Welcome to a new post. I hope you enjoy my comprehensive review of The Remorseful Day. 

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SPOILERS AHEAD!

Where’s Colin?

Colin appears at around 1h5m.

Directed by Jack Gold. No other connection to the Morse Universe.

Written by Stephen Churchett (based on Coin Dexter’s novel). Stephen also wrote the following episodes; Lewis pilot episode, Reputation; Lewis episode, Allegory of Love; Lewis episode, Dark Matter; Lewis episode, Wild Justice; He co-wrote the Lewis episode The Gift of Promise; he wrote the story outline and starred in the Lewis episode, Intelligent Design; 

First broadcast in the UK: 15 November 2000.

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SYNOPSIS

A year after her murder, the police re-open the case of Yvonne Harrison when they receive an anonymous letter implicating a burglar, Harry Repp, who is about to be released from prison. Supt. Strange assigns the case to DS Lewis, who is chafing at the bit awaiting his promotion to Inspector. Morse has been ill and has only just returned to work. He steps on Lewis’ toes by involving himself in the case, but as the body count rises, Morse finds himself in charge of investigating a woman who had many affairs with many different men. When he learns that the dead men were in possession of large amount of cash, he suspects they were blackmailing her murderer.

REVIEW.
(warning, this review will contain some spoilers)

Jags out of ten:

MUSIC.

Near the beginning of the episode Yvonne Harrison appears to be humming the Righteous Brothers, Unchained Melody.

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At around 12 minutes Lewis gets out of his car. We can hear Adagio from Spartacus and Phrygia by Aram Khachaturian.

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At around the 31 minute mark, John Barron and Debbie Depp are talking. There is music playing in the background but I don’t recognize it.

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At around 1h2m Lewis is playing music in his car. It’s Wagner’s, Parsifal.

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At John Barron’s funeral at around 1h6m the music being played is The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, Is Ended (St Clement).

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Morse is in his flat at 1h15m playing String Quintet in C Major, 2nd movement Franz Schubert.

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At 1h16m Roy Holmes is listening to music through his headphones. It sounds like drum and bass but I don’t recognise it. It may have been composed by Barrington.

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At 1h22m in Exeter Chapel we hear Requiem. Libera Me from Faure’s Requiem.

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At 1h25 while Morse is having a heart attack we hear, Requiem : ‘In Paradisum’ by Gabriel Faure.

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The final piece of music is ‘Parsifal’ – Act I Prelude by Richard Wagner.

LITERARY REFERENCES.

Around 26m Morse recites the final verse of A.E. Housman’s, How Clear, How Lovely Bright.

How clear, how lovely bright,
How beautiful to sight
Those beams of morning play;
How heaven laughs out with glee
Where, like a bird set free,
Up from the eastern sea
Soars the delightful day.

To-day I shall be strong,
No more shall yield to wrong,
Shall squander life no more;
Days lost, I know not how,
I shall retrieve them now;
Now I shall keep the vow
I never kept before.

Ensanguining the skies
How heavily it dies
Into the west away;
Past touch and sight and sound
Not further to be found,
How hopeless under ground
Falls the remorseful day.

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At around 1h6m at John barron’s funeral, Frank Harrison says to Morse, “In the midst of life.” “In the midst of life we are in death” is a phrase that appears in multiple contexts, including the Bible, a Gregorian chant, and a quote by Agatha Christie.

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While talking to Morse in the pub at around 1h13m Debbie Repp says to Morse, “Eat, drink and be merry.” Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die” is a combination of two passages of scripture, Ecclesiastes 8:15, ‘Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry’, and Isaiah 22:13, ‘Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die.

ART

At around 21 minutes we are in Morse’ and Lewis’s office. On the wall is a poster of a Verdi Festival. Not quite ‘art’ in it’s strictest sense but…

LOCATIONS. 

The beginning of the episode. The Harrison home.

According to David Bishop’s book, The Complete Inspector Morse the above location is St Hubert’s Home Farm, Buckinghamshire. A more precise location is St. Hubert’s House on St. Hubert’s Lane, Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire. It’s been used in various films. However, I can’t get an exact location on Google maps.

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3m17s Oxford railway Station.

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At 6m10s we see Morse waking up in pain in his house.

Castlebar, Ealing, London, Greater London.

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At 6m25 seconds, Lewis arrives at the police station.

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11m10s we are at the hospital where Sandra Harrison works.

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At around 12 minutes Lewis pulls up to Morse’s house.

Castlebar, Ealing, London, Greater London.

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At around the 16 minute mark we see Harry Repp leaving the prison.

This is Bullingdon Prison, Upper Arncott, Bicester, Oxfordshire.

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At 17m30s we see the home of Debbie Repp. Unidentified. Maybe in New Denham.

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At around 17m40 secs we see Harry Repp change buses.

This is Bicester Bus Station, Bicester, Oxfordshire.

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At 19m the bus pulls in to a bus station.

This is Gloucester Green Bus Station, Oxford.

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At around the 29 minute mark we are at a landfill site where Paddy Flynn’s body has been found.

This is Wapseys Wood Gerrards Cross.

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At around 32 minutes the dead body of Harry Repp is found.

This is Edward’s School, Boathouse. In the far distance one can see The Trout Inn.

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At around 38m we are in a restaurant with the Harrison family.

This is probably a studio set filmed at Elstree Studio.

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At around 44m John Barron arrives to repair the roof on Mrs Bayley’s roof.

This is Sheep Street, Burford, Oxfordshire.

Mrs Bayley’s house where John Barron was working on her roof is in front of the white car on the left.

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At around 48m we visit the charity shop on the High Street, Oxford.

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At around 49m we see Simon Harrison crossing Broad Street and enter a bookshop.

This was Thornton Bookshop which has now, sadly, closed.

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At around 53m we see the boy cycle up to his home. Unidentified.

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At around 1h4m a woman is giving a guided tour. Morse is standing at the railings.

This is the Old Kitchen Bar at Magdalen College, Oxford.

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John Barron’s funeral at around 1h6m.

This is St Mary the Virgin, Fawley Church, Buckinghamshire.

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The hospital that is used throughout the episode is the John Radcliffe Hospital, Headley Way, Headington, Oxford, Oxfordshire.

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Some hospital scenes were also filmed at St Peter’s Hospital, Chertsey, Surrey.

Maps are the copyright of Google.

PUB LOCATIONS.

At around 26 minutes we see Morse and Lewis sitting having a drink.

This is The Victoria Arms, Mill Ln, Oxford OX3 0PZ.

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At 37 minutes we see John Barron in a pub.

This is the Queen’s Head, Pound Ln, Marlow SL7 3SR. See below for details.

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At around 50m Morse and Sandra Harrison have a drink at the Randolph Hotel. The area where they sit is now known as The Morse Bar.

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At around 1h9m, after John Barron’s funeral, everyone retires to a pub.

This is the Queen’s Head, Pound Ln, Marlow SL7 3SR.

OXFORD COLLEGES USED AS LOCATIONS.

1 hour and 18 minutes. The chapel being used for a rehearsal.

This is Exeter College Chapel.

1 hour and 24 minutes. Morse and Professor Sir Lionel Phelps talk.

This is the front quad of Exeter College.

1 hour and 28 minutes. Morse collapse.

The front quad of Exeter College.

1 hour and 28 minutes. The ambulance arrives.

This is the Broad Street entrance to Exeter College.

 

Actors who appeared in The Remorseful Day and/or Endeavour or Lewis.

First up, Anna Wilson-Jones who played Sandra Harrison.

Anna also appeared in the Lewis episode, Fearful Symmetry as Stanza Massey.

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Simon Hepworth who played Simon Harrison appeared in the Endeavour episode, Pylon as Mr Tingwell.

CONNECTIONS OTHER THAN ACTORS TO THE LEWIS, ORIGINAL MORSE SERIES AND PREVIOUS ENDEAVOUR EPISODES.

Yvonne Harrison is found murdered while tied to the bed.

This is reminiscent of the Lewis episode, Fearful Symmetry. A young girl is found in a similar position and murdered.

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At around 1h2m Lewis is playing Wagner in his car.

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Morse cites A.E.Housman’s poem, How Clear, How Lovely Bright. The young Endeavour Morse quotes the same poem in the Endeavour episode, Neverland.

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Barrington Pheloung is the conductor at 1h23m

And it is Barrington’s first speaking role.

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At 1h25 while Morse is having a heart attack we hear, Requiem : ‘In Paradisum’ by Gabriel Faure. That music is played in the pilot episode of Endeavour. It is during the scene in the Endeavour scene when the young Morse is on the bus with other police officers on his way to Oxford.

Miscellaneous.

The Yvonne Harrison murder took place a year before this episode is set. At around nine minutes Lewis is in Strange’s office. Lewis says that when the murder occurred he was on his Inspector’s course. This was also the reason that was given as to why Lewis was unavailable in the Wench is Dead episode. So, are we to assume that the events of The Wench is Dead and the Yvonne Harrison murder were within the same time period. Yvonne Harrison’s murder must have happened soon after the events of The Wench is Dead.

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At around six minutes, Strange has the box file containing evidence gathered during the Yvonne Harrison case. The investigating officer is shown as DI Spencer.

You can see in the ‘details’ column it reads something about DCI Morse. We have to assume that DI Spencer took over from Morse when he was removed from the case.

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When Lewis arrives at Morse’s home around the 12 minute mark we can see that Morse lives in a flat not a house as portrayed in the Masonic Mysteries episode. Six flats to be exact. But where are the entrances to the other five supposed to be?

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At around 23 minutes Lewis is talking to Debbie. Lewis asks who the other policeman was who had called previously. Debbie replies, “Moss.” In the series Morse has been referred to as ‘Moose’ in Death of the Self; ‘Mouse’ in The Way Through the Woods. There is another one but damned if I can remember what it is. If you recall let me know in the comments.

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At around 43 minutes Lewis uses his euphemism for sex, “Rumpy pumpy.” He used that term in the pilot episode of the Lewis series.

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A connection between this episode and The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn is that, like Nicholas Quinn, Simon is almost deaf and both learned lip reading.

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At around 1h5m Morse is with his solicitor talking about his will. Morse is leaving his money to the Young Musician Scholarship Fund. This becomes The Endeavour Award in the Lewis pilot episode.

Morse also puts Adele into his will as well as Lewis. Morse also wants to leave his body to the Radcliffe Hospital. Morse expressly states that there is to be no service of any kind.

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After the funeral of John Barron the attendees retire to the pub. There Morse is being ‘entertained’ by Debbie Rep. She says to Morse, “You’re much more fun than your sergeant.” Normally, it’s the other way around. I believe this is the first time Lewis has been looked at as the boring one. Of course Lewis is concerned about Morse.

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Morse says to Roy at 1h17m, “What’s dead long ago, and Pardon took its place.” Love that phrase. Very British.

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It’s implied that Morse had an affair with Yvonne Harrison. If that’s true that means he did so while having a relationship with Adele.

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A story has been told that while filming the scene when Morse collapses at Exeter College the camera jammed four or five times. An extra working on the episode says that they don’t remember such a thing happening. However, Chris Burt, the producer, has said that this strange events did happen.

 

At around 50 minutes, Morse and Dr Sandra Harrison are in the Randolph Hotel bar. A woman serves them.

This woman was Ailish Hurley. She was the bar manager at the Randolph hotel, Oxford, and known as “the woman who saved Morse”. She sadly died in 2005 at the age of 62. Thank you to John for forwarding the Guardian newspaper obituary (below) of Ailish and why she ‘saved Morse.’

Roger Clark
Tue 29 Nov 2005 23.58 GMT

Ailish Hurley, who has died of cancer aged 62, was the bar manager at the Randolph hotel, Oxford, and known as “the woman who saved Morse”. A friend of the television detective’s creator, Colin Dexter, she persuaded him not to kill off the John Thaw character in the novel The Daughters of Cain (1994), five years before his eventual demise in The Remorseful Day.

Ailish first met Dexter at the Randolph 30 years ago, when he was sitting at the bar doing crosswords. Their friendship strengthened after filming of the Morse novels started in 1985, and the production team, including Thaw and Kevin Whately, moved into the hotel for several weeks on end, a routine they followed for 13 years.

While the filming of one novel was taking place, Dexter would be writing the next, and would talk the stories over with Ailish. But by the time he came to The Daughters of Cain, he was wearying of Morse, and becoming exhausted by the publicity tours that preceded publication. He realised that if he simply retired Morse, there would be constant demands for his return. Death seemed the only option.

Dexter confided his plan to Ailish, but she persuaded him that there should be at least one more novel so fans could be forewarned. The scene had been set by Morse having a heart scare and by the revelation (in The Daughters of Cain) that his Christian name was Endeavour.

Dexter wrote Ailish into The Remorseful Day as herself, and she appeared in the television drama, serving Thaw. Dexter said of her at the time, “She has been a great support and friend over the years. She has always been there for me to talk to.”

Born in Dingle, County Kerry, Ailish trained for the hotel industry in Dublin. She moved to England in 1972 and worked in Scotland, the Lake District, Surrey and Banbury, before going to Oxford in 1975. She went to the Randolph hotel to fill-in for six weeks, and stayed. It was there that I met her; she was my partner for 25 years.

Every day with Ailish was full of fun and laughter. She loved serving the politicians, academics and celebrities, such as the Clintons and Imran Khan, who passed through the hotel.

IN MEMORIAM.

Jack Gold, director, died in 2015.

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The screenwriter, Stephen Churchett died in 2022.

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Barbara Lott played Mrs. Bayley died in 2022.

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Barbara Kirby played the Shop Assistant. She died in 2018.

THE MURDERED, THEIR MURDERER/S AND THEIR METHODS.

Yvonne Harrison murdered by her daughter Sandra. She hated finding out that John Barron was not only having a fling with her but also her mother. Battered with a metal crutch.

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Paddy Flynn killed by stabbing. Paddy, John Barron and Harry Repp were blackmailing Sandra as they knew she killed her mother, Yvonne. Killed by Simon or Frank Harrison.

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Harry Repp killed by stabbing. Killed by Simon or Frank Harrison.

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John Barron killed by being pushed off his ladder. Roy Holmes was Frank Harrison’s son after an affair with his mother. Roy let Frank know that John Barron would be up a tall ladder in the village. Frank was the one jogging who knocked John off his ladder.

CAST

Meg Davies as Yvonne Harrison

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Eddie Webber as Harry Repp

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Anna Wilson-Jones as Sandra Harrison

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Paul Freeman as Frank Harrison

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James Grout as Chief Superintendent Strange.

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John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse

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Kevin Whately as Detective Sergeant Lewis

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T.P. McKenna as Professor Sir Lionel Phelps

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Helen Pearson as Debbie Repp.

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Clare Holman as Dr. Laura Hobson

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Jesse Birdsall as John Barron

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Simon Hepworth as Simon Harrison

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Barbara Lott as Mrs. Bayley

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Barbara Kirby as Shop Assistant

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Annette Ekblom as Mrs. Liz Holmes

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Aidan David as Roy Holmes

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Timothy Kightley as Morse’s Solicitor

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Alisa Bosschaert as Josie Flynn

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Sharon Maiden as Linda Barron