seems to have a very personal relationship with the music he loves and explains to Thursday that he thought it to be the one thing worth fighting for. He is deeply distressed when opera is chosen as a key in a series of brutal murders (Fugue). Upon witnessing the not at all glamorous private lives of opera stars, he gets disillusioned about the one thing he always truly cares about, which prompts him to take a sabbatical (Twilight of the Gods). He also corresponds with foreign Wagner enthusiasts (Music to Die For). Another passion of Morse's is vintage cars. He drives a red Mark II Jaguar untill his death, even as the car becomes progressively outdated. Morse's focus on the fine arts often means he is deeply disinterested in the subjects most people consider engaging, such as popular cinema or sports. He is visibly out of his element when his date with Carol takes him to a horror movie (Cartouche), but he seems to have some interest in more ambitious movies, such as those of Ingmar Bergman (Rocket). During the football cup, he is the only person at the police station - and apparently the only male in town - not to follow the games (Nocturne). Similarly, when Lewis goes undercover as a member of a cricket team and Morse is forced to watch the game, he is ostentatiously bored the whole time (Deceived by Flight).
Morse's relationships with authority, the establishment, bastions of power and the status quo are markedly ambiguous. He often chooses to go with what feels to be the right thing to do rather then follow the law or his superiors' orders. He gets into arguments with both Thursday and Strange concerning beating up people to obtain information, which he sees as crossing the line (Coda). On the other hand, he is willing to break the law to obtain information he needs by going through a suspect's documents without a warrant, the possible distinction here being the lack of violence. Just as Morse used to argue with his superiors, this decision leads to him having an argument with Lewis, with the latter almost transferring as a result (Driven to Distraction). This approach also means that Morse never is never shy about saying what he thinks, even if it means rubbing people the wrong way. Because of this he makes a number of powerful enemies and is considered unsuitable for further promotion.
Similar ambiguity may be found in Morse's relations with women. On one hand, he can be patronizing towards females to the extent that some feminist critics have argued that he is a misogynist. On the other hand, he is very compassionate and empathetic towards women and doesn't believe them to be naturally prone to crime. When his views on women are challenged, Morse becomes very judgmental, as can be seen when he meets a prostitute who apparently isn't forced into the job by men or her circumstance - as Morse always assumes in such cases - but chooses it freely (Muse). Because of this complicated relationship with women in general, he has a blindspot when it comes to female criminals or women willing to use him for their own goals. This ambiguity translates to Morse's love life as well. He is always very proper with women, even when it means stopping himself from declaring his feelings, as he does when Joan Thursday leaves Oxford after being held hostage at the bank where she used to work (Coda). However, this doesn't stop him from flirting or even going on dates with women involved in his cases, which is at best unprofessional and at worst right out dangerous. He may be seen as something of a romantic, claiming to be willing to give up the job for true love (Icarus), but seems to enjoy more casual sex as well, like in his relationship with Claudine (Colours) or his fling with Violetta (Oracle).
Despite being brought up as a Quaker (or at least as much as his father would allow it), Morse doesn't believe in God. He claims that his only reason for accompanying his mother to a Quaker meeting house was not to disappoint her, which suggests he was already an atheist as a teenager (Arcadia). Even when faced with the possibility of the existence of the supernatural, he is always firm in his belief that there is no afterlife (Nocturne). He also doesn't believe in anything that can't be immediately proven by science and is highly critical of government funds being spent on fringe science (Oracle). However, this skepticism seems to be something beyond his control rather than a choice, as when asked by Lewis about his views on God, Morse claims he would like to believe there was a God, as that would give him a sense of unavoidable justice for all (Promised Land). Similarly, after Desmond Collier's death in a car accident, Morse angrily states that he would like to believe in Hell, because it would mean the man wouldn't be able to escape punishment (Cherubim and Seraphim). While settling his matters shortly before his death, he is clear about not wishing to have any kind of funeral service (The Remorseful Day).
By the modern standards, Morse would most probably be considered a high-functioning alcoholic. He is a teetotaler when he first returns to Oxford as a policeman, but after being given a drink by Thursday, he discovers that the alcohol helps him and keeps on drinking for the rest of his life (Overture). When getting back to active duties after being shot, he lies to the medical examiner about the amount of alcohol he consumes, which points to him being aware of the fact that he does indeed drink too much as early as the mid 1960s, when he is in his late 20s (Trove). The tipping point of Morse's drinking problem comes after his expedition to Venice during which Violetta takes a bullet for him and dies in his arms (Zenana). After this trauma, Morse starts to drink much more heavily than ever before, even carrying a hip flask, something that he never used to do before (Striker). This problem is further exacerbated by Gwen's unwelcome visit, which brings back painful memories from Morse's childhood (Scherzo). Eventually his addiction reaches a point where his inability to control the drinking becomes obvious to people around him. Concerned for Morse's well-being, Thursday forces him to take a four-week leave and urges him to seek help. Despite his initial protestations about not needing help, Morse eventually realizes that he does indeed have a problem and agrees to take the leave (Terminus). By the 1980s, Morse has his drinking more under control, although he is still drinking pretty much every day. The only time he refuses Lewis' offer to go for a beer is after the two of them solve a murder case connected to a local brewery (The Sins of the Fathers); this lack of interest in alcohol is indeed very temporary. A few years before his death he gets a health scare and is warned by his doctor to quit drinking, but he disregards this advice (The Wench is Dead). This unwillingness - or inability - to give up alcohol leads to a considerable deterioration of his mental faculties and eventually to his death from a heart attack (The Remorseful Day).
Morse's beliefs and views about the issues of the world are based on his own internal sense of right and wrong rather than any specific ideology or political doctrine. He sees abortion as nobody's business but the woman's and chooses not to inform a Catholic couple that their teenage daughter has undergone the procedure (Last Seen Wearing). He also has a progressive view when it comes to homosexuality, getting quite angry at a Christian activist urging him to prosecute a gay man just because of his sexual orientation (Canticle) and ensuring his old friend that he doesn't mind him being gay (The Infernal Serpent). Despite his love for alcohol, Morse is opposed to drugs and is quite shocked when Thursday reveals that he used to smoke marijuana. After unwittingly taking hallucinogens slipped into his drink, he has a really bad time, which only makes his stance on drugs stronger. (Canticle). While discussing the subject with Lewis, he admits that he isn't interested in drugs because he is afraid of losing control (Cherubim and Seraphim). A firm atheist convinced that death is the end and therefore life is always the better choice, he is terrified of the notion of assisted suicide and unable to understand medical professionals taking part in such a procedure, as he sees it as going against the Hippocratic Oath (Dead on Time). Similarly, he perceives euthanasia as reprehensible and is devastated when a young girl in a coma is taken off the life support by her mother (Deadly Slumber). He claims he doesn't vote (Trove).
Throughout his life, Morse experiences a number of traumas, both physical and psychological. These include the death of his mother, being forced to live with his abusive stepmother (Cherubim and Seraphim), being shot (Home), serving time in prison after being framed for murder (Ride), being taken hostage during a bank robbery (Coda), being fed hallucinogens and experiencing a bad trip (Canticle), the murder of a young officer he was supposed to teach police work (Icarus), the suicide of his former fiancée (Dead on Time), and the suicide of his niece (Cherubim and Seraphim). His default way of dealing with any such trauma is denial and he is quite adept in convincing both himself and the people around him that everything is fine even when it isn't. After being shot he displays clear signs of the post-traumatic stress disorder, but when asked about it by Thursday (who has direct experience with this sort of trauma after serving in World War II) he denies anything being wrong (Trove). Similar denial can be seen in Morse's reaction to the murder of George Fancy. He goes only as far as admitting that he's not the same as before, but is unwilling or unable to admit just how much this death bothers him, even advising Strange to stop looking into the murder (Pylon). On the rare occasions he does discuss such traumatic events, it's always caused by something other than the need to share his feelings. He briefly discusses his time in prison with Strange only after getting angry at crude remarks Strange makes about the subject. He also discusses it with Thursday, but in this case the reason is his need to make amends to his boss, as he feels responsible for Thursday getting shot (Ride). Similarly, he only divulges the truth about his childhood to Lewis when he feels it necessary to prepare the Sergeant for the unavoidable meeting with his father's family (Cherubim and Seraphim).
Appearances[]
Novels[]
The novels in the series are:
- Last Bus to Woodstock (1975)
- Last Seen Wearing (1976)
- The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn (1977)
- Service of All the Dead (1979)
- The Dead of Jericho (1981)
- The Riddle of the Third Mile (1983)
- The Secret of Annexe 3 (1986)
- The Wench is Dead (1989)
- The Jewel That Was Ours (1991)
- The Way Through the Woods (1992)
- The Daughters of Cain (1994)
- Death is Now My Neighbour (1996)
- The Remorseful Day (1999)
Inspector Morse also appears in several stories in Dexter's short story collection, Morse's Greatest Mystery and Other Stories (1993, expanded edition 1994).
Dexter killed off Morse in his last book, The Remorseful Day. Morse dies in hospital from a heart attack, caused by his years of drinking, damaging his arteries.
Television[]
The Inspector Morse novels were made into a TV series (also called Inspector Morse) for the British TV channel ITV. The series was made by Zenith Productions for Central (a company later acquired by Carlton) and comprises 33 two-hour episodes (100 minutes excluding commercials)—20 more episodes than there are novels—produced between 1987 and 2000. The last episode was adapted from the final novel, The Remorseful Day, in which as previously stated Morse dies.
Another spin-off, similarly comprising 33 two-hour episodes Lewis, based on the television incarnation of Lewis has been produced from 2006 and last showed in 2015.
Around August 2011, ITV started filming a prequel series, Endeavour, with author Colin Dexter's participation. It portrays a young Morse in his university days and early career, with English actor Shaun Evans playing Morse. In 2012, it was announced that ITV had commissioned a full series following the success of the pilot episode. After the success of the first series, which aired in 2013, ITV commissioned a second series due for 2014, four episodes in total, each two hours long. Several further seasons have been made, and as of early 2020 the world of Endeavour has reached 1970.
Radio[]
An occasional BBC Radio 4 series (for the Saturday Play) was made starring the voices of John Shrapnel as Morse and Robert Glenister as Lewis. The series was written by Guy Meredith and directed by Ned Chaillet. Episodes included: The Wench is Dead (23 March 1992); Last Seen Wearing (28 May 1994); and The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn (10 February 1996).
Theatre[]
A brand new Inspector Morse stage play appeared in 2010, written by Alma Cullen (author of four Morse screenplays for ITV). The part of Morse was played by Colin Baker. The play, entitled Morse—House of Ghosts, saw the inscrutable Detective Chief Inspector Morse looking to his past, when an old acquaintance becomes the lead suspect in a murder case that involves the on-stage death of a young actress. The play toured the UK from August to December 2010.
Notes[]
- ↑ There is a discrepancy between Inspector Morse and Endeavour concerning Morse's age at the time of his mother's death. In Cherubim and Seraphim Morse tells Lewis that his parents divorced when he was 12 and he stayed with his mother until her death three years later. In Home he tells Thursday that his father taught him to shoot the year his mother died, when he was 12; when he visits Constance's grave it gives 1950 as the year of her death, which would indeed make Morse 12 at the time.