This has got to be the greatest TV detective series ever made. However I'll admit it's not my favourite. In fact I didn't like it when I first saw it way back in 1987. Over time I did grow to really like it and it really has stood the test of time. Although there were only 33 episodes, thankfully we can still enjoy them on ITV3 at the moment. There's also the option to watch some episodes on ITV Payer @ ITV.com.
"Twenty one years ago a young, fresh-faced detective climbed into an old red Jaguar Mk II car for the first time.
Beside him was a grumpy super-sleuth with an eye for the ladies and a thirst for beer. Inspector Morse had existed before then in the books of Colin Dexter but it was the ITV version that was to catapult the character into TV’s stratosphere."
Source of text and picture: ITV.com
This was the start of a trip that lasted for thirteen years. The first episode "The Dead of Jericho" in 1987 introduced us to Morse and Lewis and in the final one, "The Remorseful Day" in 2000, they killed Morse off.
According to ITV.com, Inspector Morse pulled in a telly audience of 18 million for the last three episodes. That's a third of the British population and more than a million more than would normally watch an England group match in The World Cup!
Although very intelligent, he was also an intellectual snob, a bit of a womaniser, pedantic, sullen, arrogant on occasions and annoyingly overbearing with poor Robbie Lewis his sergeant.
So why did we like him? Well he was a complex character and despite his flaws perhaps we liked his vulnerability. He was never successful with women, he always seemed to be in conflict with authority and in the later programmes his health was failing. He was clever too and even though it took some time he always deduced the guilty parties. However I think the main reason we liked him was his portrayal by John Thaw.
The cast was fantastic with John Thaw as Morse, the opera loving whisky drinking detective and Kevin Whately as the hard done by Geordie sergeant, Robbie Lewis. Every episode had a wonderful cast of guest actors, a veritable who's who of the British acting world, that over the years included John Gielgud, Janet Suzman, Samantha Bond, Anna Massey, Daniel Massey, Robert Hardy, Richard Briers, Amanda Burton, Richard WIlson, Jason Isaacs, Jim Broadbent, Zoe Wannamaker, Geoffrey Palmer, Simon Callow, Patrick Troughton, Lionel Jeffries and Rachel Weisz to name but a few. You also saw Colin Dexter in cameo roles in many episodes.
I loved the theme music, composed by Barrington Pheloung which very cleverly used a motif based on the Morse Code for MORSE. Just listen to the guitar and the wonderful strings in this very haunting melody.
It was a really sad scene and later as Lewis goes into the mortuary to say goodbye, he kisses Morse. What is even sadder now watching it, is that John Thaw developed cancer and died only fifteen months after the series ended.
A while ago I watched an excellent programme on the making of Morse and listened to a lot of the people involved in the production as well as the actors recalling their memories. I especially enjoyed listening to Kevin Whately (Sergeant Robbie Lewis), talking about the scene in the mortuary and laughing as he recalled discussing kissing Morse with John Thaw.
Here's a sad clip from the final episode where Morse is contemplating his retirement:
How heavily it dies
Into the west away;
Past touch and sight and sound
You're right about those two actors, they were the best.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit my favourite TV detective show was Harry O, although I do feel Morse was the best. I absolutely loved everything about Harry O, especially David Janssen! I'm going to write a post about that too.
I watched the first couple of Prime Suspects, Helen Mirren was great but I hated the really cruel violence and torture in it. Some crime shows are getting in on that and I'm not keen. I used to love Waking the Dead but it went that way too along with Wire in the Blood, Silent Witness and Cracker. I really prefer the gentler stuff of a few years ago with some humour in it like Pie in the Sky and Hetty Wainthrop Investigates.
I have enjoyed the Lewis series where Kevin Whately who played Sergeant Lewis in Morse, has his own programme. Not quite in the Morse league but not too bloodthirsty and very good.
Not sure whether you get all these programmes Kat.
I have never seen this show, or heard of it, to come to think about it. I do know about Harry O and David Janssen, but must admit that I never watched it but once or twice and don't remember anything about it.
ReplyDeleteI never watched it, but clearly, I should.
ReplyDeleteI never watched the series originally but now thoroughly enjoy the programme. I also now enjoy Kavanagh QC.
ReplyDeleteLoved this post Winifred and will be back for more. A x