Before I continue, in case you didn’t know, I have written a book on the Endeavour series. It has a colour (color) version, a B&W version and lastly a kindle version.

The book is only available from Amazon and can be purchased on Amazon.com. Click HERE to visit the Amazon page.

I hope this post finds you all well, mentally as well as physically.

Before the post begins please take time to read the following.

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Thank you to my friend Terry who pointed in the direction of this short interview with the actor Matthew Finney.

Matthew Finney as PC Adrian Kershaw (The Wench is Dead).

 

In the episode Lewis is way on other duties leaving the ill Morse on his own. Strange assigns PC Kershaw to help Morse investigate a Victorian murder.

When Inspector Morse returns to the small screen on in The Wench Is Dead, you won’t need to be a first-rate detective to figure out that something is missing. Well, actually it’s not something. The familiar red Jaguar, the classical music, the pints of bitter and the dreaming spires of Oxford are all there – it’s really someone.

Yes. Trusty, plodding, loveable Lewis has finally departed for pastures new – the much talked about Inspectors’ course – leaving Endeavour Morse all on his own.

But not for long. During a spot of sick leave, a 19th Century murder case catches Morse’s eye. In need of a foot soldier to do the hard slog, Morse asks for help and is handed an enthusiastic rookie, a fast-track graduate who has been bogged down with tea-boy duties. Enter Detective Constable Adrian Kershaw. And a new sidekick is born.

“When I auditioned I had really long hair and looked more like a rock star than some straight Oxford graduate policeman,” says 24-year-old Matthew Finney, who plays Morse’s right-hand man.

“I read a couple of scenes and thought, `This would be a nice little part’. It was only when I read the whole script that I realised how major Kershaw’s role was. Next to John Thaw I had the most number of days filming, you know.”

And that was quite daunting for a man who, prior to that, had absolutely no TV experience and had spent his school years dreaming of becoming a vet.

“I was like the new boy and I was trying so hard to get everything right. For me working with John Thaw was like working with a managing director when you’re one of the trainees. And on the third day it really hit me. There I was acting with someone I’d been watching since I was a kid.”

Matthew Finney was born Matthew Allen, one of four children, in Dover, Kent. He grew up in Cranleigh, near Guildford, Surrey, and went on to study drama at Middlesex University. He changed his name when he got his Equity card. But he’s quick to point out that he chose Finney, not after Albert Finney, but because it was his grandmother’s maiden name. “If I’d wanted to take the name of my hero I would have called myself Matt Pacino,” says Matthew, who now lives in Chelsea, West London, with his girlfriend Kedysha Sassi. “But I don’t think I would have got away with it somehow.”

Still, as a newcomer to the small screen he got away with quite a lot during filming of Morse.

“John’s so polite, a real gentleman. He never once made me feel awkward – and that would have been easy. We had one scene where we were both drinking – I had orange juice and he had water. By mistake, I picked up the wrong glass and in the middle of filming John shouts out, `Hold on a minute! He’s nicked my water!’ I think it was the first scene I filmed and I was like, `Oh no. I’m so sorry John. Oh dear.’ But he just made a joke of it. Then he fluffed a line and I thought, `Thank God for that’.”

Like any actor Matthew has had his fair share of hard times. “I remember scrabbling around down the back of sofas for pennies to get enough money for a loaf of bread.” But, even though he was “a bit disappointed” at his pay cheque for Morse, he’s on his way up. He had just finished his first movie role when he auditioned for Morse. Still Crazy, released last week, tells the story of a rock band who reform in middle age after years in the wilderness. Billy Connolly, Timothy Spall and Jimmy Nail play the present day, aged has-beens, while Matthew features in the flashbacks of the band in their drug-crazed heyday.

“It was a fantastic job. All the scenes I did involved loads of screaming girls. It was a real buzz.” But it did have its trying moments. “My character has two overdoses. I thought, `What am I going to tell my parents?’ It’s a good job I got a nice part as a pleasant policeman in Morse.”

He smiles hopefully, and it makes you wonder how Morse has ever managed without him.

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