In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
William Blake
Hello Mateys and welcome to the penultimate post in this series of connections in the Morse universe. Well what a journey it has been over the last eleven posts. Sad to think that the next will be the last…until next year when we will of course get the fourth series.
As always let’s start with the man who made the Endeavour series possible,
Russell Lewis who wrote and devised the Endeavour series.
He has also written the following Lewis episodes;
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’.
CHARACTERS
This is rather repetitive for those who have read the previous posts but I think worth mentioning for anyone who finds this post before reading the others. The characters from Morse or Lewis who turn up in Endeavour are Max De Bryn who plays the pathologist and James Strange who in this episode is now DS Strange but will of course become Chief Superintendent Strange in the original Morse series.
Unusually, a character from episodes of Lewis turns up in Endeavour and that is the father of James Hathaway, Philip Hathaway.
Rob Callender as the young Philip Hathaway in the Endeavour episode.
Nicholas Jones as the older Philip Hathaway in the Lewis episode One for Sorrow (Series 9, Episode 1).
No other overlapping characters appear in this episode but of course the Mortmaigne family did turn up in the Lewis episode, The Dead of Winter. We learned from that particular episode that Philip Hathaway became the Estate Manager at Crevecoeur Hall. More of this later.
There is a Professor Kemp in this episode.
Professor Kemp the pathologist played by Hugh Simon.
There was also a Professor Kemp in the Morse episode, The Wolvercote Tongue, (Series 2, Episode 1).
Professor Theodore Kemp in the Morse episode, The Wolvercote Tongue. Played by the wonderful Simon Callow.
There is no connection as far as I am aware. Apart from the fact that they are both odious characters.
A character of sorts turned up in this episode. That character is the location of Wytham Woods. Wytham Woods is mentioned in a few episodes of Morse but it’s actual location wasn’t used until the Morse episode, A Way Through the Woods, (Episode 29 chronologically). Not surprisingly the creator of the Endeavour series, Russell Lewis, wrote the Morse episode, A Way Through the Woods.
copyright; Google maps.
Actors who appeared in the Endeavour Series 3, Episode 3, Prey and/or Morse or Lewis.
Well, well, well this has to be a first. No actors in this episode have appeared in either Morse or Lewis. Quickly, moving on.
WHERE’S COLIN?
I couldn’t find Colin anywhere else in this episode. This is the best guess I can make but this is as clear a picture we can get in this scene.
MUSIC
At the beginning of the episode we get Bach’s Mass in B Minor: Agnus Dei.
Up next at 14 minutes and 49 seconds is a piece by Dvorak. Slavonice Dances, Op.72:No. 2 in E minor: Allegretto grazioso.
At 29 mnutes and 34 seconds we get a short burst of Mozart’s Don Giovanni playing on Dr Moxham’s (Moxhem?) radio in Whytham Woods.
Up next is one of my favourite composers, Eric Satie. In this episode we hear at 58 minutes and 42 seconds, Satie’s Gnossienne No. 2 (Lent).
Please listen to all seven parts of Satie’s Gnossienne and you will by the end wonder how something so beautiful can live in a world that at times be so ugly. Also listen to Satie’s Gymnopedie, you will not be disappointed.
FILM REFERNCES
Russell Lewis has a lot of fun in this episode by referencing Steven Speilberg’s 1975 classic film, Jaws. There is actually two scenes which are reminiscent of Jaws. Here they are below.
Also worth noting is that the name of the girl in Endeavour is Cassie Watkins and the name of the girl who goes swimming in Jaws is Chrissie Watkins.
Another film reference is based on the Steven Speilberg film, ‘Jurassic Park’.
MISCELLANEOUS
At one hour and 7 minutes, Turnbull while being interviewed by Endeavour and Thursday says, “Old Tom was chiming ten by the time I got back into town”. ‘Old Tom’ refers to Tom Tower that is a bell tower in Oxford, named for its bell, Great Tom. It is over Tom Gate, on St Aldates, the main entrance of Christ Church, Oxford, which leads into Tom Quad.
Tom Tower seen from St Aldates.
Endeavour comes across a book in Dr. Hector Lorenz’s house titled, The Leopard Men of West Africa.
The book appears to be a mock up specifically for the show. The only book I could find of a similar nature was, Man-Leopard Murders: History and Society in Colonial Nigeria by one David Pratten. The book’s blurb states that, “This book is an account of murder and politics in Africa, and an historical ethnography of southern Annang communities during the colonial period. Its narrative leads to events between 1945 and 1948 when the imperial gaze of police, press and politicians was focused on a series of mysterious deaths in south-eastern Nigeria attributed to the ‘man-leopard society’.”
In this episode Strange and Endeavour are having a drink in the pub. When Endeavour notices that Strange is drinking lager he states that he used to be a Farmer’s beer drinker. Farmer’s beer is mentioned in the Morse episode, Sins of the Fathers. Farmer’s brewery is attempting to buy Radford Breweries.
Speaking of the scene where Strange and Endeavour are drinjking, it is reminiscent of a scene in the Morse episode, A Way Through the Woods. (There’s that episode again).
I mentioned above that the location of Wytham Woods was a character that has appeared in a Morse episode. Well, another location in this episode also appeared in a Lewis episode, Crevecoeur Hall.
Crevecoeur Hall is actually Rousham House and Gardens, Rousham, Bicester.
copyright of Google maps.
Now that we are on the subject of Crevecoeur Hall then let us talk about the Mortmaigne family. The Mortmaigne family also turned up in the Lewis episode, The Dead of Winter, (Series 4, Episode 1). I have been trying to piece together the family tree to this family and the following is the best I could do. The Earl of Mortmaigne Hall had four children;
Guy Mortmaigne played Ben Lambert
Georgina Mortmaigne played by Stefanie Martini
Julia Mortmaigne played by Amy McCallum
and finally Augustus Mortmaigne who we don’t see in the Prey episode played by Richard Johnson in the Lewis episode.
Guy Mortmaigne states in the Endeavour episode that he is a ‘spare’ which will be a reference to the phrase, ‘heir and a spare’. This ‘spare’ is the second son who is Guy. In the Endeavour episode, Ride, Kay Belborough mentions that they are off to Kenya and staying in a house owned by Guy Mortmaigne. Is it possible that this is where Augustus Mortmaigne was during the time of the Endeavour episode?
Augustus had two children, Scarlett with his now dead wife, Jocinta and Titus with his current wife, Selena.
Scarlett played by Camilla Arfwedson
Titus played by Jonathan Bailey
Selena, Augustus’s current wife.
Then there is Philip Coleman the nephew of Augustus.
Philip Coleman played by Nathaniel Parker
Can we assume that Philip Coleman’s mother was Julia Mortmaigne? She does have a baby in the Prey episode. It is possible that Julia remarried someone by the name of Coleman. The Endeavour episode Prey is set in 1967 and the Lewis episode is set around 2009/10. So, that would make the Julia’s baby around 42/43. That would fit with Philip Coleman’s possible age. Unfortunately, in the Lewis episode there is no mention of Guy, Julia or Georgina but that is to be expected as Russell Lewis did write the Lewis episode some six years before the Endeavour episode.
(As a postscript to the above, Jess a reader of my blog quite rightly pointed out that the baby’s name in this episode is Milo not Philip. So, is Philip, as Jess remarked, Milo’s half brother, Julia possibly remarrying sometime later? What happened to baby Milo?)
Let’s finish on a funny note with the house warming gift that Strange gives to Endeavour.
I literally laughed out loud when Endeavour opened this ‘gift’. If you want to buy that actual album then head over to Amazon. Click here to see the album on Amazon.
Well it is 1:50am and I am at that point where I will need matchsticks to keep my eyes open. I hope you are all well and enjoyed something in the post. Take care.
Chris