The Complete Inspector Morse Read online

  THE COMPLETE

  INSPECTOR MORSE

  FROM THE ORIGINAL NOVELS TO THE SCREEN

  DAVID BISHOP

  TITAN BOOKS

  The Complete Inspector Morse

  ISBN: 9780857689559

  Published by

  Titan Books

  A division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd.

  144 Southwark St.

  London

  SE1 0UP

  This edition: October 2011

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  First published in the UK 2002.

  The Complete Inspector Morse copyright © David Bishop 2002, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011.

  Photographs, including cover © ITV/Rex Features.

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  A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

  Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group UK Ltd.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  The first edition of this book was commissioned before John Thaw’s announcement, in June 2001, that he was battling cancer and hoped to make a full recovery. Sadly, he died on 21 February 2002, with his family around him. In the following days the news media were filled with articles praising his work on stage and screen, acknowledging Inspector Morse as his best-known role and arguably his greatest performance. Colin Dexter, the creator of Morse, rightly described Thaw’s death as a cause of huge sadness.

  This new edition is again dedicated to the memory of John Thaw, 1942-2002.

  David Bishop

  Lanarkshire

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Colin Dexter – without whom there would be no Morse

  John Thaw and Kevin Whately – for first firing my interest in Morse

  Marcus Hearn and Richard Reynolds – for believing in this book

  A. Bahbahani – for spotting mistakes in the second edition

  Alison Bishop – for love, patience and understanding

  Alan Barnes – for Holmesian insights

  CONTENTS

  Introduction

  The Evolution of Morse

  In Print

  On Screen

  On Stage

  On Radio

  Appendix 1: The Inspector Morse Society

  Appendix 2: Morse Online

  Appendix 3: Morse Books

  Appendix 4: Morse Documentaries

  Appendix 5: Morse Merchandise

  INTRODUCTION

  Inspector Morse is a phenomenon. Created in a series of bestselling novels by retiring Oxford academic Colin Dexter, the character changed the face of British television drama. The grumpy detective’s endeavours have been seen by more than a billion people in 200 countries worldwide. That means one in seven people alive on the planet has watched an episode of Inspector Morse.

  More surprising still, Morse is an undying phenomenon. Dexter killed off his character in the 1999 novel The Remorseful Day, yet new stories about Morse continue to appear in print. The TV series went off air in 2000, after bringing the character’s death to the screen with an adaptation of The Remorseful Day. But all 33 episodes of the show are endlessly repeated round the world.

  The world of Morse was never about just the irascible inspector. His longsuffering sergeant Lewis was an integral part of that phenomenal success. In 2006 the character was given his own spin-off TV special. It became the highest rating drama of the year, inevitably leading to a new, returning series. Twenty episodes of Lewis have now been broadcast, finding as great a global audience in this millennium as Morse did in the last.

  Dexter’s creations have even found their way into a new narrative medium. In 2010 a Morse play went on tour around Britain, scripted by screenwriter Alma Cullen and approved by Dexter himself. Colin Baker stepped into the part of Morse, bringing a fresh interpretation to the role made famous by the late, great John Thaw.

  Now, nearly 25 years after Morse first appeared on our screens, there are discussions about producing a new television drama showing the character as an undergraduate in Oxford. It remains to be seen whether this project will come to pass, but even the suggestion of such a development was enough to make headlines around the world – yet more evidence of the character’s undying appeal.

  But why does Morse endure, even though the character’s been dead for over a decade? What makes this obdurate, irascible, obtuse individual such a source of fascination for millions upon millions of people worldwide?

  In truth, it required a happy combination of circumstances.

  Dexter’s novels and short stories were intelligent and highly readable. The character of Morse was unique and appealing, created by an author who wasn’t trying to pander to any predetermined notions or market niches. It’s worth remembering that two of Dexter’s novels, Service of All the Dead and The Dead of Jericho, had won Silver Dagger awards from the Crime Writers’ Association before anyone thought of adapting them for TV.

  (Morse novels subsequently won two Gold Daggers and the CWA gave Dexter its coveted Diamond Dagger in 1997 for outstanding services to crime literature. In 2000 he was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for his services to crime writing. All proof that he was not merely a mid-list author who got lucky.)

  But it’s fair to say that television turned the well-loved chief inspector into a global sensation. Inspector Morse broke all the rules when it first appeared on the small screen in January 1987. At the time, flashy US cop shows like Miami Vice were considered the way forward. The attention span of viewers seemed to be dwindling by the day. Surely nobody would sit still for a two-hour programme about a grumpy old detective with a liking for real ale, crosswords and the operas of Wagner?

  History shows how wrong those assumptions were. Inspector Morse won BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards for best drama on British television. John Thaw received BAFTA best actor awards for his portrayal of Morse. The show’s music won BAFTA awards for composer Barrington Pheloung, and albums of music from the series stormed the pop charts and sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

  Producer Kenny McBain and executive producer Ted Childs made several wise choices while developing Morse for TV. They abandoned the accepted wisdom that a police drama also had to be a series – instead they would make one-off films for TV. They dispensed with the notion of some lowest common denominator deciding what should be broadcast, aiming for an aspirational audience that wanted to be rewarded for its taste and intelligence. They spent time and money making each episode, far more than was usually afforded TV dramas. They decided to shoot on film, giving visuals a cinematic quality.

  McBain and Childs wanted the best talents available to work behind the camera, putting particular emphasis on getting the scripts right. It’s no coincidence that Morse alumni like Anthony Minghella, Danny Boyle and John Madden all went on to make Oscar-nominated and, in several cases, Oscarwinning films. ‘Employ the best and you’ll get the best’ was the motto for the programme and it paid off. The guest actors for each episode read like a Who’s Who of Britain’s best thespians.

  The final piece in the jigsaw was casting the central characte
rs. John Thaw was reluctant to play another hard-nosed policeman after spending much of the 1970s in The Sweeney. But Morse was a very different kind of copper, more comfortable with Mozart and mind-bending puzzles than punching villains and pinching thieves. Thaw found the greatest role of his career with the gruff, grumpy, beer-guzzling chief inspector, and he was rewarded with two BAFTA trophies as a result.

  Just as Sherlock Holmes was bereft without Watson, so Lewis was an essential part of the Morse mythos. Kevin Whately brought humour and humanity to a role that could easily have been a buffoon, proving a brilliant foil to Thaw’s more incendiary screen presence. Together they created a partnership equal to any seen on TV in the preceding 20 years.

  Inspector Morse was a breath of fresh air in late-1980s television. Story length gave the dramas a sense of quality and grandeur that proved popular with viewers and advertisers. The writers had time and space to develop characters and atmosphere, instead of simply ramming plot-points down viewers’ throats in between commercial breaks. And, on top of all this, the show was classless, appealing to readers of The Sun and The Times alike.

  If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Inspector Morse has been flattered endlessly, begetting a welter of similar shows and ever-weaker imitations of the genuine article. David Jason came closest to duplicating the success of Morse in A Touch of Frost on ITV. The BBC responded with Dalziel & Pascoe. Existing programmes like Taggart were tweaked in an attempt to replicate Morse’s capture of lightning in a bottle. The feature-length format pioneered by Inspector Morse became the hallmark of quality dramas, opening the door for shows like Prime Suspect and Cracker. In the meantime, the success of the TV series sent sales of Dexter’s novels rocketing.

  The undying phenomenon continues to this day. It’s more than 35 years since the first Morse novel was published, and 12 years have passed since the chief inspector died in print. More than a decade has elapsed since Morse breathed his last on screen, but Colin Dexter’s characters endure. (It wouldn’t be a surprise if a fresh edition of The Complete Inspector Morse was required in 2025 to celebrate 50 years of Morse.)

  This volume is an appreciation of Morse across all media. It offers the most complete and comprehensive analysis of the stories – everything you need to know, all in one place. It is both an appreciation and a critical appraisal of the fictional Oxford detective.

  It looks at Colin Dexter’s thirteen novels, and all the diverse short stories that feature the character. Each of Morse’s 33 televised tales undergoes a thorough post-mortem examination (something that often brought out the sleuth’s squeamish side), along with the pilot episode for the Lewis spin-off series. The 2010 Morse stage play House of Ghosts is also brought to book, along with details of Morse’s radio appearances, documentaries and various merchandise. This volume outlines the plots, highlights trends and trivia, and offers observations about style and content. Last but not least, it passes verdict on each Morse fiction – in every medium. You may not agree with the opinions expressed, but hopefully they’ll prompt you to read the books or watch the television series with new eyes.

  David Bishop

  Scotland

  May 2011

  UPDATE: The new Morse television drama Endeavour was formally announced by ITV in August 2011. Emerging actor Shaun Evans stars as a young Morse in his early days with the Oxford police. This one-off special will be broadcast in 2012 to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Morse’s first TV appearance. More details are on page 267.

  THE EVOLUTION OF MORSE

  BEFORE TELEVISION

  Inspector Morse began life when Colin Dexter was on holiday in Wales. Poor weather kept him inside and Dexter was bored with a substandard crime novel. Deciding he could do better, the academic began writing pages of what would become the first Morse story.

  But it was not until six months later that he rediscovered those initial pages and decided the project was worth pursuing. Dexter had co-written several textbooks for publication, but had never attempted a novel. Despite this he stuck to the task and eventually finished a manuscript with the working title Ten Miles to Woodstock. His crime novel was rejected by one company but the second publisher to be offered the manuscript snapped it up. Renamed Last Bus to Woodstock, the novel hit shops in 1975.

  Six further Morse novels were published before the first television adaptation was broadcast in 1987. Between Last Bus to Woodstock in 1975 and The Secret of Annexe 3 in 1986, Morse ages from his mid-40s to 54. His black hair turns grey and his waistline thickens. He tries to give up smoking many, many times, and drinks heavily. He has a strong interest in pornography and erotica, but only to the extent of enjoying it should the opportunity arise during an investigation – he’s too embarrassed to pursue it off-duty.

  In the original published versions of the early novels, Morse drove a Lancia. This was the only element Dexter retrospectively altered following the success of the TV series, swapping the Lancia for the more familiar Jaguar. Otherwise the first seven novels have remained as they were first printed ever since, creating quite a few anomalies.

  In the first novel Lewis is several years older than Morse, and he certainly doesn’t come from Newcastle. The sergeant feels queasy at the sight of corpses – a trait that soon passes over to the inspector. Lewis is much slower at reading reports in the first novel, but Morse soon borrows this tendency from his sergeant. Mrs Lewis is Welsh. She and her husband have teenage daughters. And by the time The Secret of Annexe 3 was published in 1986, Lewis has become a grandfather.

  Dexter’s novels acquired a loyal following by the mid-1980s. Two of them – Service of All the Dead in 1979, and The Dead of Jericho in 1981 – won Silver Daggers in the annual Crime Writers’ Association awards. Sales were steady rather than spectacular. But a phone call from a young television producer called Kenny McBain was about to change the lives of Morse and his creator forever...

  ON TELEVISION

  Central Television was looking to launch a new drama series, ideally to be filmed within its broadcast area. Kenny McBain read several of Dexter’s Oxford-set novels and decided they could be adapted for TV. Rather than try to cram the stories into just 50 minutes of screen time (running an hour with commercials), McBain and executive producer Ted Childs proposed a more radical approach. Inspector Morse would be 100 minutes long (running two hours with commercials), with each story made as if it were a film. The series would employ the best writers available, people who would concentrate on characterisation as much as plot. Their approach was to revolutionise British TV drama.

  McBain and Childs transferred Morse almost unchanged from page to screen. He stopped smoking and lost his taste for strip clubs and pornography, but otherwise remained the same tight-fisted, beer-guzzling, crossword-cracking, case-solving, Wagner-listening and curmudgeonly genius that Dexter’s readers knew and loved.

  Sergeant Lewis underwent a much more wide-ranging revamp. Out went the grandfather several years Morse’s senior, and with a Welsh wife. In came a younger man with an Oxford-born wife, a young family and roots in Newcastle. In Dexter’s first seven novels Morse and Lewis are generational contemporaries, both with experience of life in the armed services. For the TV series the pair adopted a surrogate father-son relationship, with Morse the elder mentor figure and his sergeant as the younger generation, the pupil.

  Morse’s television success had several significant effects on Dexter. As well as bringing a massive surge in sales of the seven novels already published, it also created a demand for more. It brought the author money and recognition far beyond anything he had previously experienced. It also brought more than its share of problems.

  First and foremost, should the existing novels be changed to take into account the series’ success? Dexter wisely chose not to rewrite history, except for the swift exchange of Morse’s make and model of car. Next, how to write about his own creations, knowing the many new readers picking up future novels would expect Morse and Lewis to resemble John Thaw
and Kevin Whately? Again, Dexter was cautious, keeping descriptions and specifics of the characters sufficiently vague so regular readers and newcomers could impose their own visions of the detectives on to the characters in each story.

  For example, Morse’s age hardly rates a mention in the novels published after 1987. In The Jewel That Was Ours (1991), the inspector is at least 55 years old but that is the limit of any such absolutes. Details about Lewis and his family become much less specific, and his age is never mentioned again.

  Another consideration was the amount of time and energy Dexter had to devote to the TV series. The first series simply adapted three of his novels, but by the second series Dexter was supplying new storylines for the show. The writer had previously produced a novel every two years – now he was creating entire plots for TV dramas in a much shorter time.

  After the third series was filmed in 1988 for broadcast the following year, Dexter announced he would no longer be helping to plot future series. Ill health was troubling him and he retired from his job with the Oxford University Examination Board. In the midst of all this he produced one of his best Morse novels, The Wench is Dead. Significantly, it’s also his shortest and has the inspector solving a murder mystery from his sick-bed. The departure in style and the fresh approach earned Dexter his first Gold Dagger from the CWA in 1989.

  For his next novel, the author decided to reclaim some of the hard work he had put into his storylines for the TV series. He rewrote his plotline for ‘The Wolvercote Tongue’ as The Jewel That Was Ours. The decision was understandable, but the recycled material seemed over-familiar and lacked Dexter’s usual verve.

  He quickly got back on form with The Way Through the Woods in 1992, earning a second Gold Dagger. The book saw Dexter reclaiming the character of Morse as his own, with the inspector acting in the idiosyncratic manner so closely associated with the best of the novels. By the time this novel was published, the TV series was shooting its seventh and final series. All future episodes would be adapted from Dexter’s novels – just as the first three episodes had been, six years previously.