Recap / Endeavour S 1 E 01 Endeavour

The world's long on academics, Morse, but woeful short of good detectives.

The pilot episode. First broadcast on 2 January 2012.

Spring, 1965 ^note  some fans think that this episode is set in 1964 as opposed to 1965; one of very few visual clues that dates the episode in favour of the latter is the tax disc on Thursday's car, which has an expiry of December 1965. A schoolgirl, Mary Tremlett, has gone missing. The Oxford City Police have asked for more policemen to help in the search. Extra officers are bussed in from Carshall Newtown, among then a certain Detective Constable E. Morse who is first shown typing out a resignation letter. A return to Oxford is a bittersweet occurrence for Morse. He not only went to university in Oxford (and failed to complete his degree), he also met and lost the great love of his life there.

As the police delve deeper into Mary's disappearance, they begin to find clues that link her to the unsavoury world of older, powerful men having sex parties with young girls. Many of those girls attend Cowley School for Girls, where Mary was a pupil. DCI Fred Thursday, the officer in charge of the investigation, becomes fond of Morse and begins to realise what a great mind the young man has. Thursday also needs someone he can trust at the station as each new piece of evidence begins to throw doubts on the trustworthiness of other officers.

This episodes contains examples of:

• Always Murder: The show starts how it means to go on; when Morse and McLeish arrive in Oxford, DS Lott tells them that the Mary Tremlett enquiry is being treated as a murder enquiry even though her body hasn't been found yet. Lott may be something of a Jerkass, but he's not wrong. Two bodies in this episode, both of them the result of murder, although one of them is made to look like a suicide. A third death occurs right at the end, when the murderer commits suicide.
• Asshole Victim: Teddy Samuels gets beaten with a tyre iron to the point where his doctor thinks he'll be a vegetable for what remains of his life. But as he's been pimping out schoolgirls (one of whom turns out to have been his own illegitimate daughter who he never acknowledged), paying off corrupt policemen and generally being such a loathsome Smug Snake, it's hard to work up any sympathy for him.
• Bit Character: DC McLeish is introduced early on as a colleague of Morse's who tries to get him to come out of his shell, with little success. Both of them come to Oxford from Carshall Newtown and get assigned to the same office, but McLeish plays little part in the investigation and no further part in the show.
• Bittersweet Ending: Morse correctly deduces that Rosalind killed both Mary and Miles. However, he is distraught as she has been a heroine to him thanks to her music. He is even more distraught when she commits suicide after her arrest, and considers resigning from the police (again).
• Brotherhood of Funny Hats: Teddy Samuels hints that the reason why he’s so well-connected (and thus, he thinks, protected) is this.
  Samuels: Look, Inspector, I happen to count a good number of your superior officers among my close circle. [smirks] Or, should I say, square.
• Call-Forward: There are loads of nods to the Morse novels and to the original TV series. For dedicated Morse fans, this episode benefits from several repeat viewings.
  • The bus seen at the end of the opening credits is (according to the destination board) going to Woodstock, which calls to mind the first Morse novel, Last Bus to Woodstock. This particular bus is the first service of the day, and the line "first bus to Woodstock" is spoken by Fred Thursday.
  • When McLeish reads out a newspaper report on the Mary Tremlett case, he quotes the report's description of what she was "last seen wearing" — another allusion to a Morse novel title. Later on, Miles Perceval (the apparent suicide victim) is said to have been living in the Oxford district of Jericho, which brings to mind The Dead of Jericho, the novel that was adapted for the first-ever episode of Inspector Morse.
  • As the busload of cops from Carshall Newton arrives in Oxford, the music that plays is "In Paradisum" from Gabriel Fauré's Requiem, which played after Morse died at the end of the original series.
  • When the Carshall Newtown cops get off the coach, DS Lott shouts out their names when allocating them to their various duties. We therefore learn that their surnames are Mitchell, Boyle, Madden, Cullen and McBain — referring to Julian Mitchell, Danny Boyle, John Madden, Alma Cullen and Kenny McBain who were writers and directors on the original Inspector Morse series.
  • Johnny Franks, the mechanic Morse interviews in connection with Mary's disappearance, has a very similar name to Joanna Franks, a major character in The Wench is Dead.
  • Morse begins the episode as a teetotaller. However, Thursday buys him a pint of ale after he has a shock. After initially protesting, Morse finds he likes it; the rest is history.
    Morse: Actually, sir, I don't drink.
    Thursday: Very commendable. Now get that down you.
  • The red Jaguar owned by Morse in the TV series (and subsequently retconned as his car in the books) is seen on a garage forecourt.
  • A younger version of Max DeBryn, the pathologist who appears in the first two series of Inspector Morse, is introduced in this episode, in which Morse meets him for the first time.
  • Morse meets up with Alexander Reece, a student contemporary of his who is now an academic. This is a younger version of the character who commits a murder and then becomes a murder victim in the episode "The Last Enemy". He knew Susan, the love of Morse's life and the reason for him dropping out of university (following the ending of their relationship), but he thinks her name was Wendy, reflecting the ambiguity between the novels and the TV series on this subject.
  • Dorothea Frazil asks Morse if they've met before. Morse replies that they have not, to which she comments: "Another life, then". This is a reference to Dorothea being played by Abigail Thaw, the daughter of John Thaw who played Morse in the original series. Her character name is also a reference to him, with "frazil" being a type of ice crystal, and so D. Frazil = de-ice = Thaw.
  • In a similar vein, Fred Thursday's somewhat unusual surname is an allusion to the Viking god Thor (after whom the day Thursday is named), which is pronounced the same as thaw ... as in John Thaw.
  • Morse tells Rosalind that listening to her music saved his life as it helped him through a difficult time when he was younger. In the original series, Morse admits to Lewis that as a schoolboy, he was almost Driven to Suicide by his stepmother following the death of his mother.
  • When Rosalind goes on stage for what turns out to be her final performance, she sings the aria "Un bel di" from Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini. This alludes to the original series episode "The Death of the Self" where, at the end, a female opera singer also sings a Puccini aria (from Turandot in that case). In both cases, the actresses mouth the words and the actual singing is done by the same singer, Janis Kelly.
  • Roger Allam, who plays DI Thursday, starred as Denis Cornford in the original series episode "Death Is Now My Neighbour", which was famously the episode in which Morse's first name, Endeavour, was revealed for the first time. The only time it is spoken in this episode is when Thursday shouts it to get Morse's attention at the end.
  • At the end, Morse is asked to consider where he sees himself in twenty years. He looks into a mirror and sees John Thaw looking back at him.
• Corrupt Politician: Sir Richard Lovell, government minister and MP for Oxford North. Although it is not stated, he is evidently a Labour politician, given that this episode is set in 1965 (Labour having won the previous year's general election) and the fact that Sir Richard refers to "Harold". At the end of the episode, Dempsey forces him to resign.
• Creator Cameo: As he did in Inspector Morse, Colin Dexter makes an appearance. He's seen sitting on a pub bench with a pint and a copy of The Times.
• Crossword Puzzle: Dr Stromming is a cryptic crossword compiler for the Oxford Mail, and uses his weekly puzzle to send a Public Secret Message to Mary, his lover, with the time and location of their next assignation.
• Establishing Character Moment: As soon as he's introduced, pathologist Max DeBryn proves to be quite the Deadpan Snarker:
  Morse: Morning.
  DeBryn: Not for this poor sod. You are whom?
  Morse: Morse. Detective Constable. On attachment from Newtown. You're the pathologist, I presume.
  DeBryn: [jovially] Better hope so, hadn't you? Otherwise I'm making one hell of a mess of your scene of crime.
• Dirty Cop: DS Lott, who's been accepting backhanders from Teddy Samuels for some time (Thursday had assumed that it was just to look the other way over some dodgy MOT certificates, but it turns out there was more to it than that). Superintendent Crisp is a less straightforward example, as his corruption comes from being blackmailed rather than plain old greed. One of the reasons why Thursday takes to Morse is that he recognises that he's not corrupt and can therefore be trusted.
• Driven to Suicide: Averted with Miles Perceval, who was actually murdered by Rosalind but she killed him to make it look like he'd killed himself, leading the police to (initially) assume that he'd killed Mary and then killed himself out of remorse. Played straight with Rosalind herself, as she commits suicide while in police custody following her arrest.
• Family Relationship Switcheroo: Sharon, Mary's 'older sister', was actually her mother and her 'parents' were actually her grandparents. Teddy Samuels, the man who'd got Sharon pregnant, didn't want to know and Sharon's parents took the decision to raise Mary as their daughter. Truth in Television for the time when she was born (circa. 1950), when having children out of wedlock was a taboo subject and the grandparents would have genuinely believed that they were doing the right thing. It has no bearing on her murder.
• Foreshadowing: A few.
  • The opening scene shows the aftermath of A Party, Also Known as an Orgy at which the women appear to be somewhat younger than the men. Said women are later shown to be schoolgirls, and their involvement in sex parties turns out to be a significant plot point.
  • Morse is first shown listening to a record by an opera singer called Rosalind Calloway. Who is revealed to be the murderer at the end of the episode!
  • There are a couple of references early on to Mary Tremlett's size — she is described as "well-developed for her age", and after her body is found Max describes her as "well-nourished". These descriptions become significant when Morse realises that the dress found near her body could not have been hers, as it was a couple of sizes too small.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Dempsey comes across as this when he meets Thursday and Morse, given that he's protecting a government minister from a scandal involving underage girls and (by extension) obstructing a murder enquiry. Later, he has no qualms about threatening to murder Sir Richard (the minister in question) if he doesn't do the decent thing and resign from public life.
• Mama Bear: Sharon attacks Teddy Samuels with a tyre iron when she realises that Mary was one of the girls he pimped out. It is subsequently revealed that Sharon was actually Mary's mother (not her sister), and Samuels was Mary's father.
• Mr. Exposition: DC McLeish fulfils this role at the start when he, Morse and some other junior CID officers get bussed into Oxford; by reading a newspaper report on the Mary Tremlett case out loud for the benefit of his colleagues, he brings the viewer up to speed on what's going on.
• Mythology Gag: Alex Reece thinking that the love of Morse's life was called Wendy (not Susan) counts as one of these, given that she was called Wendy in the books and Susan in the TV series. The dialogue bewteen Morse and Reece actually helps to clear this confusion up — Morse explains to his old friend that her first name was Wendy but she preferred to use Susan, which was her middle name.
• Never One Murder: Endeavour starts as it means to go on, with two murders in the pilot episode.
• Old Cop, Young Cop: Thursday and Morse.
• The One That Got Away: After checking into his rented room, Morse has a vision of his lost love — their relationship and subsequent break-up affected his studies to the point where he had to leave Oxford University without completing his degree. He, and we, see her partially clothed from behind, and the vision disappears before she turns round.
• A Party, Also Known as an Orgy: We see the brief aftermath of one of these during the title credits. The men all look somewhat older than the ladies, who are later shown to be pupils at a local girls' school. Turns out to be a minor plot point, as Teddy Samuels procures schoolgirls for high-end parties.
• Police Brutality Teddy Samuels 'suddenly' gets a nosebleed when left in a room alone with Thursday.
• Public Secret Message: By way of a Crossword Puzzle — appropriately enough, for an Inspector Morse prequel.
• Pygmalion Plot: After meeting Mary at a college party (she being there as she was dating Miles), Stromming bet Reece that he could pull off one of these with the working-class teenager. This led to Stromming having an affair with her.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Fred Thursday.
• Red Herring: A few.
  • The man we see at the beginning driving in the rain and then trying to wash blood from his shirt cuff turns out to be a vet who was going home after a difficult calving.
  • Rowan Stromming was having an affair with Mary Tremlett, but he did not kill her.
  • Miles Perceval is cleverly set up as this by Rosalind, who takes his watch and leaves it near Mary's body. Lott and Thursday jump to the (intended) conclusion that Miles must have killed Mary before killing himself.
  • Combined with Bilingual Bonus for Swedish viewers, as 'Stromming' (or rather, 'Strömming') means "herring" in Swedish!
• Ripped from the Headlines: Dempsey says the government is "still running about with a dustpan and brush after Cliveden" — a reference to the Profumo scandal.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: After being bawled out out by CS Crisp for covering for DI Thursday after Samuels complains about the latter's Police Brutality, Morse angrily submits his resignation.
• Seeking the Missing, Finding the Dead: Mary Tremlett, the missing schoolgirl, was murdered. As stated above under Always Murder, Lott is referring to the case as a murder investigation even before her body is found.
• Shout-Out: The series has its own page, although it took a while for them to get going. The most notable ones in this episode are rather subtle when compared to what followed.
  • When we first see Morse, he's stationed in Carshall Newtown, a fictional town which was the setting for Angus Wilson's novel Late Call which was published in 1964 — the year before this episode is set.
  • When Morse is shown to his room by his landlady, she says that the previous tennant was called Mr. Bleaney — a nod to the Philip Larkin poem of that name, which was written in 1955. The other men staying there, Mr. Goldberg and Mr. McCann, are named for characters in Harold Pinter's 1957 play The Birthday Party.
  • When Morse tells Rosalind that he owns most of her records, he mentions that her recording of Madame Butterfly is the one he would save from the waves on a desert island.
  • Dempsey is basically the Morseverse's equivalent of Harry Palmer. He's got the heavy-frame NHS glasses and the insubordinate Working-Class Hero attitude, and when he meets Thursday and Morse he's in the middle of doing something mundanely domestic to reinforce the Stale Beer aesthetic. The real giveaway is that Dempsey says his boss is a Colonel Doleman; in the movies, Palmer's boss, Colonel Ross, was played by Guy Doleman.
  • The poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley helps Morse to deduce who Oz, the anonymous crossword setter, is.
• Smug Snake: Lott, especially after Morse quits. Also Teddy Samuels, until Fred Thursday calls round.
• Sure, Let's Go with That: When Thursday and Morse confront Dempsey, Thursday asks if he's from Special Branch. Dempsey replies: "If you like".
• Title Drop: Done by Thursday towards the end of the episode to attract Morse's attention.
  Thursday: What you've got to ask is, where do you see yourself in twenty years? [long pause as Morse looks in the rear-view mirror; his reflection is replaced by an image of John Thaw as the older Morse] Morse? [pause] Endeavour!
• Title, Please!: An interesting case. The unofficial title for this episode was revealed as "First Bus to Woodstock" by Shaun Evans (who plays Morse) and later by writer Russell Lewis. That line, an allusion to the first Morse novel (Last Bus to Woodstock), is actually spoken. However, the episode, which was originally intended as a standalone TV movie (with the obvious option to extend to a TV series if it was well received which, being an Inspector Morse spin-off, it was), generally goes by the title "Endeavour" — although since ITV's streaming service was rebranded as ITVX, it's also been referred to as "Overture".