'Endeavour' ITV 1

[vinteuil]

.

... perhaps I shd give it a try, if only for your nostalgic reasons. 'Sherlock' is eminently give-up-on-able ; and since my undergraduate days there were 1971-74, this 'Endeavour' looks as if it might appeal...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Greatly enjoying both Endeavour (mercifully free of CGI zoo animals) and Sherlock - greater substance to the former, I agree. And I like the way Bright is being given a characterisation worthy of Anton Lesser's skills at last; a bit of a cut-out in earlier series.

[LHC]

Anyone watching this? Having given up on Sherlock this has been Sunday evening viewing here. I've been trying to catch a glimpse of my younger self - at last! - the Kinks were name-checked, I saw them in Oxford in 1969. Otherwise the scriptwriters rummaged through the late '60s prop box, for a Brian Jones-like band member channeling Baudelaire in broad-brimmed hat, a manager who wouldn't let it be known a band-member had a wife, a sitar, Beatles-style uniforms, Oz....and a creepily accurate take on Mrs Whitehouse from the excellent Sylvestra le Touzel.... Harmless fun, with an unexpected outburst of emtion from young Morse at the very end hinting at things to come....

I thought the band was based on Pink Floyd, with the lead singer based on Syd Barrett, who it should be remembered left Pink Floyd after a particularly bad weekend ingesting vast amounts of LSD. I thought there were other references to the Floyd; there was a reference to a guitarist joining the band and taking over (Dave Gilmour), and there was a shot through an open doorway out into the countryside that I thought was a visual reference to the cover of Ummagumma.

[Nick Armstrong]

Only seen part of this yet (grateful for the lack of spoilers here), but it seemed to me the band was a sort of Pink Beatles.... the latter suggested especially by the manager who even looked like Brian Epstein. That, and the sitar (but perhaps Floyd used sitars too?).

The Mary Whitehouse figure seemed to me to be too close to the real thing, if anything - her "it was the ... dirtiest programme" speech was quoted directly from the old bat herself I think.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The Mary Whitehouse figure seemed to me to be too close to the real thing, if anything - her "it was the ... dirtiest programme" speech was quoted directly from the old bat herself I think.

Yup - 1min 50secs into this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO_DqJ85jvk

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... it's the "the dirtiest programme that I have seen for a very long time" that always puzzles me - almost as if she's saying "Ah, you don't get the quality of filth these days that you used to get on telly in the fifties"!

[Richard Tarleton]

but it seemed to me the band was a sort of Pink Beatles....

LHC right - tho a palimpsest, with more than a touch of Stones - the Stones sacked a founding member when he became a drug-fuelled liability (imperilling forthcoming US tour), recruited new guitarist, Andrew Oldham wanted (at first) to keep Mrs Wyman under wraps....Best not to push any possible parallels with the female entourage too far, as key players very much still with us...

PS the Oz trial lay 2-3 years in the future, at the time this episoe is set....

[Conchis]

Yup - 1min 50secs into this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO_DqJ85jvk

Horrible.

Anyone who claims to be on the side of 'ordinary, decent people' (and who the hell are they, anyway, when they're at home') should automatically be identified as a fascist.

[subcontrabass]

Anyone watching this?

Yes. Good plots, but also fun to watch the anachronisms.

Episode 1 of this series showed a computer installed in a college. In 1967, when this episode is set, there was only one computer in the University, housed in the Computing Laboratory (a very distinctive building, which is still there, in the junction of Parks Road and Banbury Road). People were shown smoking in the room with the computer. That was completely forbidden with such primitive machines. From the road outside you could see a large notice in the computer room: "NO EATING. NO DRINKING. NO SMOKING."

The computer was shown as having a VDU. Those only came into regular use from around 1970. Earlier output would have been on punched tape, or occasionally on a teleprinter.

A program on the computer was used to play chess. The standard of the best chess programs at that vintage was that of a moderately good amateur player in a local league.

[antongould]

Yes. Good plots, but also fun to watch the anachronisms.

Episode 1 of this series showed a computer installed in a college. In 1967, when this episode is set, there was only one computer in the University, housed in the Computing Laboratory (a very distinctive building, which is still there, in the junction of Parks Road and Banbury Road). People were shown smoking in the room with the computer. That was completely forbidden with such primitive machines. From the road outside you could see a large notice in the computer room: "NO EATING. NO DRINKING. NO SMOKING."

The computer was shown as having a VDU. Those only came into regular use from around 1970. Earlier output would have been on punched tape, or occasionally on a teleprinter.

A program on the computer was used to play chess. The standard of the best chess programs at that vintage was that of a moderately good amateur player in a local league.

Excellent subs - keep up the good work ......

[Richard Tarleton]

Yes. Good plots, but also fun to watch the anachronisms.

Tonight's Endeavour a right dog's breakfast. That rabbit had rigor mortis**, not freshly shot. Brief snatch of Paint It Black by the Stones, during the pub quiz - acc. to Wiki, pub quizzes only began in the 1970s, certainly don't remember them before that.... (Paint It Black OK, that was 1966, this set in autumn 1967).

**PS Cali this is not a spoiler

[Dave2002]

Was the stolen album one of the Decca Eclipse series? I'm not sure that they were available in 1967 - but I could be wrong about the LP anyway.

[Nick Armstrong]

**PS Cali this is not a spoiler

Managed to see this punchline so didn't even read your post !

I'm in the middle of the previous one, set in the hospital, which seems to me so far one of the best. I hope it won't have a conclusion that involves ludicrously erudite leaps of deduction from Morse...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Yes - the most disappointing story of the current season, with its arch half-references to The Wicker Man; but still better than those in the last series.

Dave - it was a DECCA Eclipse LP, you're right (The Planets, LSO/Sargent:



... they started in 1966 with vintage popular repertoire (Charlie Kunz, Ambrose) but the earliest Classical releases on the label weren't around until 1969. The Planets first appeared on the label in 1971 - if Morse has had that recording, it would have been on the former "Ace of Clubs" label:

[Serial_Apologist]

I still have that Sargent Planets (The Decca Eclipse) - it's my recording of the work!