'Endeavour' ITV 1

[jean]

Who was that lying in bed being visited by Thursday?

[Pabmusic]

Who was that lying in bed being visited by Thursday?

Wasn't Mrs Thursday visiting a sick sister? I assumed it was her, but it was hardly clear.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

[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"

SPOILER

- that tiger shooting was signposted so unsubtly, wasn't it? Again, a ridiculous "puzzle" (a tiger on the loose for goodness' sake!) with some lovely moments of human interaction between the characters (the James Last LP )

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

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.

Indeed - but the first two series' plots were much better than what they've chucked at us in this one. RT's reference to Midsomer Murders is spot on, but that sort of tosh is what's expected (and, by some of us at least, loved) in MM. Endeavour set its standards considerably higher.

[Pabmusic]

Indeed - but the first two series' plots were much better than what they've chucked at us in this one. RT's reference to Midsomer Murders is spot on, but that sort of tosh is what's expected (and, by some of us at least, loved) in MM. Endeavour set its standards considerably higher.

True indeed, Ferney.

[Richard Tarleton]

Who was that lying in bed being visited by Thursday?

Wasn't it the first victim from 4 years before, left in a coma, that was assaulted by the gardener chap that Thursday attacked during interrogation? Not worth watching again, but I think that's who it was.

[Pabmusic]

Wasn't it the first victim from 4 years before, left in a coma, that was assaulted by the gardener chap that Thursday attacked during interrogation? Not worth watching again, but I think that's who it was.

Ah! It was! Thanks! (I've run out of exclamations! [Oh no I haven't!])

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Wasn't it the first victim from 4 years before, left in a coma, that was assaulted by the gardener chap that Thursday attacked during interrogation? Not worth watching again, but I think that's who it was.

[Richard Tarleton]

They really should have left the South African chap alive long enough to eat his words about Bright - perhaps just badly mauled, rather than killed outright - a few last words, croaked from the stretcher....

[Pabmusic]

They really should have left the South African chap alive long enough to eat his words about Bright - perhaps just badly mauled, rather than killed outright - a few last words, croaked from the stretcher....

Yes, otherwise there was no point in including it in the script.

[DublinJimbo]

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.

I stuck with it until the bitter end, but nothing about it would entice me to watch the next episode. A truly dreadful plot (the gang in 'the big house' would have been more at home in an Agatha Christie who-dunnit).

[Nick Armstrong]

[SPOILER ALERT]
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"

As usual I'm a week behind; yes, daft story. And you won't catch me in Wytham Woods.

But again, some good moments. 'Bright'/Lesser recounting his tree-based 'Indian manhunter' story paced it brilliantly, mastering silence and channelling Private ("I mind the time when I was a wee-bit laddie") Frazer in an upper-crust English way.

And I liked the underplayed scene where Strange gives Morse this



and they listen together

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

FINALLY - a decent story for the finale of the series last night!


SPOILER -

Not entirely sure why Joan left home, though: had the actress asked for a rise in salary?

[Richard Tarleton]

And you won't catch me in Wytham Woods.

In the Wytham I remember (1968-70) you were more likely to meet a member of the Edward Grey Institute studying the nesting habits of great tits than a tiger, or indeed a murderer. You needed a permit - I only had the run of the place by virtue of running into the gamekeeper on my first visit, who gave me the nod when he saw I was a bona fide birdwatcher.

The camp site (camping - I don't think so) of the missing birdwatcher featured a copy of a basic field guide. There is always a solecism whenever birdwatchers appear in a TV script.

[subcontrabass]

FINALLY - a decent story for the finale of the series last night!

I found the errors related to the university extremely irritating. The episode is, I think, supposed to have taken place around 1967/68 (when I was an undergraduate at Oxford).

(1) Morse interrogates his former tutor on his whereabouts between 2 and 3 p.m. the previous Wednesday. The answer (that he was giving a lecture) was not followed up. He cannot have been giving a university lecture at that time as it was outside the official university teaching hours (9 a.m. - 1 p.m., and 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.). So who were his audience?

(2) The same tutor (who taught Classics) is stated to have become Chair of Examiners for "Greats". This is most implausible - Classics at Oxford is Latin and Greek languages and literature; "Greats" is Philosophy and Ancient History. They were taught quite independently but with Classics Mods as the pre-requisite for "Greats".

(3) The possibility that a Chair of Examiners could fiddle the final degree grades when the results lists had to be signed off physically by all the examiners (including an external examiner) seems extremely remote.