'Endeavour' ITV 1

[Dave2002]

DOH!!!

What is this - the Sound of Music?

[Nick Armstrong]

What is this - the Sound of Music?

Just call me Supercali for short

[subcontrabass]

News series now started, with the usual crop of anachronisms.

[Nick Armstrong]

News series now started, with the usual crop of anachronisms.

... and despite the accurate or inaccurate 'period' look and style, and the presence of Roger Allam and Anton Lesser (two of my favourite actors), it's pretty unconvincing stuff isn't it - I think the script is to blame: some terrible dialogue, with plot being flagged and signposted in almost ludicrous fashion. Presumably they think that ITV prime-time audiences can't cope with the allusive, 'not sure yet what's going on' approach of more multi-layered (and often, dare I say it, foreign) crime drama...

[Richard Tarleton]

The Rolling Stones' Let's Spend the Night Together which the lad was listening to on the car radio on the stakeout was quite old by this stage, (released January 1967)....We're in my first academic year (April 1968) and I try to recognise it, but can't.... Talking of Anton Lesser (anyone been watching The Queen?) last night's episode was set a couple of months after Harold Macmillan accompanied Brenda to a debate at the Oxford Union. Different times, there were just a couple of low-profile detectives on view, negligible security, standing ovation when Brenda came in.... Harold sat down, leant on his silver-topped cane and nodded off.....

[eighthobstruction]

... and despite the accurate or inaccurate 'period' look and style, and the presence of Roger Allam and Anton Lesser (two of my favourite actors), it's pretty unconvincing stuff isn't it - I think the script is to blame: some terrible dialogue, with plot being flagged and signposted in almost ludicrous fashion. Presumably they think that ITV prime-time audiences can't cope with the allusive, 'not sure yet what's going on' approach of more multi-layered (and often, dare I say it, foreign) crime drama...

....better than the fantastical plots iof last series (and previous) - Tigers in mazes etc etc....identical twins/good twin ,bad twin etc etc....

[Pabmusic]

I enjoy the various Endeavour series as reasonably well done entertainment, but rather than spot the 1960s product-placement, I'm after genuine links to the John Thaw Morse - and they don't appear often. For instance, in Masonic Mysteries Ian Cuthbertson played Desmond McNutt, said to have been Morse's mentor as a young detective (he ends up dead in the airing cupboard). Hmmm... No room for him in Endeavour..

I'm just a bit disappointed no effort was made to tie such things up.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I enjoy the various Endeavour series as reasonably well done entertainment, but rather than spot the 1960s product-placement, I'm after genuine links to the John Thaw Morse - and they don't appear often. For instance, in Masonic Mysteries Ian Cuthbertson played Desmond McNutt, said to have been Morse's mentor as a young detective (he ends up dead in the airing cupboard). Hmmm... No room for him in Endeavour..

I'm just a bit disappointed no effort was made to tie such things up.

Well, do you want Morse to bump into a Geordie lad who's keen to join the police force?

[Pabmusic]

Well, do you want Morse to bump into a Geordie lad who's keen to join the police force?

Of course not - because we know how they met (it was in the first Morse episode).

[eighthobstruction]

....Sundays fare/fair....the Curse of Rag, Tag and Bobtails Mummy....

[antongould]

Well, do you want Morse to bump into a Geordie lad who's keen to join the police force?

But IIRC, in the first books Lewis was not from up here: then Jackie Milburn made us bankable .....

[Pabmusic]

But IIRC, in the first books Lewis was not from up here: then Jackie Milburn made us bankable .....

Indeed. Lewis was Welsh and a little older than Morse. And Morse drove a Lancia.

[Richard Tarleton]

It's a funny thing - I only tried the books very recently, picking 3 up on a 2nd hand bookstall out of curiosity - I didn't think they were very good . Likewise I never really appreciated the lugubrious TV Morse, finding Lewis with the spiky Hathaway much more entertaining....Partly a question of pace I daresay, recently watching the TV adaptations of Tinker Tailor and Smiley's People (screenplay by JleC) they are utterly faithful to the books but dreadfully slow on the screen (in a way they are most emphatically not on the printed page)....TV has speeded up since 1979.......

[jean]

Indeed. Lewis was Welsh and a little older than Morse. And Morse drove a Lancia.

But it's only what happens later in the TV series that's relevant here.

[Pabmusic]

But it's only what happens later in the TV series that's relevant here.

Of course. I was commenting on Antongould's post, where he makes the same point as I did. None of this alters the fact that there's dire continuity between Endeavour and Morse. I gave the example (post 202) of MacNutt, Morse's mentor as a young detective - an important figure since his murder in Masonic Mysteries is hardly a side-show. But there are many others. Surely, it wouldn't have taken too much to get this right.