Endeavour

TV, Endeavour (2012), TV pilot

The only reason I'm writing about this at all is because of the wonderful ending when Thursday asks Morse where he sees himself in twenty years time and he looks in the car's rearview mirror and John Thaw's eyes stare back at him. A profound moment in an otherwise standard period detective episode. This is, if you haven't heard about it, a prequel to 'Inspector Morse,' the best known contemporary detective of them all. It shows his first case as a young man working with Thursday who I believe had been established in the parent series.

It's quite amazing that a detective series that ended twelve years ago should have two spinoffs going ('Lewis' is the other one), but it's a testament to the appeal of the characters. While I can't exactly imagine a 'Detective Hathaway' spinoff in twenty years, primarily what draws me to these programmes are the characters which are so well written. If you're wondering why I've given this pilot such a relatively low mark, I have to say that even 'Morse' wouldn't have rated particularly highly, except for the occasional story (such as 'Masonic Mysteries'), as I don't really watch them for the story or to work out what happened, why, how and who did it. I prefer 'A Touch of Frost' which is much more character-based, with less of the clue-finding and intellectual puzzling.

The period of this piece was achieved quite well and the lead did a good job as a young Morse, considering how difficult it must be to recreate the mannerisms of another actor (especially one so highly regarded as Thaw), and even more so to regress those mannerisms twenty years. He looked more like David Tennant than the famous detective, but he was fine and I'd be happy to see this become a series. Thursday was the biggest draw for me, taking the older Morse role while Morse was pretty much in the Lewis role. Thursday had a lot of depth to him, he looked like he could be a great man to watch and guide the young Morse, moulding him into the man he became.

One thing the episode was lacking was in beautiful environments, something 'Lewis' has taken to a fine art, and which the original 'Morse' also tended towards. If they do more I hope they pay as much attention to the landscape as the period detail. And I certainly would watch more 'Endeavour,' though if it came down to a choice between this and 'Lewis' I'd go for the latter because it's more established, and again, while the stories don't pull me in, the music, environment and characters do the job nicely.

**