by David Bishop
Morse and Lewis hurry to Sherman’s home, but when they arrive, he’s already dead. Bennett calmly waits to be arrested. He admits emptying a syringe of drugs into Sherman’s chest. Bennett says his wife was murdered when she refused to invest a legacy in one of Sherman’s schemes. Bennett saw Sherman at the prison visiting Bailey and attacked him – that’s why Sherman stopped going to Farnleigh. Bailey laughed at Bennett, made a joke of his 16 years spent in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Bennett claims Cryer’s death was accidental. Cryer surprised him in Bailey’s cell and they tussled; Cryer fell over and had the heart attack. Bennett could have escaped but decided to go back to prison. It has become his life now.
THE MANY CAMEOS OF COLIN DEXTER: The author is seen in the background being led from the prison chapel when Morse and Lewis first interview Thornton. Later in the story Dexter is among a group of prisoners listening to a sermon given by Thornton. Morse’s creator is the first inmate seen as the camera pans left to right.
DRINK UP, LEWIS: The detectives both have a pint of beer at a pub. Morse decides he has some serious thinking to do, supping deeply from his pint.
The inspector offers Cheetham a beer when the young sergeant visits him at home, but Cheetham declines. After they visit Sherman, Morse needs a beer but has no money. Cheetham pays when they go to a pub.
Morse and the Governor are about to go for a beer when they receive news of Bailey’s poisoning. They have to make do with hospital coffee.
CRYPTIC CROSSWORDS: Morse sees Sherman working on the Times crossword. The inspector uncovers a vital clue when he is completing a crossword in a later edition. Roland Sherman is a crossword freak, using an anagram of his old name, Harold Manners.
UNLUCKY IN LOVE: Morse is so distracted from driving by a photograph of Mrs Stevens that he nearly crashes the Jaguar into a motorcyclist. The inspector then bursts into her office as she is getting dressed for a dinner date. Later they go for a drink together but their respective jobs get in the way of any potential romance.
Morse hopes he’s the sort of person who falls in love at first sight.
LEWIS’ KITH AND KIN: Morse is on first-name terms with Mrs Lewis. The sergeant doesn’t like prisons, they bring him out in a rash.
SOPHOCLES DID DO IT: Morse develops an elegant theory about a drugs connection to Cryer’s killing. The inspector accuses Thornton of murdering Cryer and of trying to slay Bailey.
ONE FOR THE MORGUE: Lawrence Cryer died of a heart attack after fighting with Charlie Bennett. Roland Sherman is murdered by Bennett, who plunges a syringe full of medicine into his chest.
MURDERS: two. BODY COUNT: two.
MORSE DECODED: The inspector has a horror of the prison system. He’s spent his life sending people there and has never yet seen any good come out of it. Morse agrees with what Mrs Stevens is trying to do at Farnleigh. The inspector detests physical exercise.
QUOTE-UNQUOTE: Morse invokes the rules of Monopoly: ‘We go directly to jail, Lewis.’
Bailey makes a Monty Python joke when the detectives question him about the Bible-bashing Thornton: ‘Ah, how could I forget The Life of Brian?’
Morse likens the open prison to a holiday camp: ‘It’s Butlin’s for the Borgias, Lewis.’
Morse is cynical about the crimes of the Cryer Investments trio: ‘One bunch of unscrupulous charlatans ripping off another bunch of credulous speculators. That’s a definition of capitalism, isn’t it?’
SOUNDTRACK: Barrington Pheloung provides a cheesy pop song in the style of early 1990s music producers Stock, Aitken and Waterman. This pastiche plays on a radio in the prison when the detectives first interview Bailey. Morse is listening to Schubert’s ‘Death and the Maiden’ (String Quartet in D) when Cheetham visits him at home. It recurs several times as a musical motif during this story. The young detective sergeant recognises the music and says it’s lovely. Afterwards, as they drive to Sherman’s house, Morse plays a cassette of Schubert’s Quartet No 12 in C Minor. ‘Death and the Maiden’ is heard again when Morse and Cheetham visit Sherman. Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto is playing when Morse visits Mrs Bailey at her home. The inspector is listening to the aria ‘Mi Tradi Quell’ Alma Ingrata’ from Mozart’s Don Giovanni when he sees Bennett in Oxford. Morse rehearses with a choir in a college chapel. They sing a chorale from Bach’s St Matthew Passion. The conductor is Barrington Pheloung, composer of all the incidental music for the series. Morse listens to a tape of the same chorale as the story concludes. An organ plays Bach’s Chorale Prelude No 9 as Morse walks and talks with Hilary after his choir rehearsal.
IDENTITY PARADE: This story is positively awash with familiar faces from British film and television. Diana Quick starred in the acclaimed TV drama Brideshead Revisited. Sean Bean was the title character in the historical war saga Sharpe and featured as Eddard Stark in the fantasy series Game of Thrones. Richard Wilson is best known for being grumpy pensioner Victor Meldrew in the sitcom One Foot in the Grave. Jim Broadbent won a BAFTA for his part in the musical Moulin Rouge! and a best supporting actor Oscar for his role in the film Iris. Sue Johnston won a BAFTA for her acting in the sitcom The Royle Family. Phil Davis starred in Mike Leigh’s acclaimed film Vera Drake and in a recent BBC adaptation of Bleak House.
RATINGS: 15.69 million.
THE VERDICT: ‘Absolute Conviction’ is a story comprised almost entirely of red herrings. Everything focuses on the Cryer Investments trio and their families. In classic whodunit tradition, the character of Bennett seems an utter irrelevance until he is finally revealed as the murderer. The over-ambitious Cheetham adds a little grit to the oyster of Morse and Lewis’ partnership, bringing much-needed humour to a somewhat dour tale.
This story is efficient, rather than engaging, while the endless red herrings and false trails begin to frustrate the viewer. If an all-star cast can’t make the unsympathetic characters appealing, and even Morse admits he isn’t bothered about the killing of Cryer, why should the audience care?
CHERUBIM & SERAPHIM
‘No one can imagine someone else’s pain, Robbie. That’s the human tragedy.’ Morse is bereft when his teenage niece commits suicide. Two more youths kill themselves in mysterious circumstances, leading the detectives to investigate rave culture.
UK TX: 15 April 1992
SCREENPLAY: Julian Mitchell, based on characters created by Colin Dexter
DIRECTOR: Danny Boyle
CAST: Isla Blair (Janey Wilson), Sorcha Cusack (Joyce Garrett), Jason Isaacs (Dr Desmond Collier), John Junkin (Chief Inspector Holroyd), Paul Brightwell (Bristowe), Liza Walker (Vicky Wilson), Charlotte Chatton (Marilyn Garrett), Charlie Caine (Charlie Paget), Anna Chancellor (Sally Smith), Freddie Brooks (Jacko Lever), Edwina Day (Gwen Morse), Celia Blaker (nurse), Matthew Terdre (Lewis’ son), Glen Mead (Wayne), Phillip Joseph (Keith Garrett), Christopher Benjamin (Professor Furlong), Larrington Walker (Charlie Lever), Doreen Ingleton (Annie Lever), Charlie Roe (Mr Greenhill), Anita Wright (Mrs Venables), Cinnamon Bone (Lyn Lewis), Tania Rodrigues (teacher), Simon Gilbey (boy in class), Kay Clayton (lady on video), David Meyer (Dr Hallett), Rosalind Boxall (Hilary Lane), Bill Wallis (Dr Hayward), David Bauckham (desk sergeant), Louise Beattie (Lizzy Haines), Ian Reddington (estate agent), Natasha Pope (Bristowe’s girlfriend), Michael Parkinson (Tom – patrolman)
STORYLINE: Dr Desmond Collier leaves an all-night rave at dawn. Among the teenagers attending are Marilyn Garrett, her friend Vicky Wilson and Jacko Lever. Marilyn says it can never be as good as tonight again.
Morse goes to a nursing home where his stepmother, Gwen, is a resident. Her daughter, Joyce Garrett, is taking Gwen home for a visit. Gwen gets halfway out, sees Morse and goes back to her room. She refuses to visit Joyce’s house if Morse is there. Collier is on the staff at the nursing home. Gwen is part of a clinical trial run by Collier on an anti-senility drug. It has reversed her dementia. Gwen wants to see Marilyn, her favourite grandchild. Joyce says Marilyn is staying with Vicky.
Lewis is trying to lea
rn traffic regulations before sitting an inspector’s exam. The sergeant can’t concentrate because of his daughter’s rave music. Morse, meanwhile, drives Joyce home. She is preparing a family dinner but Marilyn misses the meal. The teenage girl goes to a park and commits suicide by swallowing 100 painkillers.
Collier dozes at the laboratory where he makes the anti-senility drug. His boss, Professor Furlong, scolds Collier for leaving the front door unlocked.
Strange assigns Lewis to Chief Inspector Holroyd while Morse takes bereavement leave. Holroyd believes in procedure first. Lewis interviews Charlie and Annie Lever, whose son Jacko is missing. The sergeant tests Jacko’s radio but it’s only tuned to static. Annie suggests the police search the waste ground near some railway lines.
Jacko marches into a railway tunnel, right onto the middle of the tracks. Lewis organises a search of the area suggested by Jacko’s mother, over the protests of Holroyd. The police find the teenager’s corpse, or what’s left of it.
Collier presents his new drug to Oxford Pharmaceutical Products. A scientist says more research is required before the company invests.
Morse discovers another case of a teenage girl who killed herself without explanation. She was also at the rave with Marilyn, Vicky and Jacko. The inspector takes over the investigation. The pathologist finds a pill in Jacko’s stomach, a compound of chemicals he has never seen before, similar to Ecstasy. He suggests the detectives investigate drug laboratories to see if any experimental drugs have been stolen.
Vicky runs away from home to stay with Charlie Paget, a rave DJ. Her mother reports Vicky missing. The detectives discover flyers for raves hidden in Vicky’s bedroom. They go to a nightclub in Slough called Angel House. The manager, Bristowe, says Vicky and Marilyn were at the club on the night before Marilyn killed herself. He tells them the girls went on to a rave after the club closed.
Bristowe visits Collier at the laboratory. The doctor deliberately leaves the front door open so he has an alibi if any of his drugs are found at a rave. Collier, it transpires, sells his anti-senility drug for its Ecstasy-like properties. The police pathologist helps the detectives track the pill found in Jacko’s body to the drug Collier is developing. The doctor is almost positive no pills are missing from the many variants he has tested. But the pathologist has found traces of the same drug in the bodies of Marilyn and the other dead girl. Morse says whoever gave the drugs to the three youths is a murderer.
Bristowe tips off the detectives about another rave party. A sergeant says ravers listen to pirate radio to get directions. Lewis remembers the out-of-tune radio in Jacko’s bedroom and uses it to get details. Morse and Lewis sneak into the rave at a former nunnery. Vicky is among the dancers, and the detectives see Collier there. He runs to his car and drives away, pursued by the inspector. Collier crashes into a tree and his car explodes, burning him to death within seconds. Morse is furious the man responsible for Marilyn’s suicide escaped justice.
THE MANY CAMEOS OF COLIN DEXTER: The author is among the board members at Oxford Pharmaceutical Products who meet to consider Dr Collier’s new drug. Dexter is sitting on the left-hand side of the table, nearest to Dr Collier. This story’s screenwriter, Julian Mitchell, makes a cameo appearance as a barman. He even gets to speak, asking Morse if there’s something wrong with the beer.
DRINK UP, LEWIS: Morse takes a bottle of wine when he goes for dinner with the Garretts. Keith offers him a beer.
The pathologist says Morse ruthlessly destroys a million brain cells with every glass of beer he drinks.
Morse drinks a pint of beer in a deserted pub while telling Lewis about his family. The sergeant has a glass of orange juice.
The inspector is so out of sorts he leaves an almost full pint of beer behind in a pub.
LEWIS’ KITH AND KIN: The sergeant gets home to discover his wife is out at the local wine shop, translating for Cyprus sherry week. Lewis’ mother-in-law cooked tea for the children. The sergeant does not get on with her. He shouts at his daughter Lyn to turn down her rave music. Lewis thinks his son shouldn’t be watching rubbish like Terry Wogan’s television chat show.
The sergeant got on well with his parents. They didn’t quarrel much. Morse says he doesn’t go trumpeting his kith and kin like Lewis. The sergeant had a best friend called Stuart who went into the Air Force. Lewis tried cannabis in Newcastle. It made his head spin.
SOPHOCLES DID DO IT: Morse wonders if Marilyn killed herself after reading the works of Sylvia Plath, a writer who committed suicide.
ONE FOR THE MORGUE: Marilyn Garrett commits suicide by swallowing 100 pain killers. Jacko Lever commits suicide by walking into the path of a goods train. A third, unnamed teenage girl also kills herself. Dr Desmond Collier is burnt to death when his car explodes in a fireball after crashing into a tree.
MURDERS: none. BODY COUNT: four.
MORSE DECODED: This episode is a goldmine for new information about the inspector’s background. Morse went to a single-sex grammar school. He wasn’t allowed The Beano or The Dandy as a child, because they weren’t morally improving. He had to read The Rainbow, a periodical that met with his parents’ approval.
Morse’s father was a taxi driver. His parents argued a lot. They got divorced when he was 12. Morse stayed with his mother. His father met and married Gwen. They had a daughter, Joyce. When Morse was 15 his mother died. He went to live with his father and Gwen because he had nowhere else to go. Morse never got on with his stepmother. He describes their relationship as a steady accumulation of humiliations and hatreds.
The inspector tells Lewis he contemplated suicide at the age of 15. He made a list of different methods, ranked in order of how much they would hurt him and other members of the family. Young Morse decided this was so clever, it would be a waste to kill himself. The inspector says he was vain, even as a teenager. Morse vowed never to forget how miserable it is to be 15.
He was based at Windsor when The Rolling Stones played their famous gig at Eel Pie Island. The inspector says he was never in the right place at the right time to experience the sex, drugs and rock’n’roll hedonism of the 1960s. He would have been too frightened of losing control to try drugs.
Morse spent his school holidays cycling around parish churches and country houses. Anyone’s home was better than being in his own.
Morse only began reading poetry to annoy his stepmother. The inspector doesn’t believe in Hell, but sometimes wishes he did. Morse owes all the things he loves to the fact his stepmother didn’t like him.
QUOTE-UNQUOTE: Chief Superintendent Strange offers an odd analogy: ‘Kids! They’re as bad as Special Branch. You never know what the blighters are up to!’
Holroyd complains about Lewis not following proper procedures, but Morse gives him short shrift: ‘Well, if you’ll proceed out of my office, either properly or improperly, I really don’t mind.’
Lewis says chaos theory was invented by a weatherman. ‘Can’t be right then,’ Morse replies sourly.
The inspector says the stately home where the final rave takes place used to be a nunnery. ‘Beautiful piece of architecture. Wasted on nuns.’
SOUNDTRACK: There’s a profusion of rave music throughout the story, all of it specially composed by Barrington Pheloung. Morse listens to the aria ‘Che Faro Senza Euridice’ from Gluck’s opera Orfeo ed Eurydice when he learns about Marilyn’s suicide, and later while looking at pictures of her in a photo album. Lewis says his daughter’s rave music is worse than Morse’s operas. DJ Charlie Paget works on a dance track that incorporates Allegri’s Miserere, a musical adaptation of Psalm 50. It gets played later, at the final rave. Morse recognises a sample of ‘The Hallelujah Chorus’ on a rave tape in Vicky’s bedroom. He says it was lifted from a recording of Handel’s Messiah conducted by Sir Adrian Boult. The inspector later describes the music as an eclectic collage.
IDENTITY PARADE: For the third time this series, the show includes an actor who would be in Four Weddings and a Funeral. Anna Chancellor appears in one
of her earliest roles as rave organiser Sally Smith. She would later star alongside John Thaw in the drama series Kavanagh QC. Jason Isaacs is best known for playing the sinister Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter films and US TV dramas such as Brotherhood and Awake.
RATINGS: 16.83 million. Yet another new high for the programme, with series six attracting an average of 16.1 million viewers per episode.
THE VERDICT: ‘Cherubim & Seraphim’ tackles the generation gap as Morse tries to come to terms with Marilyn’s suicide. But the inspector and Lewis find themselves out of touch when it comes to youth culture. The episode tackles teenage life and rave culture, two tricky subjects for an adult drama, and handles both with aplomb. Julian Mitchell’s script is strong, as always, and shot through with literary references. John Thaw gets the big emotional moments, but Kevin Whately gives a wonderfully subtle and understated performance as a father worried about the world in which his children are growing up.
SERIES SEVEN (1993)
By 1992 Morse was becoming a victim of its own success. The show’s popularity inspired a rash of other police procedurals, many of them owing a creative debt to Morse. After 25 episodes in six series, it was getting harder to maintain the show’s own high standards and find fresh ways of approaching the murder mystery.
Like several predecessors, Deirdre Keir had found producing Morse an all-consuming job. When she chose to step aside after series six, her place was taken by Chris Burt, producer for the third run of Morse. But the end was nigh.
Actors John Thaw and Kevin Whately were both ready to move on, with new projects on the horizon. Thaw had been cast in a big budget BBC drama based on the hit novel A Year In Provence while Whately was taking the lead in Peak Practice for ITV. Childs reached an agreement for one last series, cut from five stories to three.
Even then, finding suitable scripts proved problematic. Daniel Boyle wrote ‘The Day of the Devil’ as a quick replacement after another story was abandoned, but felt it was out of character for the series. The show’s most prolific writer, Julian Mitchell, later told interviewers it was past time for Morse to stop when it did...
