The Complete Inspector Morse

by David Bishop

  LEWIS’ KITH AND KIN: One of Lewis’ aunts used to swear by a clove as a cure for toothache; she no longer has her own teeth. The sergeant’s wife buys all his clothes. Mrs Lewis is from Oxford, born and bred. As a lad the thing Lewis most wanted was a tin drum, but his mother wouldn’t allow it – too noisy. The sergeant went to a Demis Roussos concert and learned about Orpheus, the singing Greek. Lewis complains he doesn’t get time to watch EastEnders. The sergeant recognises a Latin proverb about fortune favouring the brave, because it was his school’s motto. He was once due to speak in a balloon debate at high school, but was cut short by a fire drill. His school assemblies were multi-cultural.

  SOPHOCLES DID DO IT: Morse thinks Reece killed Balarat after being told he would not be made chairman of the royal commission. The Master concealed the identity of the corpse to delay any police enquiry into Balarat’s death.

  ONE FOR THE MORGUE: Balarat is shot by Drysdale. Kerridge is bludgeoned to death by Reece. Reece is shot three times by Drysdale.

  MURDERS: three. BODY COUNT: three.

  MORSE DECODED: Morse’s mother always insisted he have a proper breakfast. The inspector and Reece knew each other when they were students. Both men pursued the same girl, called Wendy. Drysdale was one of the inspector’s tutors at Oxford, and had Morse’s scholarship taken away. Drysdale says the inspector could have got a first, if he had done any work at all. Morse doubts it – he has a good memory, but a prosaic mind. The old don correctly guesses Morse’s work went to pieces because of a woman. The inspector once knew a girl in Burton-on-Trent. Further north he has no desire to go. He says he was never good with children or animals.

  QUOTE-UNQUOTE: Dr Russell retains her sense of humour after an encounter with a very brusque Morse: ‘If I had to hazard a professional opinion, I’d say the chief inspector was not a morning person.’

  Kerridge’s neighbour Miss Tree asks Morse if he can tango, but the inspector says no. ‘I might be able to do something with you,’ she says, before looking him up and down. ‘Perhaps not.’

  Deborah sums up Oxford bitterly: ‘A vicious, back-biting, parochial little town that thinks it’s the centre of the universe.’ ‘Pretty, though,’ Morse replies.

  The inspector asks for Lewis’ opinion of a civil servant. ‘I thought he was an arrogant pillock,’ the sergeant says cheerfully.

  SOUNDTRACK: This episode is remarkably free of music. Morse listens to Schubert’s String Quartet when Lewis arrives with news about Kerridge’s body. The inspector is intrigued when Dr Russell announces she’s going to a concert by Metric Conversion, but he is dismayed to learn the ensemble is a pop group.

  IDENTITY PARADE: Barry Foster starred as Van Der Valk in the detective series of the same name. Michael Aldridge featured as Seymour Utterthwaite in the long-running sitcom Last of the Summer Wine.

  RATINGS: 14.00 million.

  THE VERDICT: ‘The Last Enemy’ is a good but not great story, loosely based on one of the lesser Morse novels. Writer Peter Buckman ditches many of the over-complicating elements from the source material, but the television version fails to grip. This is not helped by the fact the main killer remains off screen until the final minutes. It requires a six-minute conversation between Drysdale and Morse to explain the plot, never a good way to finish a murder mystery. But the interplay between Morse, Lewis and Dr Russell is a delight, and the story reveals some intriguing facts about the chief inspector’s younger days in Oxford. More morsels will be disclosed in the next tale...

  DECEIVED BY FLIGHT

  ‘Dead men can’t speak, can they?’ Morse decides an old friend’s suicide was actually murder. He’s smitten with the killer and discovers another old acquaintance is a drug dealer. Not a happy school reunion!

  UK TX: 18 January 1989

  SCREENPLAY: Anthony Minghella, based on an idea by Colin Dexter

  DIRECTOR: Anthony Simmons

  CAST: Norman Rodway (Roland Marshall), Sharon Maughan (Kate Donn), Daniel Massey (Anthony Donn), Jane Booker (Philippa Foster), Nicky Henson (Vince Cranston), Bryan Pringle (Barker), Geoffrey Beevers (Peter Foster), Nat Parker (Jamie Jasper), Stephen Moore (radio producer), Peter Amory (DC Hilaire), Martin Chamberlain (Clarets’ captain), Adam Tomlinson (Clarets’ batsman), Kit Jackson (Clarets’ player), Charles Collingwood (Clarets’ fast bowler), Andrew Paul (suspect), Ann Bryson (radio producer’s PA), Elin Jenkins (WPC), David Shaw-Parker (forensic sergeant), John Patrick (patrol officer)

  STORYLINE: Former student Anthony Donn returns to Arnold College in Oxford. A man and woman watch Donn arriving. In his room, Donn opens a small toiletry bag – there’s a revolver inside. He listens to his wife Kate on the radio – she presents a talkback show on Metro Sound 271. Donn phones Morse and invites his old college colleague out for supper. Donn is back in Oxford to play for the old boys’ cricket team, the Clarets’ XI.

  The detectives attend a crime scene. Three people died when they were locked into a left-wing bookstore and petrol bombs were thrown inside. Dr Russell is upset by the case.

  Morse and Donn stroll through a park, eating chips and talking about marriage. Donn has been reading a book about Zen Buddhism that belongs to his wife. At batting practice, Donn asks the Clarets’ coach, Roland ‘Roly’ Marshall, when team-mate Vince Cranston will be arriving. Roly says Cranston is probably saying a long goodbye to somebody else’s wife. Donn tries to contact Morse, but the inspector is busy.

  Next morning the police are called to Arnold College. Donn is dead in his room, having apparently committed suicide by electrocuting himself. Lewis finds a loaded revolver in Donn’s suitcase. Dr Russell says Donn had taken sedatives before the live wires were placed in his mouth. Kate Donn tells Morse her husband wouldn’t kill himself. She’s stunned to hear Donn had a gun.

  The inspector suspects Donn was murdered by one of the cricketers. He sends Lewis undercover as part of the team. The sergeant pretends to be a porter at Arnold College, with only Roly knowing his real identity.

  Morse mentions the Zen book. Kate says she got it from a female friend.

  The man keeping watch on the Clarets visits the porter’s office at Arnold College, introducing himself as Peter Foster. He claims to be using the college library to research a book. Foster asks to borrow the college master key after locking himself out of his room. Lewis follows him. Foster uses the key to get into the room where Donn died. Lewis is observed by Foster’s wife, Philippa.

  The inspector interviews Philippa. She arranges to sit with the inspector at the Clarets’ warm-up match the next day. Lewis, meanwhile, is introduced to Roly’s nephew Jamie, captain of the opposition team. He flew from Hong Kong to take part in the game. The sergeant follows Foster to the cricket pavilion late at night. Foster is breaking into a locker when he hears Lewis. The sergeant is knocked out with a cricket bat.

  During the cricket match Foster is busy at Arnold College searching the players’ rooms. Philippa joins Morse at the game. Lewis goes in to bat but Cranston gets him run out. Morse sleeps during the opposition innings and fails to see Lewis take a catch. The sergeant clean-bowls Jamie. Cranston drops a catch off Lewis’ bowling.

  A screaming woman runs out of the pavilion. Inside, Jamie sits by the body of Foster, which has a pair of scissors protruding from the chest. Philippa admits Foster is her boss, not her husband. They are investigating officers for Customs and Excise. A member of the Clarets’ smuggles cocaine and heroin.

  Drugs with a street value of £2,000,000 are exported to Europe from England once a year. The trips coincide with Clarets’ cricket tours. Philippa asks for the tour to go ahead and Morse agrees. Lewis will go with the team.

  Morse visits Kate at home. He finds the Zen book on her bookshelf. An inscription inside promises a thousand hugs and a thousand kisses. Lewis sets off for Dover with the Clarets in a coach. Jamie and Roly drive down in the latter’s car. Cranston is driving himself to Dover.

  Morse follows Kate and sees her meet Cranston, her lover. The inspector sees the cr
icket team off at Dover. Customs agents search the coach but find nothing. Just in time, Morse realises the drugs are hidden inside Roly’s wheelchair. Police stop Jamie as he drives to London.

  Morse arrests Kate for murdering her husband. The inspector says Kate wanted to leave Donn, but Anthony threatened to take the kids and kill Cranston. Jamie killed Foster to protect the drug trafficking business.

  THE MANY CAMEOS OF COLIN DEXTER: Morse’s creator strolls briskly by as Roly tells Lewis about Vince Cranston’s adulterous ways, just before Jamie arrives.

  DRINK UP, LEWIS: Roly says Morse used to drink a lot as a student. The cricket coach buys them both a pint of beer at his hotel.

  Kate gives Morse a glass of beer while he searches Donn’s possessions at the family home.

  The inspector drinks white wine while watching the cricket match with Philippa, and has a glass of Famous Grouse at home that night while discussing the case with Lewis. The sergeant declines Morse’s offer of whisky.

  As the case ends, Morse thinks the sergeant is up for a pint when Lewis asks the time. But cricket-loving Lewis simply wants to see the end of the test match.

  UNLUCKY IN LOVE: The inspector sets a record by flirting with three women in this story, but gets nowhere with any of them. Morse and Dr Russell are like awkward teenagers around each other, desperate to keep their conversation going but too shy to say how they feel about each other.

  Kate charms Morse with her vulnerability. The inspector invites her to call him if she needs anything – or even if she doesn’t. After the inquest he invites her to supper. But she gets angry when he fails to contact her. When Kate calms down, Morse offers to drive her to the station. She gives him a goodbye kiss on the cheek. But it’s all an act.

  Philippa flirts with Morse at the cricket match. He says she might even convert him to cricket, if she wasn’t already married. The inspector looks distinctly uncomfortable when Kate arrives unexpectedly at the match and finds him enjoying another woman’s company. But Philippa is only trying to discover if Morse is in league with the drug smugglers.

  PEOPLE JUST CALL ME MORSE: Morse explains his nickname to Kate. When he came up to Oxford, he refused to reveal his Christian name. Somebody called him Pagan instead and the nickname stuck. The inspector says he prefers Morse, plain and simple.

  LEWIS’ KITH AND KIN: The sergeant is about to take a week’s leave when Anthony Donn’s body is discovered. He’s meant to be painting the outside of the house, fixing some gutters and other odd jobs. Morse complains Lewis is always on leave. The sergeant says he had ten days off at Christmas, a couple of days over the Easter holidays and now this week off. Morse visits Lewis at home, when the sergeant plays cricket in the backyard with his young son. Lewis is pressganged into helping Morse’s inquiry. He says his wife Val will not be happy. Morse promises to make it up to her.

  SOPHOCLES DID DO IT: Morse thinks Donn was killed by one of the Claret XI. He later believes the same person killed both Donn and Foster.

  ONE FOR THE MORGUE: Three unnamed people die when a left-wing bookshop is firebombed by unidentified killers. Anthony Donn is murdered by his wife Kate, who electrocutes him with a live wire from a radio. Peter Foster is murdered by Jamie Jasper, who stabs him in the chest with a pair of scissors.

  MURDERS: five. BODY COUNT: five.

  MORSE DECODED: The inspector sometimes minds being unmarried. He shared a house with Donn when they were at college. Roly was also a contemporary. He calls Morse by an old nickname – ‘Pagan’. Morse was at Lonsdale College. Roly says Morse was the last person he’d ever imagine being a policeman.

  QUOTE-UNQUOTE: Donn asks Morse about his cooking skills. ‘I did live with a microwave for a while, but we argued,’ the inspector replies drolly.

  Donn makes an astute observation: ‘It’s ironic really. You get a policeman and a lawyer together. They know how to ask the questions, but they’re not very good about answering them.’

  Morse sells himself short while describing his methods of detection: ‘I stumble around. Sometimes I stumble in the right direction.’

  Morse sums up his view of cricket: ‘Men in uniforms. Incomprehensible rules. Nothing happening for hours at a time. Everyone taking it very seriously. Not my idea of a good time.’

  SOUNDTRACK: In the opening sequence, Morse is frustrated that Haydn’s ‘Emperor Quartet’ on Radio 3 is superseded by the cricket programme Test Match Special. Later that afternoon the inspector listens to the second movement of Saint-Saëns’ Concerto for Cello in A Minor in his office. Morse listens to Schumann’s third string quarter when Lewis visits him at home.

  BEHIND THE CRIME SCENES: The cricket commentary is by Brian Johnston, who hosted the BBC’s Test Match Special for many years. When ITV celebrated twenty years of Morse on television with a weekend of programmes, Kevin Whately selected this story as his favourite episode.

  IDENTITY PARADE: Sharon Maughan is most famous for starring in a series of television commercials for Gold Blend coffee. Andrew Paul appears briefly as a suspect in the bookshop firebombing; he subsequently played PC Dave Quinnan for 14 years on another long-running police series, The Bill. DC Hilaire is played by Peter Amory, who spent 15 years as Chris Tate in the soap opera Emmerdale. Nathaniel Parker would go on to play the lead in The Inspector Lynley Mysteries for the BBC.

  RATINGS: 13.70 million.

  THE VERDICT: ‘Deceived by Flight’ brings writer Anthony Minghella back to the series, with a script full of humour and intrigue. Few people are what they seem, with even dependable Lewis adopting a false persona. The interplay between Morse and his sergeant is delicious, underlining their father-son relationship. When Lewis makes a great catch in the cricket match, he looks to see if Morse witnessed his success. But his mentor is fast asleep and the sergeant turns away, disappointed. As in The Last Enemy, unconnected murders are mistaken for the work of a single killer. But the episode’s major flaw is its ending. Morse arrests Kate for murdering her husband without a scrap of evidence beyond her affair with Cranston. Surely even Morse, the most intuitive of detectives, requires more proof than that?

  THE SECRET OF BAY 5B

  ‘Passion. Makes a right old mess, doesn’t it.’ Three different cases of adultery lead to three deaths in the concluding story of season three.

  UK TX: 25 January 1989

  SCREENPLAY: Alma Cullen, based on an idea by Colin Dexter

  DIRECTOR: Jim Goddard

  CAST: Mel Martin (Rosemary Henderson), Marion Bailey (Fran Pierce), Andrew Wilde (Edward Manley), Philip McGough (Brian Pierce), George Irving (George Henderson), Susan Kyd (Camilla), Kate Lansbury (Mrs Cameron), Cathryn Bradshaw (Janice), Tom Radcliffe (Ray Miles), Pamela Miles (Amy Morris), Brian Poyser (Inspector Dewar), Ivor Roberts (Mr Waugh), Robert Gladwell (bandleader), Michael Haughey (undertaker), Cheryl Moskowitz (nurse), Isobel Reid (Gloria), John Dixon (constable), John Bleasdale (constable), Catherine Livesey (aerobics leader), Richard Hawley (orderly), Michael Melia (decorator), Fraser Downie (Mick)

  STORYLINE: Forest warden George Henderson is drinking heavily in his cabin at Wytham Woods. He phones his wife Rosemary and asks her not to go out tonight, but she hangs up. Henderson listens to a message on a cassette from an angry man who has slept with Rosemary.

  Morse is doing the quickstep with Dr Russell at a dinner dance when Lewis appears. An anonymous caller alerted police to a corpse inside a BMW parked in bay 5B at the Westgate building. Someone broke into the vehicle by smashing a rear passenger window. The car is registered to Michael Gifford. Cards and photos found on the body confirm the dead man’s identity. A parking ticket indicates the man drove into the building at 7.12 pm that night. He was strangled with new white cord, the kind used for hanging pictures.

  Lewis goes to Gifford’s home and discovers its interior has been ransacked. The sergeant is attacked. Before passing out he sees someone driving away in a jeep.

  A diary found in the BMW’s glove compartment suggests the dead man was meeting someone at 7.15 pm.
The diary contains a number for the Cotswold Insurance Company’s North Oxford branch, but Gifford did not have a policy with that company.

  Morse interviews Brian Pierce, an associate at Gifford’s architectural firm. Pierce was ice-skating near the car park at the time of the murder. He’s jealous of Gifford’s lifestyle. Pierce has a collection of expensive paintings in his study that seem well beyond his means.

  Lewis visits the dead man’s offices and sees a tearful woman in the window – the receptionist, Janice. Gifford left work at 4.00 pm the day he died, after getting a phone call from a woman. Janice once had a brief fling with her boss. The detectives meet with Edward Manley, manager of the Cotswold Insurance Company. He complains about Rosemary Henderson, who works for the company. Manley admires Morse’s 2.4 Mark II Jaguar. The manager has an S-type.

  Pierce takes several paintings from his study to an Oxford gallery. The police, meanwhile, catch the car thief who made the anonymous call.

  Morse orders an investigation into Pierce’s financial affairs. The detectives deduce Rosemary is the person Gifford knew at the Cotswold Insurance Company. Manley, it transpires, was at the opera with his secretary and her daughter on the night Gifford died. Janice returns to work but runs off when she sees the police.

  Morse interviews Rosemary. She went to aerobics classes after meeting Gifford in the car park on Wednesday nights. Rosemary says she broke off the affair two weeks ago. Next day, the police find a car park ticket for Gloucester Green in Rosemary’s car. It indicates that she parked at 6.49 pm on the night of the murder, providing her with an alibi.

  Janice receives an anonymous gift of £25,000 in cash. The fraud squad learns Pierce has been illegally supplementing his income by nearly £100,000 over the past five years.