Endeavour

I was always a big fan of "Morse", the TV series based on Colin Dexter's books rather than the books themselves, and I enjoy the reruns on TV when they appear. The characterisation and the partnership between John Thaw, who played Morse and Kevin Whately, who played Lewis, had a touching realism about it and, based as they were on the novels, you rarely felt that you got shortchanged by the script. Indeed, there are some episodes that are immensely good. My favourite, "Masonic Mysteries"which also starred Ian McDiarmid, with it's Magic Flute motif is a fantastic story and "The Day of the Devil" was genuinely disturbing, but there are others that come to mind:  "Twilight of the Gods" with John Geilguid, and "Death is now my Neighbour" in which Richard Briers captured a little of the essence of evil in his portrayal of the retiring Master of Morse's old college.

This was in contrast to the sequel series, "Lewis", which while having many of the right elements never came up to the mark and continually disappointed due mainly to the superficial writing and very, very poor scripts. Kevin Whately reprising the Lewis role and Lawrence Fox, playing Hathaway, did their best with substandard material but after the first half a dozen episodes, you knew that, whatever the merits of their on-screen partnership, the denouement would be a disappointment.

Now we have "Endeavour", a prequel series in which Shaun Evans takes up the mantle of the detective (constable at this time), under the watchful eye of DI Fred Thursday played by Roger Allam. The first set of episodes written by Russell Lewis had none of the gaping plot holes that afflict the Lewis episodes and the performances by Evans as Morse and Allam as Thursday are thoroughly believable and strike just the right note. It's not yet the Thaw/Whately partnership but there's real promise and, after the last episode of Series 1,  I for one have an emotional investment in the characters. Hopefully, series 2 is on its way.