The Complete Inspector Morse

by David Bishop

  THE MORE THINGS CHANGE: The details of the story’s canal murders are left virtually untouched. The major changes take place in the contemporary scenes. Sergeant Lewis is conspicuous by his absence, so Kershaw takes over his role. Librarian Christine Greenaway and the self-published book that sparks Morse’s interest in the case are replaced by Dr Van Buren and her professionally published volume. A subplot about Strange trying to persuade Morse into early retirement is added, as is the presence of Adele Cecil. Otherwise the TV version is very faithful to its source material.

  THE MANY CAMEOS OF COLIN DEXTER: The author appears in the very first shot of the show, as the camera pans across the cabinets and visitors at an exhibition about crime and punishment in Victorian Oxford. Dexter can be seen admiring an old uniform on a mannequin just after Strange appears on screen.

  DRINK UP, LEWIS: Morse turns down a free glass of red wine at the reception after Dr Van Buren’s lecture. He isn’t feeling well.

  The inspector struggles to calculate his weekly intake of beer. He suggests two or three glasses a day. Morse tells Benfield he sometimes treats himself to a bottle of spirits. The consultant doesn’t believe Morse.

  Strange secretly slips the inspector a small bottle of Glenfiddich in hospital. The consultant tells Morse not to drink it while Sister Nessie is around – she would want equal shares.

  The inspector and Kershaw both have halves of beer at a pub by the canal. The constable offers to get another and Morse accepts.

  Dr Van Buren and Morse go to a pub. He buys her a glass of white wine and a half of beer for himself. Kershaw arrives. Morse asks for a full pint.

  The inspector buys three bottles of Irish whiskey as payment for the gravediggers in Ireland.

  UNLUCKY IN LOVE: Adele Cecil is still part of Morse’s life, a rare achievement for any woman. She isn’t living with the inspector, but does tell Strange they’re very good friends. Sister Nessie thinks the couple are married. Adele divides her time between Oxford and caring for her sick mother in Carlisle.

  ONE FOR THE MORGUE: An unknown woman was strangled by Charles Frank, who deliberately mis-identified the corpse as being that of his wife. A patient in the hospital bed next to Morse dies of natural causes.

  MURDERS: one. BODY COUNT: two.

  CRYPTIC CROSSWORDS: Adele asks for Morse’s help with the Times crossword. The clue is: ‘Bradman’s famous duck (6)’. The answer is ‘Donald’.

  QUOTE-UNQUOTE: Dr Van Buren says the Institute of Criminology has some great archives in the city. ‘That’s because Oxford has too many scholars and not enough policemen,’ Morse replies.

  Adele asks whether the sister known as Nessie comes from around Loch Ness. ‘Bottom of it, I should think,’ Morse quips.

  Sister Nessie makes one of the most unusual requests ever about the inspector: ‘I need his buttocks.’ She has to inject him.

  Kershaw gives his verdict on Morse’s car: ‘It’s a terrific piece of retro, postmodern nostalgia.’ The inspector is not amused.

  SOUNDTRACK: Morse listens to Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto after returning home from hospital. Later he and Adele talk about the case while Beethoven’s Trio No 7 for violin, cello and piano plays in the background. During the scene where Adele ponders a crossword clue, Haydn’s Quartet Op 64 can be heard. Barrington Pheloung’s score is among his finest for the programme, with a Celtic refrain used to signify the flashbacks to the past.

  BEHIND THE CRIME SCENES: The character of Kershaw was created by writer Malcolm Bradbury to take Lewis’ place. Bradbury hoped Kershaw might be spun off into his own series when Morse concluded, but it was not to be. The writer died in 2000, not long after contributing a foreword to paperback editions of The Remorseful Day.

  RATINGS: 12.39 million. A slight improvement in viewing figures as the British television industry was undergoing a sea change, thanks to the rise of satellite channels.

  THE VERDICT: ‘The Wench is Dead’ is unusual for several reasons – the unique absence of Lewis, the historical nature of the whodunit, and the sense of things drawing to a close. Malcolm Bradbury does an outstanding job adapting the most introspective of the novels, a book where much of the detective work happens in Morse’s mind. Bradbury succeeds in externalising this, using Dr Van Buren as a sounding board for the inspector’s theories. Matthew Finney ably fills the roll of Lewis substitute. For Morse purists, this TV story will never take first place in their affections. But it still has much to recommend itself. The episode ends with Morse contemplating early retirement and talking about new beginnings. But the chief inspector still had one last case to solve.

  THE REMORSEFUL DAY

  ‘Thank Lewis for me.’ Morse tackles one final case before his death, solving four murders. His passing clears the way for Lewis to become an inspector at last...

  UK TX: 15 November 2000

  SCREENPLAY: Stephen Churchett, based on the novel by Colin Dexter

  DIRECTOR: Jack Gold

  CAST: Paul Freeman (Frank Harrison), T P McKenna (Sir Lionel Phelps), Anna Wilson-Jones (Sandra Harrison), Jesse Birdsall (John Barron), Meg Davies (Yvonne Harrison), Eddie Webber (Harry Repp), James Benson (Paddy Flynn), Paul Hegarty (SOCO officer), Helen Pearson (Debbie Repp), Sean Wightman (police constable), Aidan J David (Roy Holmes), Colin Spaull (Chas), Simon Hepworth (Simon Harrison), Richard Betts (waiter), Barbara Lott (Mrs Bayley), Barbara Kirby (shop assistant), Annette Ekblom (Mrs Holmes), Wesley Smith (newsreader), Anna Rose (tour rep), Tim Knightly (solicitor), Sharon Maiden (Linda Barron), Alisa Bosschaert (Josie Flynn), Ann Wenn (check-in clerk)

  STORYLINE: Yvonne Harrison reads a love letter at night in her expensive, isolated house in the Oxfordshire village of Lower Swinstead. A burglar, Harry Repp, is watching the house. A visitor arrives and goes to the bedroom with Yvonne.

  Yvonne’s daughter Sandra gets a phone call at her flat. Her lover will not be visiting tonight, he is working late. Sandra’s left leg is in bandages because the ankle is badly sprained. Yvonne’s husband Frank then arrives at Oxford train station at 11.00 pm and gets a taxi to Lower Swinstead. The driver is Paddy Flynn. When they arrive the burglar alarm is silent.

  Later that night, the alarm is sounding when the police arrive. A window has been broken inwards, as if by a burglar. Yvonne is naked, gagged and tied to a double bed. Her head has been bashed in. Police find the love letter and give it to Strange just before Morse arrives.

  In a flashback, someone recalls being cared for by Yvonne when she was a nurse. She flirts outrageously with the patient, inviting him to visit her at home.

  A year later, Morse wakes from a daydream. He is suffering chest pains. The inspector is on sick leave after suffering another stomach ulcer, but is due back on active duty the next day. Strange has the files regarding the murder on his desk and contemplates putting the love letter in, but changes his mind. The superintendent revives the investigation after receiving an anonymous letter. He gives the case to Lewis. The letter suggests the police watch a man being released from Bullingdon Prison on Friday. Strange says the only prisoner with a connection to the case is Harry Repp, from Lower Swinstead. The burglar was sent to prison not long after Yvonne’s murder. The letter was postmarked Lower Swinstead.

  The case was initially assigned to Morse but Strange took it over. Lewis was away on an inspector’s course at the time. He still awaits promotion but can’t become an inspector until there’s a vacancy. Morse’s retirement in two months’ time will create that vacancy.

  Lewis discusses the case with the inspector and Morse recalls nothing was stolen from Yvonne’s house. When Harry Repp leaves prison and catches a bus to Bicester, Lewis follows in an unmarked car. Another car gets between the bus and Lewis’ vehicle. At Bicester, Repp gets into an express bus for Oxford. Lewis buys a paper before the bus leaves. When it reaches Oxford, Repp is not on board.

  Morse was following Lewis and the bus, but he also missed Repp getting off the express bus. The inspector did, however, note the registration of the car bet
ween Lewis and the first bus. It was stolen two days earlier. The sergeant is furious with Morse’s interference. When the inspector goes to hospital for a check-up, Sandra is the doctor who sees him. Morse says her mother once nursed him. Sandra believes the inspector’s health will only get worse, not better.

  The sergeant questions Repp’s wife Debbie. He discovers Morse has been there before him. Lewis has another go at the inspector. Morse apologises. He thinks Repp wanted to be watched by the police, hence the letter.

  Next day, Flynn’s body is discovered at a landfill site, stabbed to death. Strange puts Morse in charge. Repp’s corpse is found in the boot of the stolen car; he has also been stabbed to death. Morse surmises Flynn died first, with Repp helping to dump the body at the landfill before he, too, was slain.

  Morse recalls the burglar alarm at Yvonne’s house was supposed to cut out after 30 minutes but was still going when the police arrived – two hours after her death. Meanwhile, Sandra is sexually harassed by a senior colleague, Sir Lionel Phelps. He boasts about enjoying kinky encounters with her mother, Yvonne.

  Lower Swinstead builder John Barron visits his local pub, the Maiden’s Arms. He tells the barman he will be working in Burford the next morning. Their conversation is overheard by a teenage boy, Roy Holmes.

  Frank Harrison has dinner at the Randolph with his adult offspring, Sandra and Simon. They discuss murdering a man. Frank gets a phone call.

  Lewis finds £17,000 in cash among Flynn’s possessions. Repp has a similar amount saved in a building society account. The sergeant believes the two men were part of a blackmail scheme. He recalls the builder Barron gave evidence about trying to telephone Yvonne on the night she was murdered. This helped establish alibis for other people. Forensics reports suggest something like a builder’s knife was used to stab Repp and Flynn, but Yvonne was killed by blows inflicted with a metal tube. Morse decides to bring Barron in for questioning the next morning. He believes the builder was part of a conspiracy. The inspector gets more chest pains.

  Next morning Barron works on a high ladder at Burford. A jogger in a hooded red top is seen nearby. The ladder is knocked out from under the builder. He falls to his death. The red top is dumped at a charity shop in a bag of clothes. A shop assistant sees the bag being left by a man who drives away in a car. After reading a newspaper report about Barron’s death, she calls the police and gives them the car’s registration. It leads to Simon Harrison, who is arrested on suspicion of murdering the builder.

  Roy approaches the police. He says he accidentally knocked the ladder out from under Barron while swerving his bicycle to avoid a jogger in a red top. Simon says he planned to murder Barron but had to jump out of the way to avoid Roy on his bicycle. Both of them are released without charge.

  Morse makes a will, splitting his estate evenly between a young musician’s scholarship fund, Adele Cecil and Lewis. He plans to leave his body to medical research and expressly forbids any funeral or memorial service.

  Roy’s mother, it emerges, used to be the Harrison family’s cleaner. The inspector questions Sandra and suggests Barron was her lover. She’s moving to Canada for a new job. Sandra denies killing Yvonne, pointing out she had a badly sprained ankle at the time. She calls her mother a perverted whore and tries to divert suspicion onto Sir Lionel.

  Strange gives Lewis the letter found at the scene of Yvonne’s murder. It is in Morse’s handwriting. Strange withdrew it from evidence to spare the inspector embarrassment. Sir Lionel reveals Roy is Frank’s illegitimate son. Sir Lionel was in Oslo when Yvonne was murdered. The inspector phones Lewis and tells the sergeant to arrest Roy.

  Morse has a heart attack and is taken to hospital. He sees a man with a crutch and realises Sandra used her crutch as the murder weapon. Frank got Roy to provide an alibi for Simon, who did kill the builder. Lewis gives Morse’s letter back to Strange.

  Sandra checks in at the airport for her flight to Canada. Lewis goes to arrest her, while Strange stays with Morse at the Coronary Care Unit. The chief superintendent hears Morse’s last words: ‘Thank Lewis for me.’

  Strange rips up the letter.

  Sandra admits Barron was her lover. On the night of Yvonne’s murder, he called Sandra to say he was working late. She dialled 1471 and realised he was calling from her mother’s house. Sandra didn’t mind sharing the builder with other women, but not with her mother. Barron fled when Sandra arrived. She found her mother bound and gagged like someone in a porn film. Sandra beat her mother to death with a metal crutch, just as Morse deduced. Afterwards she called her father for help and the conspiracy began.

  Lewis views the inspector’s body in the morgue. He kisses Morse on the forehead and says, ‘Goodbye, sir.’

  THE MORE THINGS CHANGE: Stephen Churchett pares down the plot for length reasons but in doing so eliminates a significant part of the original novel. In the book, Morse initially refuses to take the case, then interferes with Lewis’ investigation in order to protect Strange, who had been having an affair with Yvonne. This is all cut, leaving just the love letter Morse had written to the murdered woman. The subplot involving Sir Lionel is added, shifting the location of the inspector’s heart attack to the more picturesque quad of an Oxford college.

  THE MANY CAMEOS OF COLIN DEXTER: The author appears as a man in a wheelchair with a group of pensioners visiting Oxford. The tourists are looking at Magdalen Bridge.

  DRINK UP, LEWIS: Questioned about his intake of alcohol units, Morse says he drinks pints – not units. They’re much tastier. Later, he and Lewis go to a pub. They sit outside at dusk, Morse with a pint, the sergeant drinking orange juice. The inspector says Lewis should buy the next round. His sergeant questions the wisdom of Morse drinking more beer. The inspector says he drinks to think, not for pleasure.

  Morse buys Sandra a glass of white wine but he has just tonic water.

  The inspector plans to visit the Maiden’s Arms with Lewis for a pint, but the detectives are called elsewhere. The detectives go to the pub later for Barron’s wake. Morse drinks single malt whisky. Lewis has orange juice. The inspector drinks more whisky when he gets home.

  UNLUCKY IN LOVE: Morse’s ill fortune in matters of the heart reasserts itself. Adele Cecil is in Australia. The inspector re-reads a letter from Adele saying she is staying there and tells Lewis about her decision. Despite that, Morse leaves a third of his estate to Adele in his will – she obviously meant a great deal to him.

  The inspector wrote to Yvonne, but she never contacted him.

  PEOPLE JUST CALL ME MORSE: Debbie Repp asks Morse for his first name. ‘Inspector,’ he replies with a smile.

  ONE FOR THE MORGUE: Yvonne Harrison is beaten to death with a metal crutch by her daughter Sandra. Paddy Flynn and Harry Repp are both stabbed by John Barron. Barron falls to his death after Simon Harrison knocks a ladder out from beneath the builder. Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse dies after a heart attack.

  MURDERS: four. BODY COUNT: five.

  MORSE DECODED: The inspector has a new hobby – birdwatching. He thinks it will help him pass the time during retirement. But he’s unable to identify a common house sparrow without the help of Lewis.

  QUOTE-UNQUOTE: Lewis says Morse is a bit grumpy at the moment. ‘No change there then,’ Strange observes.

  The inspector asks if Lewis noticed a car following him. ‘Behind me?’ the sergeant asks. ‘It’s not the pantomime season, Lewis,’ Morse grumbles.

  Dr Hobson’s vagueness irks the inspector: ‘Can’t you be less precise?’

  Sir Lionel describes his sex games with Yvonne. ‘Kinky rumpy-pumpy is what my sergeant would call it,’ Morse replies.

  SOUNDTRACK: The final Inspector Morse is suffused with music from start to finish. Yvonne hums ‘Unchained Melody’ during the title sequence. Sir Lionel sings a few bars from the Fauré Requiem while walking along hospital corridors. Morse listens to Grieg’s Peer Gynt when he knows the sergeant is coming to visit. Lewis gave him a CD compilation called Classical Charisma fea
turing the famous ‘Dawn Segment’ when the inspector was last in hospital. Morse says he plays it as often as he can; the implication is that he plays it as often as he can stand it. Once Lewis has heard the CD, Morse turns it off. The inspector hopes to spend much of his retirement listening to Wagner. He says Lewis should persist with the composer’s works. They are about important things – life and death, regret. Later, Lewis has a tape of Wagner’s opera Parsifal in his car. Morse approves but can’t help correcting the sergeant’s pronunciation of the conductor’s name, Knappertsbusch. The hymn ‘The Day Thou Gavest’ is sung at Barron’s funeral.

  One of the episode’s most powerful scenes comes when Morse is at home, alone with the knowledge that his health is deteriorating rapidly. He turns on a recording of Schubert’s Quintet in C Major (2nd Movement), but even his beloved music is no solace and he switches it off after a few bars. The same piece was the signature tune for the earlier episode ‘Dead on Time’, acting as a theme for Susan Fallon, the lost love of Morse’s life. Could Barrington Pheloung’s choice of this particular music be a hint the inspector is thinking about Susan?

  Morse goes to a rehearsal of the Fauré Requiem. Sir Lionel sings the ‘Libera Me’ solo. Composer Barrington Pheloung appears as a conductor at the rehearsal. He also has several lines of dialogue, although his role isn’t mentioned in the closing credits. When the inspector has his heart attack outside the rehearsal, the ‘In Paradisum’ from the same work plays in the background.

  IDENTITY PARADE: Character actor T P McKenna had a career spanning nearly half a century on film and TV, including Straw Dogs and the Johnny Depp feature The Libertine. Paul Freeman’s numerous credits include a recurring role on US medical drama ER and the part of a greedy archaeologist in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Jesse Birdsall featured in the ill-fated soap Eldorado before starring in all four series of techno-thriller Bugs.

  RATINGS: 13.66 million. Thirteen years on from the first Morse, the final episode attracts almost as many viewers – a testament to the programme’s enduring power.