The Infernal Serpent. A Review PLUS Music, Art, Literary References, Locations etc.

Chris Sullivan

9 years ago

First transmitted in the UK on the 3^rd January 1990.

This episode is not based on any of Colin Dexter’s novels.

This is episode 1 in series 4. Chronologically this is episode 12.

Colin Dexter appears in the church funeral scene at 46m10s and at 46m51s.

Directed by John Madden: He also directed the following episodes; Promised Land (the fifth episode of series 5), Dead on Time (the first episode of the sixth series) and The Way Through the Woods one of the Morse ‘specials’.

Written by Alma Cullen: She also wrote the following episodes of Morse: The Secret of Bay 5B, Fat Chance, and Death of the Self. She also wrote an episode, ‘Fun Times for Swingers’ (1996) for the TV series A Touch of Frost. She now writes mainly for the theatre.

Episode Jag Rating (out of 10):

SYNOPSIS

The death of a senior fellow outside his Oxford college of Beaufort, during an apparent mugging, while on the way to give a controversial speech, leads Morse to suspect the prominent environmentalist was killed because of his beliefs. The death appears to have been a heart attack and Morse is just about to give up on the case, which is what his superior wants him to do, but feels that Master Matthew Copley-Barnes (Geoffrey Palmer) and his family, including a well-known reporter, Sylvie Maxton (Cheryl Campbell) who lived with the family when she was young, are not telling him everything about some mysterious packages the Master is receiving. (The title is from Paradise Lost by John Milton.)

REVIEW.

(Some spoilers will be contained within the review)

This is not one of my favourite episodes but I think this is a lot to do with one of the subject matters, incest and child abuse, which can make for uncomfortable watching. However, all the cast are very good in this episode, especially Geoffrey Palmer as Master Matthew Copley-Barnes.

It isn’t often we see actor Geoffrey Palmer playing such a horrid character as most British people will associate him with the loveable characters of Ben Parkinson in ‘Butterflies’, Jimmy Anderson in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and one of my favourites as Lionel Hardcastle in As Time Goes By.

As I said above one of the subject matters, the other being environmental issues, is a difficult subject to watch but I suppose the writer and the production team were very brave to tackle such a subject in 1990 as unlike now the subjects of incest and child abuse were barely in the news never mind mainstream TV.

Great to see the wonderful actor Tom Wilkinson in the episode.

Co-incidently his character, Jake Normington, who runs off to America when the situation in Oxford becomes too uncomfortable for him is emulated by Tom himself who left for America to seek work there in films and achieved that with some great success. His films include, Shakespeare in Love, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Michael Clayton to name but a few.

I love actors who can react facially to convey an emotional. So many actors are incapable of doing this properly and always end up gurning. This is one reason why I love John Thaw as an actor, his ability to convey so much facially without having to say a word.

I love this reaction from Mrs Copley Barnes (Barbara Leigh-Hunt) when Lewis mentions to a woman who plays on a Steinway piano that he bought an electronic keyboard for his kids. Lewis’s reaction is also worthwhile.

What makes this episode better is the wonderful music especially during the scene that introduces Tom Wilkinson’s character. I think the music is Gregorio Alligri’s, Miserere. I’m afraid my knowledge of Choral music is very basic. I must do something about that.

My score of 6 out of 10 is probably, on reflection, an unfair score and should probably be a seven but I don’t believe any higher than that.

Music

00h00m00s

The piece of music at the beginning is I believe Piano Sonata No. 25 by Beethoven (1770 – 1827) or at least the middle section of the piece. I am not completely certain.

00h11m15s

The music is being played as Sylvia arrives to find Mrs Copley Barnes giving a lesson to one of her pupils. The piece is by Mozart and is called Piano Sonata in A, K.331:1 Andante Grazioso.

00h13m47s

This piece is being sung by the college Choir and being conducted by a friend of Morse. It is by Gregorio Alligri (1582 – 1652). The piece is called Miserere mei, Deus.

00h47m00s

This piece is played during the break in and arson attack on Mick McGovern’s house. It is by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) and the piece is called Prelude and Fugue in C Minor BWV 546. BWV relates to Bach-Werke-Verzeichnis which is the best known and most widely used catalogue of Bach’s compositions.

00h57m40s

The next piece is being played by Imogen and Sylvia. It is by Georges Bizet and is called Bizet: La Poupée (The doll) N°3 from Jeux d’enfants op.22.

01h12m50s

Morse is talking to Sylvia who then plays the piano remarking that the piece was exercise for the fingering. It is by Mozart and is Sonata No. 11 in A Major for Piano, K331:1 Tema Andante Grazioso

01h36m48s

I’m afraid I am unable to identify the choral piece when Mrs Copley Barnes decides to kill herself.

Literary Quotes

Literary References

00h05m50s

The Master Copley Barnes remarks that Dr. Julian Dear’s attacker had “wild eyes”. The Master goes on to say that it reminded him of a young Wittgenstein, if that meant anything to Morse or Lewis. Morse replies by asking if the Master was referring to Wittengenstein before or after his Norwegian period.

Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein (1889 – 1951) was an Austrian-British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy of language. From 1929 to 1947, Wittgenstein taught at the University of Cambridge.

Wittgenstein came to feel that he could not get to the heart of his most fundamental questions while surrounded by other academics, and so in 1913 he retreated to the village of Skjolden in Norway, where he rented the second floor of a house for the winter. He later saw this as one of the most productive periods of his life, writing Logik (Notes on Logic), the predecessor of much of the Tractatus.

00h32m30s

While visiting Imogen’s stables Sylvia talks to her husband Ron. Sylvia mentions that she used to be called ‘commendeble sylvia’. This is a reference to a song in Shakespeare’s Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Song: “Who is Silvia? what is she”
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
(from Two Gentlemen of Verona)
Who is Silvia? what is she,
That all our swains commend her?
Holy, fair, and wise is she;
The heaven such grace did lend her,
That she might admirèd be.

Is she kind as she is fair?
For beauty lives with kindness.
Love doth to her eyes repair,
To help him of his blindness;
And, being helped, inhabits there.

Then to Silvia let us sing,
That Silvia is excelling;
She excels each mortal thing
Upon the dull earth dwelling;
To her let us garlands bring.

At the end of the episode, Morse quotes from Milton’s Paradise Lost;

“Th’ infernal Serpent; he it was, whose guile

Stird up with Envy and Revenge, deceiv’d

The Mother of Mankind”

ART

At seven and seven seconds we see a painting behind Morse as he is about to leave the Master’s lodgings.

The painting is by John Turnbull and is called The Declaration of Independence. The original is in Washington DC.

There was very little art to be seen in this episode and those that were seen briefly I couldn’t identify.

LOCATIONS.

The college that Copley Barnes is Master is referred to as the fictional Beaufort College.

The episode starts with shots of Merton College and then the master Copley Barnes and Dr Julian Dear walk through Merton College at the beginning of the episode.

The stairs are the entrance to the T.S. Eliot Theatre and the Mure Room.

The above is St Alban’s Quadrangle.

Dr Dear and the Master are leaving St Alban’s Quad and heading toward the Front Quad.

Morse and Lewis walk and talk after speaking to the Master. They are walking from St Alban’s Quad to the Front Quad.

8m –

The day after the killing of Dr Dear we get this overhead view of Merton College Front Quad.

10m –

Sylvie Maxton arrives at the Master’s Lodgings.

This is in actuality the Master’s Lodgings University College on Logic Lane, Oxford.

Below is the door Sylvie enters on Logic Lane.

The above is the Master’s Lodgings, University College, Logic Lane.

13m –

Morse and Lewis discuss Dr Dear and music is playing.

They are standing in St Alban’s Quad.

21m –

Lewis is looking through Dr Dear’s things in his college rooms.

It is written on IMDB that this is Brasenose College but I don’t believe it is. If you look at the roof in the background it is nothing like any roof in Brasenose.

I believe it is Merton College.

24m –

The Copley Barnes have a family photograph in Merton College Fellows Garden.

29m –

Morse and Lewis interview Mrs Copley Barnes about the unwanted parcels.

44m –

Morse and Lewis discuss the case and Morse asks if Lewis saw a young man come out of the building.

They are standing between the Front Quad and St Alban’s Quad.

45m –

The mourners entering Merton College Hall.

46m –

Dr Dear’s funeral.

This is University College Chapel.

1h31m –

Phil Hopkirk walks through first Merton College Fellows’ Gardens and then St Alban’s Quad.

1h34m –

Mrs Copley Barnes is in the University College Chapel.

1h41m –

Morse and Lewis stand at the entrance/exit to Merton College which leads on to Merton Street.

–—————————————-

I have been reliably informed by Colin Wellings that the hospital scenes were filmed at Hill End Hospital, Harpenden.

The hospital closed in 1995 as it made way for housing.

Thank you to Colin for supplying the information.

——————————————————

In the second part of my posts on pub locations used in the Inspector Morse series, I wrote about having determined that I believed The Old Barge Pub was the pub used in the episode, The Infernal Serpent. I am happy to report that I have heard from the manager of the afore-mentioned pub that it was indeed used in the Infernal Serpent episode.

The manager went on to tell that the industrial like buildings seen behind Lewis are in fact a Tesco and flats. So also picture below and the buildings on the right.

The Old Barge, 2 The Folly, Hertford

So, a big thank you to the manager of The Old Barge for not only taking the time to write to me but to confirm The Old Barge as a Morse location.

Interesting Facts

The character of Matthew Copley Barnes appears as his younger self in an episode of Endeavour, ‘Trove’, season two episode one. He is played by Jamie Parker in the Endeavour episode.

We also glimpse in this episode Dr. Matthew Copley Barnes’s daughter, Imogen and his wife, Blanche.

Imogen Copley Barnes, his daughter and his wife Blanche. (The actors are not credited).

Cast

Geoffrey Palmer as Matthew Copley-Barnes (Born: June 4, 1927 – )

David Neal as Dr. Julian Dear ( February 13, 1932 – Died: June 27, 2000)

Barbara Leigh-Hunt as Blanche Copley-Barnes (Born: December 14, 1935 – ) She was married to Richard Pasco until he died in 2014. Richard is known for having appeared in the Morse episdoe, ‘Dead on Time as William Bryce-Morgan.