Inspector Morse

Endeavour Morse
First appearance	Last Bus to Woodstock (1975)
Last appearance	The Remorseful Day (1999)
Created by	Colin Dexter
Portrayed by	John Thaw Shaun Evans
Information
Title	Detective Chief Inspector (DCI)
Nationality	British
Also appears in	Inspector Morse television series (1987-2000)

Inspector Morse is a fictional character in the eponymous series of detective novels by British author Colin Dexter, as well as the 33-episode 1987–2000 television adaptation of the same name, in which the character was portrayed by John Thaw. Morse is a senior CID (Criminal Investigation Department) officer with the Thames Valley Police in Oxford, England. With a Jaguar car (originally a Lancia), a thirst for English real ale and a penchant for music (especially opera and Wagner), poetry, art, classics, classic cars, and cryptic crossword puzzles, Morse presents a likeable persona, despite his sullen temperament.

Name and family

Morse's first name, "Endeavour", was kept a secret until the end of Death is Now My Neighbour (traditionally Morse claimed that he should be called "Morse" or joked that his first name was "Inspector"). In the series it is noted that his reticence about his Christian name led to a public school (Stamford School, where Colin Dexter and his brother were both pupils) nickname of "Pagan". The origin of his name 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. Morse's father was, by trade, a taxi driver ^[1] and Morse likes to explain the origin of his additional private income by saying that he "used to drive the Aga Khan" ^[2]. The author of the Morse novels, Colin Dexter, is 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.^[3]

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"

During the episode "Cherubim and Seraphim", it is learned that Morse's parents divorced when he was 12. He remained with his mother until her death three years later, when he had to return to his father. He had a dreadful relationship with his stepmother, Gwen,^[4] and claimed he only read poetry to annoy her and that her petty bullying almost drove him to suicide. He has a half-sister, Joyce, with whom he is on better terms, and was devastated when Joyce's daughter, Marilyn, took her own life.

Habits and personality

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. This background is in sharp juxtaposition to the working class origins of his assistant, Lewis (named for another rival clue-writer, Mrs. B. Lewis); in the novels, Lewis is Welsh, but this was altered to a northern English (Geordie) background in the TV series. He is also middle-aged in the books.

Morse's relationships with authority, the establishment, bastions of power and the status quo are markedly ambiguous, as sometimes are his relations with women. Morse is frequently portrayed in the act of patronising women characters, to the extent that some feminist critics have argued that Morse is a misogynist.^[5].

Morse's appearance of being patronising might have been misleading; he habitually showed empathy towards women, once opining that the female sex is not naturally prone to crime, being caring and non-violent. He was also never shy of showing his liking for attractive women, and often had dates with those involved in cases.

Morse is an extremely intelligent individual. He dislikes spelling errors and grammatical mistakes, demonstrated by the fact that in every personal or private document written to him he manages to point out at least one spelling mistake. He claims his approach to crime-solving is deductive and one of his key tenets is that "there is a 50 per cent chance that the last person to see the victim alive was the murderer". In reality, it is the pathologists who deduce; Morse uses immense intuition and his fantastic memory to get to the killer.

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 St John's College, Oxford. He lost the scholarship as the result of poor academic performance, which in turn resulted from a failed love affair (mentioned in the series at the end of "The Last Enemy" and recounted in detail in the novel The Riddle of the Third Mile, chapter 7. Forced to leave the University, he entered the Army, and on leaving it, joined the police. He often reflects on renowned scholars (such as A. E. Housman) who, like himself, failed to get academic degrees from Oxford.

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 complications of his neglected diabetes, a disease Colin Dexter shares.

Television

Main article: Inspector Morse (TV series)

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.

As of August 2011 ITV are filming a prequel series, Endeavour, with author Colin Dexter's participation. It will portray a young Morse in his university days,^[6] with Shaun Evans playing Morse.^[7] Another spin-off, Lewis, based on the television incarnation of Lewis has been produced from 2006.

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

In 2010, a brand new Inspector Morse stage play, written by Alma Cullen (author of four Morse screenplays for ITV) will tour the UK. The part of Morse will be played by Colin Baker. The play, entitled Morse—House of Ghosts, sees 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 will tour from August to December.^[8]

References

1. ^ The Dead of Jericho, chapter 21
2. ^ The Dead of Jericho, chapter 21
3. ^ Colin Dexter in Super Sleuths: Inspector Morse. Director: Katie Kinnaird
4. ^ Inspector Morse, "Cherubim and Seraphim", YouTube.
5. ^ Val McDermid, Review: Death Is Now My Neighbour
6. ^ Inspector Morse set for TV comeback as young man, Oxford Mail, 4 May 2011
7. ^ Inspector Morse is an enigma – let's keep him that way, The Telegraph, 5 August 2011
8. ^ "What's on Stage". http://www.whatsonstage.com/news/theatre/london/E8831273054191/Inspector+Morse+Has+Stage+Debut+with+Colin+Baker.html. 

Further reading

• Allen, Paul and Jan, Endeavoring to Crack the Morse Code (Inspector Morse) Exposure Publishing (2006)
• Bishop, David, The Complete Inspector Morse: From the Original Novels to the TV Series London: Reynolds & Hearn (2006) ISBN 1-905287-13-5
• Bird, Christopher, The World of Inspector Morse: A Complete A-Z Reference for the Morse Enthusiast Foreword by Colin Dexter London: Boxtree (1998) ISBN 0-7522-2117-5
• Goodwin, Cliff, Inspector Morse Country : An Illustrated Guide to the World of Oxford's famous detective London: Headline (2002) ISBN 0-7553-1064-0
• Leonard, Bill, The Oxford of Inspector Morse: Films Locations History Location Guides, Oxford (2004) ISBN 0-9547671-1-X
• Richards, Antony and Philip Attwell, The Oxford of Inspector Morse
• Richards, Antony, Inspector Morse On Location
• Sanderson, Mark, The Making of Inspector Morse Pan Macmillan (1995) ISBN 0-330-34418-8

External links

• Morse's Oxford Online Tour (created by Oxford University)
• Morse's Oxford Tour