Scene of the crime

Inspector Morse continues his investigations in ‘Endeavour’

By Sarah Passingham TV Media

L iterary detectives are right at home in PBS’s “Masterpiece,” especially the British ones. When “Sherlock,” the hit series about the legendary Sherlock Holmes, made its way to this side of the Atlantic, it fit right in among the channel’s other British imports, and Det. Const. Endeavour Morse has done the same.

British crime drama “Endeavour” returns to PBS with a new episode on Sunday, July 22. The series follows the most recent television incarnation of Endeavour Morse, a detective popularized by author Norman Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse novels. Sunday’s episode sees Det. Sgt. Morse, portrayed by actor Shaun Evans (“The Last Weekend”), continue to investigate an assassination attempt in Oxford after his probe is unexpectedly cut short, while his partner Fred Thursday (Roger Allam, “V for Vendetta,” 2005) looks into a related case.

“Endeavour” is not the first TV adaptation of Dexter’s famous detective, though it is chronologically the first. Set in the 1960s, “Endeavour” is a prequel to the longrunning detective drama, “Inspector Morse” which ran on British television from 1987 to 1993 and continued airing specials until 2000. A spinoff of “Inspector Morse,” called “Lewis,” was created in 2006 and centered on Robert

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Lewis (Kevin Whately, “The English Patient,” 1996), Morse’s sergeant from the original show. The current series has seen Morse begin as a young, disillusioned constable about to quit the force until he is taken under the wing of veteran Det. Thursday, who sees his potential. Under his tutelage, Morse thrives as he successfully investigates the crimes of Oxford and eventually becomes a sergeant after a long road toward passing his exams.

Evans certainly can relate to his character’s rise through the ranks as he quickly found success as an actor once he put his mind to the task. He began appearing on stage and in film after making the decision to act at a young age, telling Express Sunday, “I just thought, ‘I think I will do that.’ That’s why I feel quite lucky that it’s always been quite clear to me what I should do.” One of Evans’ first roles was in the comedy series “Teachers,” which was also one of the first roles for current “The Late Late Show” host James Corden. The two both later starred in the biopic “Telstar: The Joe Meek Story” in 2008.

Evans has spent more than 15 years stacking his filmography with varied roles in British television, like those in miniseries “The Take,” legal drama “Silk” and TV movie “The Scandalous Lady W,” making him a natural choice to take over such an iconic role as Morse in “Endeavour.”

Evans is not the only “Endeavour” actor bringing a wealth of screen and stage experience to his performance in the show. Allam is one of those British actors that you’ve seemingly seen in everything. He has appeared in episodes of notable crime dramas “Midsomer Murders,” “Waking the Dead” and “Foyle’s War” as well as on film in movies such as “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” (2011) and “The Lady in the Van” (2015). He notably portrayed Illyrio Mopatis in “Game of Thrones,” and in a timebending appearance, he played character Denis Cornford in an episode of “Inspector Morse.”

The long list of memorable film credits attributed to him is something of a new development in his career as Allam began his screen work rather late. Not initially predisposed to building a career on screen, he told the Irish Times, “I had to make a conscious decision to do more on screen ... I never thought it was something I could actually do because it wasn’t obvious to me how it was made.” Allam began his acting career in a feminist theater troupe in the 1970s before spending a decade with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Though proud of his film and television work, Allam admitted to The Guardian that his greatest achievement was performing as Falstaff in the 2010 production of “Henry IV” at Shakespeare’s Globe in London.

Credit for the success of “Endeavour” is not solely due to its performances, compelling though they are. Screenwriter Russell Lewis has written every single episode of the series since its debut. Though now a prolific television writer, Lewis began his career as a child actor performing in films and on stage in a 1972 production of “Young Winston” directed by Richard Attenborough. Lewis gave up acting to pursue music before joining fringe theater to begin his writing career. Lewis has written episodes of both “Inspector Morse” and “Lewis” and adapted Agatha Christie’s 1961 novel “The Pale Horse” for an episode of “Agatha Christie’s Marple.”

As proof of the series’ popularity, the current fifth season has expanded to six episodes from the four that previous seasons had, an expansion that’s meant many sleepless nights for the man helming the script. The pace apparently not only works for Lewis but for viewers as well, as the popularity of “Endeavour” has already secured a sixth season, to begin sometime next year.

Don’t miss Morse’s latest investigative adventure in a new episode of “Endeavour,” airing Sunday, July 22, on PBS.

Roger Allam as seen in “Endeavour”

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