From the 1960s to the 21st century,
the detective world of Morse
created by writer Colin Dexter
has been exploring
the fictional crimes of Oxford.
It's got such a loyal fan base,
Morse, Lewis and Endeavour.
People who've followed the shows
right from the start.
You never consider that
it'll be going in ten years' time or
35 years' time.
The Oxford of Morse and of Endeavour
is definitely a dangerous place...
Hello.
GUNSHO..one filled with big characters.
But the biggest character
at the helm of it
has been Inspector Morse,
the detective
actor John Thaw first brought
to our screens back in 1987.
Famous for his love of crosswords,
classical music,
and his iconic red Jaguar.
The famous maroon-coloured Jag
was an old stunt car
which John himself had written off
in The Sweeney
in a stunt more than once.
You could see the road
through the floor.
It was hell on wheels.
But over the past two decades,
since the original Morse
famously left our screens...
Thank Lewis...
..for me.
..the Morse universe has expanded.
First with his sidekick Lewis
picking up the murderous threads
in 2006.
Who am I looking for?
Definitely somebody
with blood on their clothes
or their person.
Thanks, Doc.
And for the past decade,
the series Endeavour
has told Morse's back story
as a brilliant young copper
in '60s Britain.
Who's a clever boy, then?
But after nine series,
the last-ever episode of Endeavour
has been shot
and the epic story of one
of TV's most popular detectives
is finally coming to an end.
Being the last-ever
Endeavour director is scary.
I hope I get it right.
The final episode...
..it brings it all together
and I hope there'll be
a few surprises for people.
It all comes to a crescendo,
you know, at the end.
It's hard to describe.
It's rather lovely though.
It has actually been
one of the privileges of my life
to work with this group of people.
I feel a lot of gratitude
to have been
part of something
that so many people have enjoyed.
This is for everyone,
and all the fans who are involved,
with Morse, Lewis and Endeavour,
and this is the end,
so let's have fun.
MORSE CODE BEEPING
The character of Inspector Morse
first featured in the award-winning
crime novels
written by Colin Dexter
back in 1975.
KEVIN:
Colin was very much an academic
and I think, when Kenny McBain
found the Morse books,
and tracked Colin down,
Colin was a bit taken aback.
I can remember when he didn't really
quite understand
how films worked, to start with.
But it was in 1987, when actor
John Thaw took on the TV role,
that the wider world got to know and
love the cranky academic detective.
Somebody of my age,
all of us remember
the Morse theme during the '90s.
And remember the Morse series
and how loved that was
and John thaw's legacy in that.
I need to be off duty
on the dot tonight.
Val's dead set
on going to this slimming promotion.
It's a special...
I don't need to hear the details.
I don't often ask, sir.
Square up to the case, Lewis,
maybe we can both be off on the dot.
CHARLOTTE: How incredibly important
that series is
to British television culture
and history.
But I think also to the genre.
With regular audiences
of 15 million viewers,
Morse was a huge hit
both at home and abroad...
SPEAKING SPANISH
..and ran for the next 13 years.
KEVIN: I'm hugely proud of them.
I still get work now from the kudos
that I get
from the Morse franchises.
In January 2012,
12 years after the original
Inspector Morse left our screens,
the clocks were set back to 1965.
And actor Shaun Evans
got to explore the back story
of television's
most enigmatic detective.
At that point I'd never seen
any of the previous TV show,
so I came at it fresh,
and then I was intrigued then
about...
..how we could see this character
as a younger man.
For me, it's a coming-of-age story.
Of how we take this period of time
and take this man from
his late twenties,
right through to his mid thirties.
My name is Bright,
Chief superintendent Bright.
It's centred on a police station
somewhere in Oxfordshire,
and you have the young Morse,
who is a troubled character.
Secondly...
The brilliant detective.
Thinks out of the box.
And he always comes at everything
from a strange angle.
Evelyn Balfour was strangled, sir,
like Desdemona, Othello's wife.
And there was a handkerchief
stuffed in her mouth
embroidered with the initial "D".
The detective element is important,
yes,
but it's a sort of Trojan horse
to get into
who this person was.
Squeamish, are we?
You won't make much of a detective
if you're not prepared
to look death in the eye.
Find me when you're done.
It's got an unlikely character
at the helm of it, you know, this...
He is not your hero,
he's not your average detective.
He is an appreciator
of classical music,
of art, of architecture,
of man's achievements
at its highest, I suppose.
# ..the beginning
# Is now and ever shall be... #
It can't be separated
from this story.
And so then it's important
to show them as much as you can.
And this new world of crime expanded
beyond Morse to include a much wider
cast of regular characters.
25 years ago,
I got the best bit of luck
any man ever had.
The toast is...
my Win.
Win.
'It's a beautifully written
period drama.'
There's the through line
of the main characters,
whose lives you see
emerging and changing.
APPLAUSE
'That's why people love it.'
It is more
than just a detective drama.
I think that's selling it short.
Where have you been all night?
Don't ask.
So...
are you dancing?
Are you asking?
It's got wonderfully nuanced
characters
that you want to meet
time and time again.
ALL: ..2, 1...
CHEERING
I suppose what's lovely
about the series of Endeavour
is that there's just that plotting.
We've got all nine series
to see how he becomes
the Inspector Morse
that we know he's destined to be.
But the back story to Morse
wasn't actually the work
of original author Colin Dexter.
Endeavour was the creation
of writer Russell Lewis.
Television writers
don't normally write
every single episode of a series.
Particularly not when there's 36,
and particularly not
when there's 36 of 90 minutes.
It's very, very unusual.
Russell has such a way of writing,
not only his dialogue,
but his stage directions.
I really wish
people could see his scripts,
because they are so detailed.
Up a bit.
Up a bit more.
CROWD CHEERING ON TV
Left a bit.
Ah...
Knowing the show as he did, he wrote
for Morse, he wrote for Lewis,
there is very rarely
a character name,
an address,
a name of a department store,
you name it,
there will be a connection
to something within
the Morse universe.
And Russell Lewis
was inspired to create
one very special character
for an actor with a personal
connection to John Thaw.
So, what's the story?
Well, there isn't one... yet.
I play Dorothea Frazil,
who is the editor
of the Oxford Mail newspaper.
If that's for the morning edition,
you're cutting it fine.
My agent called me
and said that they were looking for
a young John Thaw basically
to play the young Endeavour.
And did I know anyone
who reminded me of my father?
I couldn't imagine it.
I said, well, I want a part in it.
Just be a nice little quirky thing.
And Russ and I talked
and he wrote a little scene for me.
Have we met?
I... I don't think so.
Another life, then?
I wasn't expecting anything
as lovely and as moving as that.
I thought I was just
gonna be plonked on a desk.
But, no,
Russ had a much better idea.
And the rest is history.
And Dorothea
has remained a key character
across all nine seasons
of the hit detective series.
It's such an interesting character,
I think, Dorothea Frazil.
Like she's this woman
existent in this man's world.
Actually, Ms Frazil,
I'd urge you in
the strongest possible terms
not to make this communication
known to the public.
As a favour.
24 hours.
After that...
Pray that's enough.
Morse.
Another key character
created for the series
was Detective Inspector
Fred Thursday,
who played mentor to the fledgling
detective Endeavour Morse.
You're here on merit.
Not that you'd know
by the state of you.
You might have found time
to run an iron.
That shirt looks like you slept
in it. First impressions, Morse.
Thursday really wants
to help Endeavour.
'And he's a prickly bugger.'
I'm a good detective.
And a poor policeman.
No-one can teach you the first,
any fool can learn the second.
Fred's task, as he sees it,
is to turn him into a good copper,
and not get quite so highfalutin',
you know,
in the possible solving
of all these crimes.
One day I'll send you out
for a routine enquiry,
and it will turn out
to be just that.
I won't hold my breath.
You'd find something suspicious
in a saint's sock drawer.
With Morse and Lewis,
that is reversed.
Morse is the senior man.
If anyone wants me,
they'll find me looking at fish...
..through the bottom
of a beer glass.
I think the relationship
between Thursday and Endeavour
is sadder than the one
with Lewis and Morse.
FRED: Go home.
Put your best record on.
Loud as it'll play.
And with every note,
you remember...
..that's something that
the darkness couldn't take from you.
If you look at Endeavour,
it's working class
old sweat
that's keeping
this very bright young cop
on the right track.
So it's quite similar
to the Lewis situation,
except that Shaun is a lot better
looking than the rest of us.
So you've got a very handsome Morse.
But otherwise,
it's the same situation.
OPERATIC SINGING
It's hugely important
that Oxford is a character
in the series.
Thank you, Professor.
One of the things
Oxford is best known for,
besides the university etc,
is the Inspector Morse
series of books
and the Inspector Morse and Lewis
and now Endeavour series.
It is the last time
in Endeavour's series history
that we are in Oxford.
And Endeavour
is visiting the joke shop,
looking for evidence.
SHOP BELL RINGS
Bye now.
I say, I say, I say,
what can I do for you, then, sir?
He asked him knowingly.
It's a sad time for everybody,
we will miss everybody in Oxford,
who makes us welcome,
and we will, of course,
miss coming together away for
three or four nights as a team
to get the material
that is always so, so beautiful.
Especially on a day like today.
People come to see us.
Sometimes they travel from really
quite a long way away as well.
I've been following Endeavour really
since the beginning.
I stumbled across their filming
in season one.
And then in season two,
I took them some cakes down.
And it's spiralled from there.
To acknowledge this Oxford universe
of Morse coming to an end,
Julia created
a particularly special cake.
It's terribly, terribly sweet.
When we were in Oxford this time,
we got that enormous cake.
With lots of brilliant sort of icing
on it,
that was newspapers
and Fred and Morse at the top.
It was the most remarkable thing.
All my lovely locations.
I've got that
in the back of my car still.
3, 2, 1.
The Endeavour crew
are really welcoming.
Mm.
It's nice. And I'm not a cake lover.
You get lots of tourists
who are fascinated
and then you get the hardcore fans
that come specially
and usually we are allowed
to skulk in a corner
in a safe place out of the way.
But they never stop us.
The Endeavour fans are amazing.
I don't know
how they know where we are,
but they always do.
I'm from Boston
in the United States.
In the US,
you wouldn't get near filming
as closely as the people here
seem to do.
They are sweet, they are part
of the Endeavour family.
Amazing likeness.
You might look about 40 years older
than you do, Rog.
But don't worry about it.
One distinct addition
to the '60s world of Morse
was the relationship
between Endeavour
and the family life
of his boss, Fred Thursday.
A lot to be said for family.
And what if you don't have any?
Do you think
that's how you end up your days?
Alone in some two-bob kip?
Nothing but a bottle for company?
There was often the contrast between
the warm and loving Thursday family
and Morse as the outsider.
Sit yourself down.
He won't be a tick.
The family is a place
where he can get away from
the disturbances and the violence
that the job
often presents him with.
We see that lightness,
without his hat on, enjoying
his dinner round the table.
And I think the audience
love those scenes.
Morse, don't stand on ceremony.
Budge up, Sam.
You shouldn't have let me sleep,
sir.
It looked like you could do with it.
Mrs Thursday has done you some tea.
Win, dear.
Endeavour as a character
wants to be part of that family,
and wants that safety.
And the linchpin of the Thursday
household was Fred's wife, Win.
Early on in the series,
I think my main sort of...
thrust was bringing tea
and making sandwiches.
The way you went out of here
this morning
I didn't even get a chance
to do your sandwiches.
You got time now?
No, I just popped back
to get my pipe.
Left it in the shed.
I'll do you a quick round.
I do feel she is
an integral part of the show,
you know, I do feel that,
and I do feel the audience love her.
I'm there in the morning giving him
his sandwiches and saying...
Come home safe.
..which is another one
of her little isms.
She always says, "Come home safe."
But playing Win Thursday
wasn't actor Caroline O'Neill's
first journey
into the Morse universe.
I had a little tiny appearance
in Lewis many moons ago.
My husband was m*rder*d.
So I did get the opportunity
to work with them on that.
That's Reg.
Thanks, Mrs Chapman.
Cup of tea?
There have been a few actors
who have come in...
I know Roger did
an Inspector Morse.
Those links are wonderful.
The journalism, that's
your only connection with Mr Owens?
Absolutely.
Are you sure, sir?
Because, you see,
we believe
he was engaged in blackmail.
Good God.
People are absolutely obsessed
with Morse.
People do dissertations on it
in university.
Which is very touching.
And as those university experts
will know,
back in the year 2000,
after 13 years and 33 episodes,
the original series
of Inspector Morse
became famous for its bold decision
to k*ll off its title character.
For Morse to actually die on screen
was quite a big deal, well, it was
a huge deal... at the time
I didn't quite catch that, Morse.
Thank Lewis...
..for me.
In 2006, Kevin Whately
returned to the Oxford crime scene,
this time as the lead detective
Lewis.
Who the hell are you?
Inspector Lewis, Sergeant Hathaway.
Oxfordshire Police.
Audiences like to feel
that relaxed with characters
and are used to having that friendly
face in the corner of their room.
I think that there's definitely
a through line
through all the films
and the different franchises.
But there's a different dynamic
on Endeavour,
because Russell's
got the historic thing
and he links it
to whatever is going on,
which is very clever.
Given that it's set 50 years
prior to where we are now,
when you look at the things
that have happened
socially and politically,
and you're able
to hold the mirror up,
in a more artful way,
then that's when I think it works.
Rather than just a...
attractive chocolate box
of a show, you know what I mean.
It becomes something else.
My husband had Hitler's ear.
WE could have persuaded him...
..softened his resolve.
He wasn't immune to reason.
Charming conversationalist,
no doubt.
As an audience member
I can watch it and think,
God, this is extraordinary,
how Russell writes
these incredibly complex
episodes that are linked to,
you know...
whether it's politics in the '70s,
racism, the strikes...
That's one of the things
that all drama does very, very well
and has been doing
from time immemorial.
You know, looking...
looking at the past,
and using that as a way of
looking where we are now.
There's an episode that Joan was in
and it kind of coincided
with the Black Lives Matter.
ALL: Integration for a nation.
Integration for a nation.
CLAPPING
The sign on this door
says "No coloureds".
This is the language of segregation.
It's great that we can look back
to reflect,
to see, in some sense,
how far we've come,
and in other senses,
how far we still need to come.
One of the strengths of Endeavour
is the attention to detail,
and that's across the board,
you know,
with the crew and the music
and the casting.
There's so much detail
that's gone into it.
And one character
with an attention to detail
second only to Morse
is their resident pathologist.
Ah.
Max DeBryn is the resident
Home Office pathologist.
So he's... he's good at his job,
he's skilled.
People always seem to like
the directness.
Anything, Doc?
Well...
his head's in this room
and his body's in that room,
so that...
might have something to do with it.
People seem to love that.
Time of death?
Two thousand years ago.
Two thousand years?
Yes.
Give or take
a couple of hundred years.
Might have trouble
notifying his next of kin.
What a brilliant character
Max DeBryn is.
This morbid humour
and these witticisms and sayings.
Male, late 50s, early 60s.
What's with all the, er, blood?
Someone's stuck a broken bottle
in his neck.
I didn't realise
how much forensics had changed
until I did a bit of research.
DEBRYN:
Whether that's what did for him,
or he was already on his way out,
I'm afraid I won't be able
to express an opinion
until after the postmortem.
Shall we say two o'clock?
Cut there. Beautiful.
Print that, please.
Thank you.
And for actor James Bradshaw,
understanding the details
of his fictional job
has always been important.
DNA didn't actually come into
being used as a forensic tool
until the 1980s.
Even wearing surgical gloves
at a crime scene
didn't become standard procedure
until 1972.
So it was just fascinating
to find all this stuff out.
It looks to be a cap badge.
And as the serious Morse fans know,
the character of Max DeBryn
is one of the few
original characters
to appear from the 1980s TV series.
Oh, by the way...
..he wore a hearing aid.
He was played by Peter Woodthorpe
in the original series.
My job, sir, is to certify death
where it has occurred
and to ascertain, where possible,
the physical causes.
Now, Inspector Morse came out,
I would have been 11, 12.
I had a vague memory of it.
I think I looked at a picture
of Peter Woodthorpe,
and there was the bow tie
and the glasses,
so I kept that in mind.
Plus the one other
original character
was, of course,
Police Constable Jim Strange.
Jim Strange is a career policeman,
and he has...
no ulterior motives,
other than advancement.
Congratulations, by the way...
Sergeant Strange.
Yeah, well...
Lot of piles, eh?
An advancement
that would see the character become
Chief Superintendent Strange -
and eventually Endeavour's boss.
Fundamentally,
there's a part of Endeavour
that Strange will never understand.
They both very much
get on with what they do.
Look, matey, I know
it's no locked-room mystery,
but sometimes, the simplest answer
is the right one.
What have you got
against it being him?
Nothing. I'm just trying
to keep an open mind.
It is the job, isn't it?
Where they've clashed
is their personalities,
which are absolutely
chalk and cheese.
With 36 episodes,
Endeavour has now become
the longest running series
in the trio
of Morse detective adventures,
and it has never neglected
to acknowledge its roots,
from John Thaw's Morse of the 1980s
to the cameos
by writer Colin Dexter,
whose original novels
have now inspired
over four decades of TV crime.
I actually had the joy
of sitting on a bus
with Colin Dexter.
He sat in front of me.
And it was just brilliant.
Cos, you know, it's like,
"Oh, my God, I can't believe it!"
I hadn't had the pleasure
of meeting him until then.
And although Colin died
back in 2017,
the series continued to honour him.
We try and have
a little thing of Colin Dexter
somewhere in each of the films,
whether it's a poster on the wall,
or a bust in the library...
It's important,
a nod to the heritage.
As long as it's not overwhelming,
I think.
You know, as long as it's...
it's become a part of the story.
And in recent years,
lead actor Shaun Evans
has taken on a bigger role
in the storytelling of the series.
One of the draws of the job
for me, you know,
as soon as I realised
it was gonna go a little further
than just a one-off, to see...
"Oh, actually, I could learn,
by the end of this,
"how to be broader,
how to be able to tell stories,
"not just from
an acting point of view."
The first one that I directed
of Endeavour
was Apollo,
and it's about the moon landing.
NEIL ARMSTRONG: 'Tranquility base
here. The Eagle has landed.
'I'm going to step off the LM now.
'That's one small step for man,
'one giant leap for mankind.'
I have no idea how he did it,
and I think that's a string to his
bow that he wants to develop more.
MAN: Camera set. And... action.
But some of the text
that he has to speak,
while he's keeping
a director's hat on,
was ridiculously difficult.
Jeff Slayton's personal assistant
is m*rder*d,
his scientific adviser dies in a
car crash intended for someone else,
and not 48 hours later,
one of his puppeteers is found dead.
I would say they were connected.
And now, cos I'm now getting old,
and I have to learn my words
weeks in advance,
I just look with horror
at the stuff that he has to do.
But he seems to thrive on it.
Working on it for a period of time,
and also peering back the curtain
and being...
and starting to direct and whatnot
has made me approach all of the work
in a different way.
And cut. Let's give that
another whirl, please, my friends.
He's in it 100%,
and it's interesting, cos I think
there's parts of Morse
that are quite like Shaun as well.
His dedication to the work,
and his detail
that he puts into his work.
There was one scene in particular
where he had to find a tape
at the back of a doll's house.
And for a couple of takes,
what he did was,
he asked one of the crew
to hide it in a different place
each time,
so that he would
actually have to go and find it.
So he was actively searching, as
opposed to just acting the search.
I think someone
was looking for something...
only they didn't find it, because...
..she had hidden it somewhere safe.
It's just things like that.
Those little bits that you think,
you've been doing this for so long,
and it would be so easy to say,
"I've got this."
You know, "I'll just phone it in."
But he never, ever did that.
Across 36 years,
the streets and spires of Oxford
have become home
to the television universe of Morse.
And at the heart of it all
has been one complex character.
Like any good protagonist on TV,
he's a man of layers,
and there are
a lot of different Endeavours.
For people who've watched the show
over the years,
you'll have seen
the hardworking detective,
the romantic, the melancholic,
the alcoholic, the depressive.
You've seen him as a good friend,
a bad friend.
You've seen him as a good detective,
a bad detective.
Don't ever do that again.
When I'm questioning a suspect,
I expect you to back me.
Questioning a suspect?
If you wanna take a leaf
out of Thursday's book,
there's better places to start!
Look, let's get one thing straight,
matey.
You don't tell me.
I tell you, all right?
Job calls for brains,
you'll be the first in the queue.
Something like this, leave it
to those who've got the sand.
He contains multitudes.
But I think probably
one of his cornerstones
is that he's a bit grumpy.
But that's why we love him.
But who loved this
somewhat unlovable character?
John Thaw's Inspector Morse
was a regular flirt.
Even with suspects,
played by familiar actors
and voice-over artists.
Can you at least remember
what he had to drink?
Sherry. Medium, I think.
That's better than the stuff that
passes for ale in there, anyway.
Well, that, I wouldn't know.
I don't drink much at the best
of times, and never at lunch.
I like to be in complete command of
myself when I'm working, Inspector.
Really?
I like to let go.
I always drink at lunchtime.
It helps my imagination.
But there were many women
with whom he had relationships.
You're known around here
as one of the good guys, Morse.
But no love was ever convinced
to stay.
I'm sorry.
You're very nice.
I've just had enough of men
for the moment, OK?
And the root of the detective's
failed love life
became the cornerstone
of the Endeavour backstory.
What do they call you, then?
Morse.
Endeavour has had this thing
about Joan, we know.
But he's had a thing about
quite a number of other people
as well, and hasn't done
too badly on the front
of having relationships.
You know, with the lovely nurse.
FIREWORKS
He's had so many lovely women
over the series
that he's had brief relationships
with.
And he doesn't seem to be
able to forge relationships.
They say you're never so alive
as when you're close to death.
Well, maybe the reverse
is also true.
Jesus! It's just sex.
It's not love.
I know.
I suppose he is conflicted.
But he's a solitary figure,
isn't he?
For Morse, there was one love
that was there right from the start.
Fred and Win's daughter, Joan.
The first few episodes,
she's going out on dates,
and you see her kind of being
quite mischievous with Morse,
you know, trying to wind him up.
Well, don't stand on ceremony!
Er, it's probably best
if I wait in the...
I think it's probably best
if you just do as you're told.
HE CHUCKLES
You wouldn't say they were,
you know, the perfect pair,
in the sense that she's quite
outgoing, he's quite awkward.
It's interesting, cos with
the kind of love story that emerged,
it was really early on...
There was an episode where
Jakes takes Joan out for a date.
MUSIC PLAYING
Endeavour walks her home
after it goes wrong.
And I remember,
in the stage directions,
Russell had written:
"This is the moment
he will look back on
"as the moment that he knew
he'd fallen in love."
I thought I'd be all right
with a copper.
Well, there are coppers
and there are coppers.
What sort are you?
I'm the sort that see young ladies
safely home.
'Joan has been on quite a journey.'
We see her quite
bright-eyed and bushy-tailed
right at the beginning. She's still
living with her mum and dad,
she's taken quite a respectable job
at the bank,
doing the right thing.
It's a lunch HOUR, Miss Thursday.
Sorry, Mr Fordyce.
I'll make it up.
Indeed you will, Miss Thursday.
And then there's that incident
at the bank with Endeavour.
Nobody move, this is a robbery!
COMMOTION, SHOUTING
She's going for the bell!
OK!
What are you doing?!
Stop, stop!
Don't look at me!
He happens to be there as well.
It's a good job you're here.
I mean, I'm glad.
If it's any comfort. Me too.
We see, through the series,
how that kind of life
has taken its toll on her as well.
Stay.
I can't.
Just give it time.
I'm a huge admirer of Sara.
She's a terrific actress.
Take care of yourself, Morse.
You too, Miss Thursday.
I think what we've...
or, I hope what we've achieved,
very subtly,
is those dynamic shifts.
I've made such a mess.
I don't know what to do.
There was one point where I said...
Marry me.
And she goes. She doesn't marry him.
SHE EXCLAIMS
Morse, I...
I don't want your pity.
Every time I got a script,
I was thinking, this is gonna be it.
You know,
is there gonna be this kiss?
'Is there gonna be this moment?
'Are they going to
finally get together?'
Do you want to come in?
For coffee?
Yeah.
Over the series,
there are those moments
where they look at each other and...
you just think,
"Oh, go on, do it now!
You know,
"Kiss each other now, profess..."
I don't go much for coffee.
Right to the bitter end,
we get those, all the way along.
Actually, I should probably go.
You just got here.
Yeah, work.
I just wanted to wish you well.
I... just love the bones of her.
You know, she's just
exciting to play, and...
I'll be sad to get my hair
back-combed for the last time.
SHE LAUGHS
Action!
APPLAUSE
We've got our biggest day
of the sh**t today.
We have got a wedding,
so we've got all our regular cast,
for the first time
in the show's history.
And also, sh**ting with the amount
of crowd that we have here today,
all the wedding guests,
it's an enormous team effort.
This is one of the first occasions,
if not THE first occasion,
where we've all been together,
as a cast.
We had the reception,
and I got to have a dance
with Mrs Thursday, and...
Sort of chatting to Dorothea,
Abby's character.
Yeah, it was great. Just lovely.
We all tend to have
our little sort of boxes
of characters, and this time,
having this wedding
has brought us all together,
just like a real wedding.
And the sort of bittersweet fact
that Joan and Strange
have got together
and it's not Endeavour and Joan -
that's one thing.
But on the other hand,
it's also very joyous,
and it seems sort of
the right thing to do,
to all end at a wedding.
And finally,
Joan and Jim's wedding.
Action!
CROWD CHEERING
After much anticipation, Joan
had said yes to marrying not Morse,
but the other long-running detective
in the series.
Jim Strange.
We had absolutely everybody there.
And we had a lot of fun,
a lot of laughs,
as we tend to do
whenever there were groups of us
getting together to sh**t scenes.
But this happy occasion
was, of course, fraught
for one key character.
Endings can be very difficult,
cos you're trying
to tie everything up, and you can't
please all the people all the time.
There's a beautiful scene
in the last episode,
where Joan is about to be married.
And she goes over to Morse,
and she says...
You know, I don't think
you've ever called me by my name.
Have I not?
No.
Well, that's probably for the best.
How's that?
Because if I had...
said it once out loud,
I think I might
never have been able to stop.
Truth is...
..I love you.
ANTON LESSER:
And you think, "Oh, my God!"
It's so brilliant.
And then he says everything
that you've wanted him to say
for all this time.
I should have said something.
I should have said something.
And now it's too late.
No.
It's not.
And then...
It's just been in his head.
I don't think you've ever
called me by my name.
Have I not?
No.
Course.
Mrs Strange.
Well, you might give me a hug.
Oh...
For luck.
MAN: And cut there.
But it's everything, as a viewer,
you've been wanting him to do,
you know, all this time.
For goodness' sake,
just go and grab her
and tell you love her!
And it's-it's beautiful,
really beautiful.
I suppose he's filled
with feelings of regret,
that he didn't just do that
much earlier on in the series.
But then, of course,
he doesn't realise
we wouldn't have had
a really good series!
HE LAUGHS
It couldn't have ended early on
with Morse and Joan settling down,
because we know
that Inspector Morse didn't do that.
Never married?
That's right.
How is that? Do you mind?
Not being married?
Sometimes. Sometimes I mind.
SHAUN EVANS: It's interesting,
isn't it? Because...
I've got a lot of thoughts about it,
really, a lot of feelings about it.
It's good...
for the character to be able
to get that off his chest.
Even if it's only
in a fantasy sequence.
But ultimately,
Endeavour doesn't get the girl.
That was always a given.
Thursday is never mentioned
in the Inspector Morse,
either the books or the series.
So something has to happen
with those two characters
which means that
I never mention them again.
That's where those two things
have to end.
And that's where
we decided to end our story.
We're here at Air Studios.
We're recording the very last
episode of Endeavour.
One of the great privileges
of this job
is working with the composer,
Barrington, and then Matt.
Recorded with a full orchestra,
which is not that common for TV.
The London Metropolitan Orchestra
was specially formed in 1986
to record Barrington Pheloung's
original theme tune
and the score for the music
for Inspector Morse.
The baton passed to his collaborator
Matt Slater when he died.
The journey that all of us
in this orchestra,
and musicians that have
worked on this over the years,
the thousands of hours of work
that have gone into it,
with both Barry Pheloung's scores,
mine, it's...
I don't think there's anything
been quite like it.
And 36 years later,
the orchestra
who have recorded the scores
of all 102 episodes
of Inspector Morse,
Lewis and Endeavour
are gathering to record
for the very last time.
Let's do this.
We're gonna have an amazing day.
This is for everyone
and all the fans who are involved
with Morse, Lewis and Endeavour.
And this is the end,
so let's have fun.
Matt was determined
that on the very last one,
we would have this get-together.
Here we go, two bars into one.
ORCHESTRA PLAYS:
'Endeavour Theme'
Standing on the podium,
and you've got everybody around you.
You've got the orchestras,
you've got cast members.
That moment,
of those final, final notes,
I was shivers,
just even thinking about it.
They mean so much to so many people.
MUSIC CONTINUES
FINAL NOTES FADE
APPLAUSE
Sitting there,
in the middle of the orchestra...
I dunno. It's kind of a...
wild feeling,
the music all around you.
Yeah, it's good. It's kind of
emotional for the guys as well.
They've been doing this
far longer than I have.
There's very few moments in life
that you get
where you know instantly
that moment is incredibly special.
Looking at everyone's faces,
tears in their eyes,
the emotion of going through the
score and what it meant to them...
I don't think I'll ever
get anything like that again.
I'm so proud to be part of it.
36 years after the first episode
of Morse was filmed,
the final scene
for the complex detective
who the public have loved
the world over
required a very pertinent
piece of music.
It's been the finale scene
of Endeavour ever,
which I'm so glad I'm doing.
Endeavour is in a choir,
and they're singing
Faure's Requiem: In Paradisum.
There was a lot of conversations
about...
what music it would be,
whether there would be a choir.
MAN: Turning over.
WOMAN: Rolling. Quiet, please.
And playback.
CHOIR SINGING
That piece has been played,
I believe,
in the very first episode
of Endeavour.
I think that's when he arrived,
on the bus.
We thought this would be
a fitting closure.
FAURE'S REQUIEM
CONTINUES
As we were up there
and singing it and filming,
the writer came in, Russ.
And then the producer came in.
And when they came in,
each of them filled up...
..and got a little bit emotional.
There was a feeling of...
all of the experiences that
we've had perhaps coming to an end.
So it was a release.
Is that it?
That's it.
It's spine-tingling,
and I hope the audiences
will have been moved by it
and understand
that it's just that little comma,
before we hit John Thaw
as Inspector Morse in the '80s.
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Morse and the Last Endeavour (2023)
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