Endeavour 9th & final season starts 26 February 2023 at 8pm on ITV

[IwantToRetire]

2023’s final trilogy of films will find Endeavour and Thursday entering a new era of change both professionally and personally.

Set in the spring of 1972, the final season’s opening episode is directed by none other than Endeavour star Shaun Evans.

The synopsis for the story reads: “Two unexplained deaths turn up ties to the Oxford Concert Orchestra, while a body discovered in a derelict warehouse stokes fears that ‘London business’ has yet again found its way to Oxford.

“Thursday and Endeavour’s investigation unearths some unsettling connections to cases the duo believed were well and truly behind them.”

britishperioddramas.com/news/endeavour-season-9-release-date-itv-february-2023/

Endeavour
Morse

Lewis

When Morse was first being produced TV was a very different beast. It's only in the last 15 years or so that TV has been seen as an equal to cinema. So the scale of ambition with Endeavour is much greater and we get a cinematic feel to each episode which makes for a richer viewing experience.

Lewis was never great (although I love the character of Lewis himself) but the body count for each episode always felt a bit ridiculous. But I could happily watch it. But now even the sight of Laurence Fox gets on my nerves so I don't think I'll revisit it.

I don't mind Laurence Fox as Hathaway, I think he's a great character, played very well. It's when LF is himself that I may have some issues!

1. Endeavour

2. Lewis (let down by increasingly poor scripts)

3. Morse - I never really watched it at the time, and when I see a repeat I think I will give it another go, I just end up groaning. So even at the time I found its portrayal of women really bad and cliched.

Lewis got me through covid and I'll always be grateful to him for that! (I might have slept through some of the episodes to be fair)

dmbarcroft.com/the-endeavour-interviews-2023-anton-lesser/ there's also links to interviews with other cast members.

Trewlove of the Yard would be a good spin off. I've just watched thevl episode where Fancy is shot and she leaves Cowley.

I was sad when Trewlove left. I think the character (and actress) was criminally underused.

Yeah I think she was written out for a reason (the actress I think). Good character though.

I thought it might have been because the actor wanted to leave. She was a good character, feisty and stood up to the men, I would have liked to have seen more.

I’d love to have heard a passing mention of “DC Trewlove” in later episodes of Endeavour. That would’ve been a nice nod to the character’s intellect and ambition. She clearly wanted to be in plain clothes.

I finished Endeavour today (binged it over the back holiday) and am about to start Morse, which I never watched when it was on originally. I wasn’t into police dramas as a child other than Cagney & Lacey so it wasn’t on my radar. Can’t wait to get going! Will miss the Thursday family though, and Bright and Max and Dorothea. Loved them all!

Am now going to read the links posted on here upthread. Thanks for those!

@TennisWithDeborah I watched all of Endeavour, then Morse, and now I am about halfway through the Lewis series. There is quite a good facebook page with a lot of discussion about all the series. I am really enjoying it.

Just out of interest, how convincing was/is it to watch Morse if you started with Endeavour?

Or do you just not pretend they are meant to be the same person and focus on the plot lines.

And try not to notice Morse's bullying of Lewis, which the very sensitive Endeavour would never have done!!

To be fair, Endeavour was a prick to George Fancy, and was quite bullish with Strange in the early days. He definitely had rough edges socially.

It makes less sense to me that he continued to be absolutely 100% crap at spotting that a woman was a wrongun, after the crazy Italian storyline, and that he started Endeavour hankering after the murderous opera singer.

I mean, surely you'd get to the point where you'd go, "right, I fancy her, that sends her to the top of the suspect list".

I mean, surely you'd get to the point where you'd go, "right, I fancy her, that sends her to the top of the suspect list".

You're so right.

You could be almost certain that if Morse started ogling a woman she would turn out to be if not the wrong doer, the unwavering supporter of the wrong doer!

Endeavour was a prick to George Fancy, and was quite bullish with Strange in the early days.

Yes both Morse and Endeavour were cultural snobs, and in fact we never saw Endeavour acting as someone's superior, so maybe he would have been a bully as well.

Max is in Morse x

I suspect Morse became more curmudgeonly as he aged without settling down with anyone. He really had no time for Lewis having to get off home because the missus has got a sewing bee or hearing about Lewis’ domestic affairs “yes thank you; when you’ve quite finished the life and times of the Lewis family” when Lewis was explaining that his wife had taken driving lessons at the place they were visiting in Driven To Distraction

So is Strange. Still calls Morse matey!

He does indeed

The Morse episodes seem dated because they were made in the time in which they were set, but improve as the series progresses. I really like Lewis, it is fresher and there is a good relationship between the two leads.

So is Strange. Still calls Morse matey!

In fact this was the one story line in Endeavour that for me did seem credible to have created the relationship they had in Morse.

Although as Morse got more and more morose, Strange became more confident of his position and was no longer phased by Morse acting superior.

In fact Morse was lucky to have him.

I don't think that Jim Strange even knew that Morse was in love with Joan. He seemed oblivious.

I wonder if he really was though?

He seemed to put women on a pedestal.

I wonder if the reality would have disappointed him?

I don't think that Jim Strange even knew that Morse was in love with Joan. He seemed oblivious.

I think he was. I think he held back when he thought Endeavour might be more serious /committed.

But he persisted as he did with his police career. Not showy but working steadily towards his goal. (ALthough a bit sneeky re the Masons, but that was more he accepting a reality of life.)

I think that was partly why he was sympathetic, kind even to Endeavour as Morse, because on his terms Morse could have had so much more, but arrogance lost him so much.

And I think Thursday would have thought Endeavour much to flakey to be a son in law. Strange was one of his own.