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SPOILERS AHEAD!
Where’s Colin?
Colin appears at 1h13m.
Directed by Charles Beeson (1957-2021). This episode is Charles Beeson’s only connection to the Morse Universe.
Written by Julian Mitchell (1935 – ). Other connections to the Morse Universe: The Last Morse: A Documentary; The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn; Service of All the Dead; The Wolvercote Tongue; Ghost in the Machine; Masonic Mysteries; Promised Land; Cherubim and Seraphim; Twilight of the Gods; The Daughters of Cain.
First broadcast in the UK on 19 November 1997.
SYNOPSIS
With Chief Superintendent Strange’s discussion on retiring ringing in his ears, Morse attends the scene of Rachael James’ murder. With very few obvious suspects, Morse and Lewis concentrate their efforts on Julian, Rachael’s much older paramour and his wife Angela Storrs. Both appear to have the perfect alibi, engaging in early morning ‘rumpy pumpy.’
As Morse and Lewis continue their investigation another murder is committed; next door to the home of Rachel James. Is the murderer working their way through Bloxham Drive house by house? Did the murderer misidentify Rachael James as their intended victim. Was, Geoffrey Owens, the second victim, the real target?
But not all is darkness within the episode. Morse meets the fragrant and attractive, Adele Cecil. Will love blossom?
Morse, on being asked by Strange if he isn’t sick of investigating “shootings, stabbings, stranglings” replies that “Work. That’s the secret of life. You have to buckle down and give it your best. ” Will Morse ‘buckle down’ or will Adele prove too much of a distraction and blind him to the fact that she is a viable suspect?
Meanwhile, Morse leaves Adele with a cryptic crossword clue as to what his Christian name is: A whole life’s effort has revolved around Eve. (9 letters)
REVIEW.
(warning, this review will contain some spoilers)
Jags out of ten:
MUSIC.
15m40s
The Marriage of Figaro ‘non so piu’ by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
51m10s
Morse is listening to music on the radio. Mozart’s Piano Quartet in G Minor.
01h11m58s
Gloria by Antonio Vivaldi.
LITERARY REFERENCES.
At around the 4m mark Strange says that he hates this time of the month. Morse replies, “April is the cruellest month.” This quote is the opening line to T.S. Eliot’s most famous poem, The Wasteland.
April is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
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A little obscure reference but…
Morse enters Adele’s place of work.
Bottom right there is a flyer for An Ideal Husband. A play by Oscar Wilde.
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At 34m Clixby says, “Nymph and Shephard and a crystal Lake.” This may be a reference to The ‘Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd’ a poem by Sir Walter Raleigh. Or, a reference to ‘Nymphs and Shepherds’ a song by the English composer Henry Purcell, from the play The Libertine by Thomas Shadwell.
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At around 34 and a half minutes, Clixby and Shelly Cornford are having tea. She says, “Experience and innocence, you know?” A reference to William Blake’s, ‘Songs of Innocence and of Experience.’
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After Denis returns from jogging at around 42m he hugs Shelly. She says, “This first fine careless rapture, it’s supposed to wear off.” This is reference to a line in Home-Thoughts, from Abroad BY ROBERT BROWNING.
Lest you should think he never could recapture
The first fine careless rapture!
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At 1h37m Morse, in Strange’s office says; ‘That which we are, we are. One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find and not to yield.’
From the poem Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson.
ART
At around 8m.
Firstly, the painting on the far right.
Charles Lancelot Shadwell, DCL by George Fiddes Watt (1873–1960)
Next the painting on the far left;
Sir David Ross, DLitt, Provost (1929–1947) by Herbert James Gunn (1893–1964)
Finally the portrait in the middle;
Lancelot Ridley Phelps, Hon. DCL, Provost (1914–1929) by Briton Riviere (1840–1920)
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At 10 and a half minutes we are back in the same location as above but this time looking behind Clixby Bream.
Firstly, the large portrait on the right;
Edward Coplestone, DD by Thomas Phillips (1770–1845)
I’m unsure of the portrait on the left.
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In Clixby Bream’s room at 1h6m.
Top screenshot. On the far right is;
Sir Walter Raleigh, Aged 34 in 1588 by UNKNOWN.
The bottom screenshot, the portrait on the left;
Sir William Seymour, Chief Justice of Bombay by Thomas Phillips (1770–1845)
The other painting is:
This is the Sibyls and the Angel or also known as Sibyls and Prophets by Raphael Sanzio. It is a fresco that can be seen in Florence.
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In the Bath hotel at 1h31m.
This looks like a painting by John Charles Maggs called York House Hotel, Bath. However, it is, as you can see, not the same but certainly similar.
In the same hotel.
It looks like “A Bay Racehorse in Stable” (1832), oil painting by James Loder but in reverse.
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The statue in the gardens of the place where Morse meets Adele.
It is a statue of the Greek Goddess, Hebe. goddess of youth. Daughter of Zeus and Hera and the wife of the Greek hero Hercules.
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In Professor Storrs rooms.
On the wall, the larger of two prints is The Landing at Tanna (Tana), One of the New Hebrides 1775–1776 by William Hodges (1744–1797). It is depicting Captain Cooke.
LOCATIONS.
(For locations of colleges and pubs see the appropriate sections below).
Beginning of the episode.
This is St Nicholas Church, Marston, Oxford.
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Bloxham Drive is actually Brookside, Weston, Turville, Buckinghamshire.
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Radcliffe Square with University Church of St Mary the Virgin in the background.
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The newspaper office.
This is the offices of The Oxford Mail, Osney Mead.
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Where Adele was teaching the young student.
This is the Grove House, University of Roehampton, London.
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At 22m Geoffrey meets his girlfriend in a restaurant.
The above was then known as Le Petit Blanc. It is now the Brasserie Blanc. 101 Walton Street, Jericho.
The Storres’ home.
Unidentified.
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The Cornford’s house that is up for sale.
Unidentified.
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Clixby and American having tea.
Unidentified.
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At 40m the Storrs arriving at their hotel.
This is Royal Crescent in Bath.
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Denis returns after jogging.
Unidentified
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At 44 and a half minutes we get a view of the Oxford skyline.
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The camera pans down from the above skyline to
This is looking down from Carfax Tower onto the High Street, Oxford. The jag moves down the High Street.
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The Cornfords go shopping at around 48m.
This is Little Clarendon Street, Oxford.
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At 49m Strange is on the golf course.
This is FoxHills Golf Club in Surrey.
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At around 55m Morse is with Adele in his jag.
First picture is Catte Street. The Jag then turns into New College Lane.
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Adele and Morse take a walk at 56m.
The two white bridges are indicated.
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Morse and Lewis leaving the college at 1h17m.
Radcliffe Square.
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Morse and Adele arrive in Bath.
This is the Royal Crescent, Bath.
PUB LOCATIONS.
23m Lewis and Morse enter a pub.
This is The Crown in Bray.
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Morse and Lewis meet Adele.
This is again, The Crown, Bray.
OXFORD COLLEGES USED AS LOCATIONS.
Oriel College stands in for the fictitious Lonsdale College.
7 Minutes – Denis Cornford gets out of his car and runs into a college.
This is the entrance to Brasenose College from Radcliffe Square.
We then see him running through a quad.
This is Oriel College front quad.
8 minutes – Fred Thursday, I mean, Denis Cornford hurrying to his meeting.
This is Oriel College.
The camera pans from Denis Cornford running to the meeting to the room where the meeting is being held.
14 minutes – Cornford and Dora Hammersby walk and talk after the meeting.
This is Oriel College but a different quad from the other two we have already seen.
26 minutes – Denis Cornford is on the telephone.
This is Brasenose College. The large building that is in the background is University Church of St Mary the Virgin.
27 minutes – Morse interviews Julian Storrs.
I can’t be sure of this location.
1 hour and 11 minutes – In a chapel.
This is Oriel College Chapel.
1 hour and 12 minutes – Morse calls for Dr Hobson.
This is Oriel College. The chapel is in the background.
Above is the entrance to the chapel.
One hour and 12 minutes we are at a dining hall.
This is Oriel College.
One hour and 35 minutes. Morse and Lewis are going to see Clixby.
This is Oriel College.
Actors who appeared in Death is Now my Neighbour and/or Endeavour or Lewis.
Of course the obvious one is Roger Allam, who plays Denis Cornford in this episode.
He will go on to play the indomitable Fred Thursday in the Endeavour series.
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The waitress, played by Katie Harlow, who serves Morse in the Bath hotel around the 1h30m mark was also a trainee script advisor on this episode.
Katie would go on to be the script supervisor on three Endeavour episodes; Quartet, Zenana and Exeunt. Katie would also be the script supervisor on ten Lewis episodes.
CONNECTIONS OTHER THAN ACTORS TO THE LEWIS, ORIGINAL MORSE SERIES AND PREVIOUS ENDEAVOUR EPISODES.
At around nine and a half minutes, Laura says of the death of Rachel James, “It was instant, if that’s any comfort.” Morse baulks at this use of the word ‘instant’ for a death. In the episode The Walk Through the Woods (the episode where we first meet Laura Hobson) Lewis asked if death was instant. Morse replies, “Occurred instantaneously, Lewis, if you must. Coffee may be instant, death may not.”
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The phrase, ‘Hands, knees and Boompsadaisy’ turns up in the Endeavour episode, Quartet. In that Endeavour episode, Morse finds a newspaper cutting in files that Frazil sent him with the headlines, ‘Hans, Knees Und Boompsadaisy.
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At around 18+ minutes, Adele Cecil mentions taking Rachael to a concert at Lonsdale. Lonsdale is the fictional college Morse attended.
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The piece of music played around the 1h11m mark is Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria.’ This is famously the first piece of music we hear in the Morse series in the episode, The Dead of Jericho.
Miscellaneous.
Photos taken during the shooting of the episode.
A picture of captain Cook on Julian Storrs desk in his rooms.
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Of course in the episode we get the famous cryptic crossword clue; “A whole life’s effort has revolved around Eve.” (9 letters). Morse’s Christian name is an anagram of ‘around eve.’
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Morse mentions his father, Cyril, in this episode. We meet Morse’s father in the Endeavour episode, Home.
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When Morse enters the building where Adele is teaching we see a noticeboard covered in flyers.
I have no way of knowing if these flyers were originally on the noticeboard or if the set designers placed them there. They are interesting in the way they connect with the Morse Universe. The music of Vivaldi, Faure, Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Alligri, Purcell and Brahms have all been used across the Morse Universe episodes.
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Is it just me but doesn’t Mrs Adams
seem out of place in what appears a middle class, yuppie area. Also, why would she be “putting the ashes out” when none of the houses have a chimney?
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In this episode Lewis’s son is referred to as Ken but in the Lewis series his son is called, Jack.
IN MEMORIAM.
John Thaw (1942-2002).
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Susan Field(1932-2005)
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John Shrapnel(1942-2020)
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Richard Briers(1934-2013)
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James Grout (1927-2012)
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Charles Beeson, director. (1957-2021)
THE MURDERED, THEIR MURDERER/S AND THEIR METHODS.
Rachael James. Shot by Angela Storrs in error. Angela Storrs did not realise that there was not a house with the number 13 so miscounted when arriving at the back of the houses to shoot Rachael.
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Geoffrey Owens shot by Angela Storrs. Geoffrey was blackmailing Angela because she had been accused of murdering her first husband.
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Accident due to a fall down stone steps.
CAST
John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse.
Mark McGann as Geoffrey Owens
Julia Dalkin as Rachel James
James Grout as Chief Superintendent Strange
Roger Allam as Denis Cornford
Richard Briers as Sir Clixby Bream
Clare Holman as Dr. Laura Hobson
Susan Engel as Dora Hammersby
Maggie Steed as Angela Storrs
Holley Chant as Shelly Cornford
Judy Loe as Adele Cecil
Susan Field as Mrs. Adams
John Shrapnel as Dr. Julian Storrs
Lloyd Hutchinson as DC Jackson
Nicola Jeffries as Diane Cullingham
Kevin Whately as Detective Sergeant Lewis
Oliver Grig as Ken Lewis