- Radio Times
- Review by:
- Alison Graham
I am lost in admiration for the makers of Endeavour, who have exercised restraint in not calling this two-hour drama Young Morse. Or What Morse Did Before He Became Really Famous on the Telly.
Fresh-faced Shaun Evans is Endeavour Morse, a rookie detective in 1965 Oxford, in this two-hour "prequel" written by Lewis creator Russell Lewis. All the clues to the nature of the man we came to love when he was played by John Thaw are evident: Madam Butterfly on his record player; his squeamishness about blood; his love of crosswords; the Jaguar; the eye for a complicated, vulnerable woman. All there. Morse isn't like other detectives, something noted by his boss (the sublime Roger Allam) who gives him a career-making opportunity to investigate the murder of a 15-year-old girl.
Along the way Morse falls for the charms of an opera singer (played by John Thaw's daughter Abigail) and encounters inverse snobbery from his oikish colleagues. And there's some throat-tightening nostalgia, too.
About this programme
Shaun Evans steps into the shoes of John Thaw in this 1965-set prequel to Inspector Morse, playing a younger version of the cerebral detective involved in the hunt for a missing schoolgirl. Soon deep in a full-blown murder investigation, Endeavour is sidelined, discredited and at a dead end - so he risks all to begin his own quest for justice. Roger Allam and Charlie Creed-Miles co-star in the mystery.
Cast and crew
Cast
- DC Endeavour Morse
- Shaun Evans
- DI Fred Thursday
- Roger Allam
- Teddy Samuels
- Charlie Creed-Miles
- DS Arthur Lott
- Danny Webb
- Richard Lovell
- Patrick Malahide
- Dorothea Frazil
- Abigail Thaw
- Dempsey
- John Light
- Dr Rowan Stromming
- Richard Lintern
- Rosalind Stromming
- Flora Montgomery
- DC Ian McLeash
- Jack Ashton
- Dr Max Debryn
- James Bradshaw
- Miles Percival
- Harry Kershaw
- Mary Tremlett
- Rachael Heaton
- Brian St Clair
- Michael Matus
- Sharon Veelie
- Emma Stansfield
- DCS Crisp
- Terence Harvey
- Valerie Quillen
- Holly Ridley
- Anne Porter
- Lisa Blackwell
- Miss Sylvia Tench
- Jenna Harrison
- Jenny Edwards
- Daisy Head
- Brian Lomax
- Sam Reid
- Stan Tremlett
- Ian Gelder
- Alexander Reece
- Christopher Brandon
- Mrs Crabbin
- Maggie Ollerenshaw
- Johnny Franks
- Jamie Blackley
Crew
- Director
- Colm McCarthy
- Executive Producer
- Michele Buck
- Executive Producer
- Damien Timmer
- Executive Producer
- Rebecca Eaton
- Producer
- Dan McCulloch
- Writer
- Russell Lewis
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