Hello Morse fans and welcome to part three of what will be a thirteen part series. For those who haven’t read part one click HERE, or part two click HERE. Both links will open in a new window.
As before the first connection should be the man who devised and wrote all thirteen of the Endeavour episodes and that is Russell Lewis. Here below is another reminder of what else he has written within the Morse universe.
Lewis (TV Series) (screenplay – 4 episodes, 2010 – 2012) (story – 1 episode, 2006)
– Fearful Symmetry (2012) … (screenplay)
– Old, Unhappy, Far Off Things (2011) … (screenplay)
– Falling Darkness (2010) … (screenplay)
– The Dead of Winter (2010) … (screenplay)
– Reputation (2006) … (story)
He also wrote the Morse episode, ‘The Way Through the Woods’. (One of my favourite Morse episodes).
CHARACTERS
Apart from the usual suspects, James Strange and Max DeBryn, I could find no other characters who were connected to either Morse or Lewis.
Actors who appeared in the Endeavour Series 1, Episode 2 ‘Fugue’ and/or Morse or Lewis.
Apart from Roger Allam there was only one actor who appeared in this episode and an episode of Morse and that is Robin Soans. Robin played Ivan Straker who was the librarian in the Endeavour episode. In the original Morse series he played Alisdair McBryde in the episode The Way Through the Woods, (One off special episode and chronologically the 29th episode. Aired on the 29 November 1995)
Robin Soans as Ivan Straker in ‘Fugue’.
Roibin Soans as Alisdair McBryde in ‘The Way Through the Woods’.
An actor who connects to other Endeavour episodes is Hugh O’Brien. He appears in four episodes of Endeavour as a guest at a recital, Home, Rocket, Fugue and Girl.
Hugh O’Brien.
Of course as mentioned in my previous post Greg Bennett who plays a Police Constable in this and other Endeavour episodes also appeared in three other Lewis episodes. I think this is him on the left below in the ‘Fugue’ episode.
Greg Bennett as a PC.
In this episode we now for the first time get to meet Fred Thursday’s wife, Win. Win Thursday is played by Caroline O’Neill who appeared in the Lewis episode, ‘And the Moonbeams Kiss the Sea’.
Caroline O’Neill as Win Thursday.
Caroline O’Neill as Susan Chapman sitting between the dishy Hathaway and the incomparable Lewis.
Laura Rees who played Faye Madison in the Endeavour episode also turned up in a Lewis episode, ‘The Great and the Good’.
Laura Rees as Faye Madison in the Endeavour episode, ‘Fugue’.
Laura Rees as Beatrice Donnelly in the Lewis episode, ‘The Great and the Good’.
MUSIC
As in the previous Endeavour episode, ‘Girl’ we get to hear the wonderful Mozart Mass in C Minor ‘Grosse Messe’ at the beginning of the episode.
La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi though not played in the episode does make an appearance and the opera does have connections with the original Morse series.
This is the wall of Mr. Nimmo who was walled up in the farmhouse. La Traviata has appeared in a few episodes of Morse: firstly, ‘Sins of the Father’ (Series 4, Episode 2). Morse is playing the opera while at home and for the life of me I can’t remember the other episode but i’m sure it appears in at least one other Morse episode. Does the number 162 relate to anything in the Morse universe? If there is I can’t think what it is. ‘162’ is the number of years since the first performance of La Traviata.
Update regarding La Traviata. Mark, in the comments section below, very kindly pointed out that the “La Traviata prelude featured heavily in the Daughters of Cain Morse episode”. Thanks Mark.
Miscellaneous
Endeavour’s favourite singer, Rosalind Calloway (Stromming was her married name), turns up again in the guise of the LP that Morse asked her to sign. Its on the left of Endeavour in the picture below.
Trinity College is used in the Endeavour episode and has been used in various Lewis and Morse episodes most notably, ‘The Wench is Dead’ (Morse, One off special, chronologically the penultimate episode of the original Morse series, i.e. number 32.
In the ‘Fugue’ episode Endeavour says’ “There is a wickedness in this”. I think this was also said in a Morse episode either ‘Day of the Devil’ (Series 7, Episode 2) or maybe ‘Fat Chance’, (Series 5, Episode 2). I could be wrong but the phrase rang a small bell with me. If anybody can help let me know.
Well that is all for now. As always if anybody notices an error or omission please feel free to let me know either through the comments section below or on Facebook. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy it. Part four will hopefully be with by the weekend.
UPDATE (17/02/2016)
I stupidly forgot to add the section on, Where’s Colin? Here he is;
He is behind the pianists left hand shoulder.
La Traviata prelude featured heavily in the Daughters of Cain Morse episode.
Hi Mark. Thanks for that info. I will include it in this post. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
I’ll come back to these connections postings again and again as I watch the shows. Almost every evening I watch one or two. Just now I’m near the end of Lewis, and then will go back to Morse (left off at Wolvercote Tongue), and then Endeavour. A question – do you run the Facebook page?
HI Nan. So happy that my blog helps to improve your enjoyment of the Morse series of TV shows. It is incredible to think that the original Morse is over 25 years old but it has stood up to the test of time. Re’ Facebook page, no I am just a member.
I just now finished the last episode of Lewis, and it struck me that maybe, just maybe, Mr. Fox and Mr. Whately might decide to continue even if for just a couple shows a year. It was definitely left open-ended even though we’ve heard it is the end. Meanwhile, I shall think of Lewis in New Zealand and Hathaway making peace with his father. And the wonderful Maddox doing a great job in the police. I know, I do know, that they aren’t real. haha
Hi Nan. Unfortunately, I do believe it is the end of the Lewis series. I believe Lewis’s decision to follow Laura to New Zealand was the writers way of stating that Lewis realised that Laura was more important than his police job. Like you I would love to see more but… I hope you are feeling better.
My understanding is that Kevin Whately said he didn’t want to make more Lewis programmes than they did Morse. 33 of each were made so the only way I can see Lewis returning to the TV is if they did a Hathoway show and he featured in that as a one off.
When Endeavour is talking to the shrink (about 59 minutes in), suddenly E says ‘you admire him.’ And the man answers, ‘respect perhaps. His ability.’ This reminds me of the Lewis episode with the psychopath. It seems to me almost the same words are used by Lewis, and the woman who has worked with the crazy guy for years expresses much the same admiration. Season 8, episodes 5 and 6. Beyond Good and Evil.
Hi Nan. It’s actually Hathaway who says to the Psychiatrist, “It sounds like you admire him”. She replies, “From a research point of view, I do”.
The dialogue between Morse and the “psychiatrist” in “Fugue” has another level; I believe it’s a film reference. It’s common knowledge that the writers of Endeavour like to make sly references to famous films. I believe this reference is to… Alien (the original).
Morse says “You admire him”, to which the psychiatrist replies “Respect, perhaps, his singularity of purpose”. In Alien, when Ash is discovered to be a robot helping the alien, Ripley says to him “You admire it” and Ash says, “I admire its purity”.
I might have taken that bit of dialogue as pure coincidence if not for the visual references: During earlier scenes in Alien the crew are pursuing, and being pursued by, the alien in the dark corridors of their ship. Just a few scenes before he confronts the psychiatrist in Fugue, Morse is pursuing (and being pursued by) the killer through the dark corridors beneath the Bodleian Library.
Hi Mark. Welcome to my blog and thanks for commenting. I believe you are absolutely right regarding the film reference. Shame on me for not seeing this reference as I am a fan of the Alien films. 🙂 I hope you find some of my other posts enjoyable.