'Endeavour' ITV 1

[aeolium]

Shetland, Oxford, Sweden, Sicily.....I wish, just once, that in the denouement of one of these crime serials the villain would confess that the sole reason he had embarked on his life of crime was to explore the opportunities for picturesque locations it afforded.

[Pabmusic]

Shetland, Oxford, Sweden, Sicily.....I wish, just once, that in the denouement of one of these crime serials the villain would confess that the sole reason he had embarked on his life of crime was to explore the opportunities for picturesque locations it afforded.

Wonderful!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes the less said about this one the better. I only watch it in the hope of catching a glimpse of my younger self. OT - I don't think it's been deemed worthy of a thread of its own in the past but "Shetland" is back for a third series on Friday - sort of Scandi without the subtitles. And instead of a blonde female lead we have Douglas Henshall, a mesmerising actor. Worth a try if you haven't before.

... a pheidiwch ag anghofio:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06t4lqk/hinterland-series-2-full-length-episode-1

[VodkaDilc]

Oh, yes! And the way Lesser's face didn't change a muscle, but the eyes froze

I thought that the scene where Bright made a pathetically awkward attempt to be charming to a new and attractive WPC was a high-point of the whole series so far.

It's interesting that the factually accurate subplot of the proposed unification of the city and county police forces, which was quite a feature in the final episode of the last series, seems to have been forgotten. I believe that Dexter refers to Thames Valley Police and this continues in the Morse series. But Lewis seemed to announce himself as 'from Oxford City Police'. I wonder if Thames Valley withdrew their consent in later years. (There's also a parallel with hospitals, where early episodes refer to the former Radcliffe Infirmary or the newer John Radcliffe Hospital. More recently we hear about a fictional Oxford City Hospital.) It's almost as if they tried to follow Dexter's precisely-named locations at first, but gradually lost the will (or lost the co-operation) for such accuracy.

[eighthobstruction]

... a pheidiwch ag anghofio:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...ngth-episode-1

....ah right, that one passed me by (strange time to start a series such as this; just before Xmas)....Again known fior it's convoluted plots, daft twists and detectives getting fruity with witnesses + deep dark churning of the soul....I like it still as it is made in the Borth/Devils Bridge area....

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

....I like it still as it is in the Borth/Devils Bridge area....

[subcontrabass]

I don't watch Endeavour but a review said something along the lines of "if only they had put as much care into the plot as they had into carefully replicating the interior of a 1960s supermarket ...."

Having been a student at Oxford from 1965-1969 I find many of the anachronisms rather odd.

[VodkaDilc]

At least they get the authentic buses from the Oxford Bus Museum:

http://www.oxfordbusmuseum.org.uk/#/buses/4586827495

[Nick Armstrong]

I thought that the scene where Bright made a pathetically awkward attempt to be charming to a new and attractive WPC was a high-point of the whole series so far.

Very true - such moments save it from being switched off.

[eighthobstruction]

Very true - such moments save it from being switched off.

....and she being such a splendid addition to the cast....ahem cough....

[subcontrabass]

At least they get the authentic buses from the Oxford Bus Museum:

http://www.oxfordbusmuseum.org.uk/#/buses/4586827495

And then put them on roads which were never on bus routes.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Very true - such moments save it from being switched off.

Another such was the conversation between Morse and Thursday's daughter ... the friendly smile on Morse's face suddenly drooping in horror when the possibility that she might be hinting at something more than "friendly". There seems to be a wide discrepancy between the quality of the scripts (/dialogue) & acting and that of the plots (/puzzles) in this series.

[VodkaDilc]

And then put them on roads which were never on bus routes.

Isn't this inevitable? Turl Street and New College Lane appear to be the busiest in Oxford; in reality they are also among those which are not disrupted too much by time-consuming filming.

[Richard Tarleton]

There seems to be a wide discrepancy between the quality of the scripts (/dialogue) & acting and that of the plots (/puzzles) in this series.

[SPOILER ALERT] This week a plot which would not have been out of place on Midsomer Murders. The series has ceased to be about Oxford, apart from the odd token shot of upper storeys of buildings - this week dodgy aristos, photoshopped tigers - whatever the plot was, I'd completely lost it by the end. The tiger cage looked as if it would not have detained the average tiger very long, a large dog maybe. Where did they find all those bloodhounds?

I used to go birdwatching in Wytham Woods most Sundays during this very era, nothing so exciting ever happened. Still, Bright came into his own - as I said to Mrs T some time before it actually happened, "It'll be Bright who shoots the tiger"

[Pabmusic]

[SPOILER ALERT] This week a plot which would not have been out of place on Midsomer Murders. The series has ceased to be about Oxford, apart from the odd token shot of upper storeys of buildings...

In fact it's ceased to be about Morse, at least in the way that the 'grown up' stories were. Morse must have felt good when he reached middle age and at last had some decent puzzles to solve.