A Morse fan, Paul Jackson, who like me is a member of the Endeavour/Morse/Lewis Facebook page put forward an idea for a post in my blog. That idea was to name all the characters in the Inspector Morse TV series who were murdered or at least were dead at the end of the episode. Being something of lover of lists I took up the challenge in the hope it may interest other Morse fans. Let’s start off with how people died and from which episodes. The numbers in brackets after the means of death relates to the total number of deaths for that particular method.
There will of course be spoilers within this post.
Suicide – (11) ‘The Dead of Jericho’ (hanging), ‘The Wolvercote Tongue’ (sleeping pills): ‘The Secret of Bay 5b’ (hanging): ‘Masonic Mysteries’ (gun): ‘Promised Land’ (gun): ‘Dead on Time, (assisted): ‘Dead on Time’ (pills): ‘Death of the Self’ (cutting wrists): ‘Cherubim and Seraphim’ (3 deaths; pain killers, train and unknown).
Head Bashed in – (11) ‘Dead of Jericho’ (bedpost): ‘The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn’ (poker): ‘The Wolvercote Tongue’ (brick): ‘Settling of the Sun’ (unknown weapon): ‘Settling of the Sun’ (croquet mallet): ‘Ghost in the Machine’ (camera tripod): ‘Sins of the Fathers’ (paper weight): ‘Happy Families’ (unknown weapon, twice): ‘Deadly Slumber’ (wrench): ‘Way Through the Woods’ (unknown weapon):
Poisoning – (1) ‘The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn’ (cyanide).
Stabbed – (17) ‘Service of all the Dead’ (knife), ‘The Wolvercote Tongue’ (knife): ‘Deceived by Flight’ (scissors): ‘Driven to Distraction’ (knife, three murders): ‘Masonic Mysteries’ (knife): ‘Second Time Around’ (knife): ‘Who Killed Harry Field’ (spike): ‘Happy Families’ (knife): ‘Absolute Conviction’ (syringe plunged into chest): ‘Day of the Devil’ (knife but also set alight with petrol): ‘Way Through the Woods’ (knife): ‘The Daughters of Cain’ (knife, twice): ‘The Remorseful Day’ (twice).
Strangled – (4) ‘Service of all the Dead’ (rope): ‘Settling of the Sun’ (rope): ‘The Secret of Bay 5b’ (Unknown): ‘The Wench is Dead’.
Accident – (7) ‘Service of all the Dead’ (slip from church roof): ‘Last Bus to Woodstock (run over by car): ‘Second Time Around’ (head hits fireplace): ‘Greeks Bearing Gifts’ (fall from a balcony): ‘Death of the Self’ (spike attached to tree): ‘The Daughters of Cain’ (fall from window): ‘Death is now my Neighbour’ (falling down stairs).
Heart Attack – (7)‘The Wolvercote Tongue’: ‘The Infernal Serpent’: ‘Fat Chance’ (combination of pills and wine): ‘Promised Land’ (stroke): ‘Absolute Conviction’ (during a fight): ‘Deadly Slumber’: ‘The Remorseful Day’.
Natural Causes – (2) ‘Settling of the Sun’: ‘The Wench is Dead’.
Car Crash – (4) ‘Ghost in the Machine’: ‘Dead on Time’ (two people): ‘Cherubim and Seraphim’.
Shot – (13) ‘The Last Enemy’ (twice): ‘The Secret of Bay 5b’: ‘Promised Land (twice): ‘Happy Families’: ‘Day of the Devil’: ‘Twilight of the Gods’: ‘Way Through the Woods’ (three, once with gun and twice by shotgun): ‘Death is now my Neighbour’ (twice).
Bludgeoned – (2) ‘The Last Enemy’ (unknown weapon): ‘The Remorseful Day’ (metal crutch).
Fire – (3) ‘Deceived by Flight’ (3 unknown men in a shop).
Electrocution – (1) ‘Deceived by Flight’ (radio wire).
Cancer – (1) ‘The Infernal Serpent’.
Drowning – (2) ‘Sins of the Fathers’ (in a fermenting vat, twice).
Broken Neck – (2) ‘Greeks Bearing Gifts’ (head wrenched back, twice).
AIDS – (1) ‘Promised Land’.
Asphyxiation – (1) ‘Deadly Slumber’ (carbon monoxide).
Removed from Life Support – (1) ‘Deadly Slumber’.
Brain Tumour – (1) ‘The Daughters of Cain’.
Fall – (1) ‘The Remorseful Day’ (ladder knocked away from victim).
Unclear – (9) (1) Lionel Pawlin’s death in ‘Service of all the Dead’ could have been suicide or murder. He jumped or was pushed from the church tower. (2) In the same episode it is unclear as to how Peter Morris and Brenda Josephs were murdered. (3) In the episode ‘Last Seen Wearing’ it is unclear if Cheryl Baines is pushed from the top of the stairs or fell. (4) In the episode ‘Settling of the Sun’ it is unclear as to how the Japanese drug dealer killed Michael Robson. (5) In the episode ‘The Infernal Serpent’ it looks unclear as to how Blanche killed her husband Matthew Copley Barnes but it looks like she used a heavy object. (6) How Desmond McNutt is killed isn’t made clear in the episode, ‘Masonic Mysteries’. (7) John Mitchell beaten by Dawson but unclear as to ‘beaten by what’. Probably fists. (8) In ‘Who Killed Harry Field’ how Harry was killed is unknown. (9) How Steven Ford is murdered in ‘Happy Families’ isn’t clear but a stonemason’s tool is found alongside his body.
TOTAL NUMBER OF DEATHS = 103
Breaking it down by gender there have been 32 female deaths in the 33 episodes of Morse. Of those 32 fourteen were murdered while 53 men were murdered, (possibly 54 if you count the death of Lionel Pawlin in the episode Service of all the Dead). There has been a female murderer twelve times: Mrs Warbut in Settling of the Sun; Lady Hanbury in Ghost in the Machine; Kate Donn in Deceived by Flight; Blanche Copley Barnes in The Infernal Serpent; Isobel Radford in Sins of the Fathers; Friday Rees kills two people in Greeks Bearing Gifts; Susan Fallon assists her husband in his suicide in Dead on Time; Margaret Cliff kills three people in Happy Families; Jessica in Happy Families; Karen Anderson kills three people in The Way Through the Woods; Julia Stevens in The Daughters of Cain; Angela Storrs kills two people in Death is now my Neighbour.
Rosemary Henderson was an accomplice to a murder in The Secret of Bay 5B and WPC Nora Curtis shot John Peter Barrie in self defence in the episode, The Day of the Devil.
The second part of this post is pictures of all those characters who died by fair means or foul. Those names with a picture of a box with a question mark denotes that the character is never actually seen in the episode but their death has been mentioned.
SUICIDE
(11) ‘The Dead of Jericho’ (hanging), ‘The Wolvercote Tongue’ (sleeping pills): ‘The Secret of Bay 5b’ (hanging): ‘Masonic Mysteries’ (gun): ‘Promised Land’ (gun): ‘Dead on Time, (assisted): ‘Dead on Time’ (pills): ‘Death of the Self’ (cutting wrists): ‘Cherubim and Seraphim’ (3 deaths; pain killers, train and unknown).
Anne Staveley (Dead of Jericho) Marion Kemp (The Wolvercote Tongue)
Brian Pearce (The Secret Of Bay 5B) Hugo De Vries (Masonic Mysteries)
Henry Fallon (Dead on Time)
May Lawrence (Death of the Self)
Jacko Lever (Cherubim and Seraphim)
Unknown Girl (Cherubim and Seraphim)
HEAD BASHED IN
(11) ‘Dead of Jericho’ (bedpost): ‘The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn’ (poker): ‘The Wolvercote Tongue’ (brick): ‘Settling of the Sun’ (unknown weapon): ‘Settling of the Sun’ (croquet mallet): ‘Ghost in the Machine’ (camera tripod): ‘Sins of the Fathers’ (paper weight): ‘Happy Families’ (unknown weapon, twice): ‘Deadly Slumber’ (wrench): ‘Way Through the Woods’ (unknown weapon):
Philip Ogilby (The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn)
Substitute Yukio Li (Settling of the Sun)
Lord Hanbury (Ghost in the Machine).
Sir John Balcombe (Happy Families)
Harry Balcombe (Happy Families)
James Myton (The Way through the Woods)
POISONING
(1) ‘The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn’ (cyanide).
Nicholas Quinn (The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn)
STABBED
(17) ‘Service of all the Dead’ (knife), ‘The Wolvercote Tongue’ (knife): ‘Deceived by Flight’ (scissors): ‘Driven to Distraction’ (knife, three murders): ‘Masonic Mysteries’ (knife): ‘Second Time Around’ (knife): ‘Who Killed Harry Field’ (spike): ‘Happy Families’ (knife): ‘Absolute Conviction’ (syringe plunged into chest): ‘Day of the Devil’ (knife but also set alight with petrol): ‘Way Through the Woods’ (knife): ‘The Daughters of Cain’ (knife, twice): ‘The Remorseful Day’ (twice).
Lucy Downes (Wolvercote Tongue)
Jackie Thorn (Driven to Distraction)
Maureen Thompson (Driven to Distraction)
Mary Lapsley (Second Time Around)
Lady Balcombe (Happy Families)
Steven Trevors (Day of the Devil)
Dr. Felix McClure (The Daughters of Cain)
Harry Repp (The Remorseful Day)
Paddy Flynn (The Remorseful Day)
STRANGLED
(4) ‘Service of all the Dead’ (rope): ‘Settling of the Sun’ (rope): ‘The Secret of Bay 5b’ (Unknown): ‘The Wench is Dead’.
Graham Daniel (Settling of the Sun)
Unknown Woman (The Wench is Dead)
ACCIDENT
(7) ‘Service of all the Dead’ (slip from church roof): ‘Last Bus to Woodstock (run over by car): ‘Second Time Around’ (head hits fireplace): ‘Greeks Bearing Gifts’ (fall from a balcony): ‘Death of the Self’ (spike attached to tree): ‘The Daughters of Cain’ (fall from window): ‘Death is now my Neighbour’ (falling down stairs).
Sylvia Kane (Last Bus to Woodstock)
Friday Rees (Greeks Bearing Gifts)
Matthew Rodway (The Daughters of Cain)
Shelly Cornford (Death is now my Neighbour)
HEART ATTACK
(7)‘The Wolvercote Tongue’: ‘The Infernal Serpent’: ‘Fat Chance’ (combination of pills and wine): ‘Promised Land’ (stroke): ‘Absolute Conviction’ (during a fight): ‘Deadly Slumber’: ‘The Remorseful Day’.
Dr. Julian Dear (The Infernal Serpent)
Lily Marchant (Promised Land)
Claire Brewster (Deadly Slumber)
Endeavour Morse (The Remorseful Day)
NATURAL CAUSES
(2) ‘Settling of the Sun’: ‘The Wench is Dead’.
Patient next to Morse’s bed (The Wench is Dead)
CAR CRASH
(4) ‘Ghost in the Machine’: ‘Dead on Time’ (two people): ‘Cherubim and Sophocles’.
Henrietta & Paul Fallon (Dead on Time)
Dr. Desmond Collier (Cherubim & Seraphim)
SHOT
(13) ‘The Last Enemy’ (twice): ‘The Secret of Bay 5b’: ‘Promised Land (twice): ‘Happy Families’: ‘Day of the Devil’: ‘Twilight of the Gods’: ‘Way Through the Woods’ (three, once with gun and twice by shotgun): ‘Death is now my Neighbour’ (twice).
Sir Alexander Reece (The Last Enemy)
Con O’Neill (Promised Land)
James Balcome (Happy Families)
Neville Grimshaw (The Twilight of the Gods)
George Daley (Way Through the Woods)
Rachel James (Death is now my Neighbour)
Geoffrey Owens (Death is now my Neighbour)
BLUDGEONED
(2) ‘The Last Enemy’ (unknown weapon): ‘The Remorseful Day’ (metal crutch).
Yvonne Harrison (The Remorseful Day)
FIRE
(3) ‘Deceived by Flight’ (3 unknown men in a shop).
Three Unknown Men (Deceived by Flight)
ELECTROCUTION
(1) ‘Deceived by Flight’ (radio wire).
Anthony Donn (Deceived by Flight)
CANCER
(1) ‘The Infernal Serpent’.
Mrs McGovern (The Infernal Serpent)
DROWNING
(2) ‘Sins of the Fathers’ (in a fermenting vat, twice).
Trevor Radford (Sins of the Father)
BROKEN NECK
(2) ‘Greeks Bearing Gifts’ (head wrenched back, twice).
Maria Capparis (Greeks Bearing Gifts)
AIDS
(1) ‘Promised Land’.
Peter Matthews (Promised Land)
ASPHYXIATION
(1) ‘Deadly Slumber’ (carbon monoxide).
Matthew Brewster (Deadly Slumber)
REMOVED FROM LIFE SUPPORT
(1) ‘Deadly Slumber’.
Avril Steppings (Deadly Slumber)
BRAIN TUMOUR
(1) ‘The Daughters of Cain’.
Julia Stevens (The Daughters of Cain)
FALL
(1) ‘The Remorseful Day’ (ladder knocked away from victim).
John Barron (The Remorseful Day)
UNCLEAR
(10) (1) Lionel Pawlin’s death in ‘Service of all the Dead’ could have been suicide or murder. He jumped or was pushed from the church tower. (2) In the same episode it is unclear as to how Peter Morris and Brenda Josephs were murdered. (3) In the episode ‘Last Seen Wearing’ it is unclear if Cheryl Baines is pushed from the top of the stairs or fell. (4) In the episode ‘Settling of the Sun’ it is unclear as to how the Japanese drug dealer killed Michael Robson. (5) In the episode ‘The Infernal Serpent’ it looks unclear as to how Blanche killed her husband Matthew Copley Barnes but it looks like she used a heavy object. (6) How Desmond McNutt is killed isn’t made clear in the episode, ‘Masonic Mysteries’. (7) John Mitchell beaten by Dawson but unclear as to ‘beaten by what’. Probably fists. (8) In ‘Who Killed Harry Field’ how Harry was killed is unknown. (9) How Steven Ford is murdered in ‘Happy Families’ isn’t clear but a stonemason’s tool is found alongside his body.
Paul Morris (Service of all the Dead)
Cheryl Baines (Last Seen Wearing)
Matthew Copley Barnes (The Infernal Serpent)
John Mitchell (Second Time Around)
Steven Ford (Happy Families)
Well I hope you all enjoy this new post. I never thought that the Morse series contained over 100 deaths. I owe a big debt of gratitude to David Bishop’s wonderful publication, ‘The Complete Inspector Morse’.