'Endeavour' ITV 1

[eighthobstruction]

....Someone is being a bit clever clever useless expert ....I think....

[Pabmusic]

My gripe, as ever, is that there seems to have been no attempt at all to make Endeavour fit the back-story well established by the Morse series (I'm ignoring the books). I've mentioned that Morse's mentor as a young detective was The Scottish MacNutt, who ends up dead in Morse's airing cupboard - not Thursday the Londoner, who presumably won't. But there's so much more, especially concerning Morse's love-life.

Then there's this. The young Morse has been shot and permanently crippled (because John THhaw limped). He doesn't seem to limp anymore, but you might have expected the adult Morse to have mentioned getting shot. Or being held in prison. Or foiling the Oxford spy ring - surely one of the most infamous occurrences in British history, if its Cambridge counterpart is anything to go by.

[LMcD]

I'm afraid I found the final episode of the series rather contrived. I gained the impression that, at the time the screenplay was written, nobody was quite sure whether there was to be a 6th series (it turns out that there will be). My overall view remains that, by concentrating on fewer issues per episode and eschewing the sometimes gratuitous violence that, for me, marred last night's episode of 'Endeavour' in particular, 'Inspector Morse' usually made more of less.
Incidentally, what happened to 'Bully' Blackwell? Is this one of the outstanding issues that we MAY see resolved in the new series?

[Richard Tarleton]

I don't remember ever seeing a drive-by shooting in Turl Street (I think it was Turl Street).

The lower sixth was borrowed from Unman, Wittering and Zigo, the 1971 film. The cadet force's Lee Enfields kept in a cupboard....access to live ammo....all a bit unlikely (live ammo only on very special occasions, though you could blow your own boot off with a blank). I remember the rifles being kept in a locked armoury, chains through the trigger guards...(there was a case in the 1960s of the IRA breaking into a public school CCF armoury)....

Why does Morse do up the top button of his 3-button jacket? Adds to the general scruffiness and unworldliness I suppose.

[LMcD]

I don't remember ever seeing a drive-by shooting in Turl Street (I think it was Turl Street).

The lower sixth was borrowed from Unman, Wittering and Zigo, the 1971 film. The cadet force's Lee Enfields kept in a cupboard....access to live ammo....all a bit unlikely (live ammo only on very special occasions, though you could blow your own boot off with a blank). I remember the rifles being kept in a locked armoury, chains through the trigger guards...(there was a case in the 1960s of the IRA breaking into a public school CCF armoury)....

Why does Morse do up the top button of his 3-button jacket? Adds to the general scruffiness and unworldliness I suppose.

Presumably to suggest that he's buttoned up?

[Richard Tarleton]

Presumably to suggest that he's buttoned up?

Sartorial advice here....

[Once Was 4]

I don't remember ever seeing a drive-by shooting in Turl Street (I think it was Turl Street).

The lower sixth was borrowed from Unman, Wittering and Zigo, the 1971 film. The cadet force's Lee Enfields kept in a cupboard....access to live ammo....all a bit unlikely (live ammo only on very special occasions, though you could blow your own boot off with a blank). I remember the rifles being kept in a locked armoury, chains through the trigger guards...(there was a case in the 1960s of the IRA breaking into a public school CCF armoury)....

Why does Morse do up the top button of his 3-button jacket? Adds to the general scruffiness and unworldliness I suppose.

I have seen half of the last one and will watch the rest tonight. I have a question about such schools - were some or all of them ever as bad as this? I have taught brass at a few and yes, true, in my early days I went to one which has since had some very bad publicity.

But one in particular I taught horn and general brass at for several years. The boys seemed happy, well fed, always occupied and had a good relationship with the staff in the right sort of way (including one headmaster who was liked by the boys but hated by his staff). And yes, there was a cadet force which paraded about, barked orders to each other and did target practice. One of the boys that I taught refused to take part in this and was thus allowed to do other things instead during that time - including having trumpet and organ lessons. He was regarded and respected as a star pupil. Bullying was apparently dealt with very severely. Was this unique?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Why does Morse do up the top button of his 3-button jacket? Adds to the general scruffiness and unworldliness I suppose.

What's the point of a button if it isn't used? Just a convention, I suppose.

[eighthobstruction]

What's the point of a button if it isn't used? Just a convention, I suppose.

....well my father always said that the ones on the cuff were there to remind you not to wipe your nose on your sleeve....

[LMcD]

I suppose we should congratulate 'Endeavour' for raising such important issues.....

[eighthobstruction]

I suppose we should congratulate 'Endeavour' for raising such important issues.....

.....i always think that it is a great shame that this forum is not read by a more mass audience....

[Nick Armstrong]

It's all gone a bit John Le Carré this week

We're in 1968, the Prague Spring......

Only just watched this... It's terribly disappointing stuff, just can't bear the leaden dialogue signposting the plot for the hard-of-understanding-and-attention-span (e.g. Bright: "Haven't we seen this before...?" Thursday: "Yes sir, it was &c &c"...)

[Nick Armstrong]

I have seen half of the last one and will watch the rest tonight.

Ditto. Even more stilted dialogue than the others, so far

And....

- "We listened to a concert on the radio didn't we?"
- "That's right. Mahler. The Five."

Has anyone ever said that? (Apart from the poor actress saddled with the line)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... the leaden dialogue signposting the plot for the hard-of-understanding-and-attention-span ...

Looking at what's replacing Endeavour in the ITV schedules (The Durrells and The Good Karma Hospital) it looks as if someone thinks that that timeslot has to filled with twee, sentimental "feelgood" candyfloss - perhaps to compete with Call the Midwife? The "darker" tone of the first two series of Endeavour has gone, replaced by something closer to Downton Abbey in credibility and "leaden dialogue".

(And what happened to Trewlove in this series? A genuinely interesting role in the past - could have been replaced by a budgie in a mannekin in this!)



And yet, and yet, and yet --- away from the plots, there is still the occasional glimmer of what these actors are truly capable of: that awkward "bloke chat" between Allam and Evans when they aren't saying what they're feeling - and the devastation and determination not to show weakness on Allam's face when Win walks out. The lost potential of this series is ... well ... a bigger crime than anything in the stories.

[Nick Armstrong]

And yet, and yet, and yet --- away from the plots, there is still the occasional glimmer of what these actors are truly capable of: that awkward "bloke chat" between Allam and Evans when they aren't saying what they're feeling - and the devastation and determination not to show weakness on Allam's face when Win walks out. The lost potential of this series is ... well ... a bigger crime than anything in the stories.