It's too late for me. I'm past saving.
The porn episode.
May 1971. Local taxi driver Dudley Lunn is found dead in his taxi, shot in the head in what initially looks to be a robbery. The investigation leads to Paradise Court, a nudist resort somewhere outside Oxford, but a second death suggests there may be more going on, especially given that victim number two is a priest and a stash of blue movies is discovered in his home.
Meanwhile, at home, Morse is sinking further into isolation and alcoholism, and his mood isn't improved by the sudden arrival of a most unwanted guest -– his stepmother Gwen, who reminds him of a past he'd rather forget.
This episodes contains examples of:
- All for Nothing: Ifan Roberts's motive for murdering three people was revenge for them coercing his daughter into acting in pornographic movies. Yet when he meets his daughter at the end, she says that she barely knows him, and doesn't even use his surname.
- Always Murder: There are three murders in this episode, all with a similar modus operandi and all committed by the same person. There's also a suicide which is unconnected.
- Ambiguously Bi: Baz Appleby, whose wife is unaware of his past relationship with a man. The fact that they are going to a nudist resort to try and spice up their love life despite seemingly not having been married for long may indicate that all isn't well with their relationship.
- Ambiguous Situation: A couple.
- The question of whether Lynn Parry was coerced into appearing in pornographic films or did so as a willing participant is not addressed, although the former is assumed, given that her estranged father was driven to kill three people because of it, in addition to which she herself does not contradict Bright when he assumes that she was coerced.
- It is never explained how a set of Masonic robes ended up in the same case as the stash of blue movies that were found in the vicarage. Yes, one of the people behind the movies was a Mason, but that was coincidental; he would have had no reason to keep items from two very different parts of his life in the same container, and he certainly would not have kept the robes in someone else's house, assuming that they were his.
- Brotherhood of Funny Hats: Strange takes Joan to his Masonic Lodge's dinner-dance, and makes it clear that as far as he is concerned, there is nothing sinister about the Masons. Although the Masons have come across as downright sinister in previous episodes, Strange has always been portrayed as an honest copper who joined a lodge in the hope that it would advance his career, which it has. Later on, a set of Masonic robes is found with the blue movie stash in the vicarage — prompting Strange to (correctly) point out that the dead priest could not have been a Mason because he was a Roman Catholic note . Commodore Maynard, the Worshipful Master of Strange's lodge, is the third murder victim, although the murder has nothing to do with him being a Mason.
- The Bus Came Back: Gwen, Morse's hated stepmother, turns up on his doorstep. Neither is pleased about this. She was last seen in "Home".
- Call-Forward: A few.
- Gwen mentions that her daughter, Morse's half-sister Joyce, is "living in sin" with her fiancé, a man called Keith Garrett. As with Gwen, their sole appearance in the original series is in the episode "Cherubim and Seraphim", by which time they're married and have a teenage daughter, Marilyn, who commits suicide — leaving them (and Morse) devastated.
- The barbed conversation between Morse and Gwen recalls the older Morse's reminiscences about his father having been a taxi driver who once drove the Aga Khan.
- Morse taking one of the blue movies home to watch — purely for work purposes, of course — brings to mind his fascination with erotica, a characteristic that features in the novels but was understandably Adapted Out of the TV series.
- Calling Card: The killer leaves a smashed timepiece at the scene of each of his murders; the hands on the timepieces have all been altered to show times that have nothing to do with the time of death. It takes Morse a while to figure out what this means. Understandably, given that they spell out a message in semaphore and Welsh.
- Chekhov's Skill: Not for the first time, Morse's military background — National Service in the Royal Corps of Signals — comes in handy as this has given him a working knowledge of semaphore. Similarly, Ifan Roberts's tattoos indicate that he's a former Royal Navy signalman, which enables Morse to link him to the murders as he would have learned semaphore during his service. His obvious Welshness when interviewed by Morse and Thursday early in the episode also becomes an example of this, when one considers that the semaphore message spelt out by the altered timepieces was in Welsh.
- Comically Missing the Point: Major Jones thinks that Strange would like to check into Paradise Court as a guest. Even after Strange identifies himself as a police officer.
- Composite Character: Thursday's old colleague Len Drury, who he meets on a visit to Soho to find more information about the blue movie distribution racket, could be based on any number of corrupt senior Metropolitan Police officers of the time, such as Kenneth Drury of the Flying Squad, George Fenwick of the Obscene Publications Squad and Wallace Virgo of the Serious Crime Squad.
- Contrived Coincidence. A few.
- Mark Lunn's situation — his taxi driver father left his mother for another woman with whom he started another family — is virtually identical to Morse's family background. Even down to the fact that both of their fathers taught them how to shoot.
- Baz Appleby takes his wife to a nudist resort where the handyman just happens to be his former lover.
- On a more tragic note, Ifan Roberts obtains a pornographic film and realises that the leading lady is his daughter, leading him to commit three murders.
- Morse happens to flip through some of Bright's paintings and recognises Lynn Parry, the model from Bright's art classes who is in several of his recent pictures, as the woman in the pornographic films that were found in the vicarage.
- Continuity Nod: A few.
- Mark Lunn is shooting at cans with the name Richardson's — the supermarket in "Arcadia" — on the labels.
- Strange's reaction to the nudists (embarrassed to look at them and insisting they put some clothes on before he talks to them) calls to mind Morse's reaction to being confronted with a naked woman in "Canticle".
- The motive for the murders (revenge for a woman wronged) is similar to that of the killer in "Muse", although this time it's the woman's father doing the killing rather than the woman herself.
- The events "Zenana", the cause of Morse's heavier-than-usual drinking, are briefly alluded to when Joan mentions the letter he sent her.
- Jack Swift, the footballer from "Striker", is mentioned twice — in a newspaper headline that says he has signed for Dutch side Ajax, and in a piece of graffiti ("Jesus saves but Swift gets it on the rebound") in a confessional. Plus, one of the taxi drivers has decorated his cab with an Oxford Wanderers scarf.
- Ifan Roberts is reading a magazine called Weekend Register; a previous edition of this magazine had done a feature on the Fenners in "Striker".
- Depraved Bisexual: Del Grady, the handyman at Paradise Court, is married to a woman (Patty) but has had at least one male lover (Baz Appleby) in the past. He secretly photographs the guests in the altogether, and beats up his wife when he finds she's been having an affair. Then he hangs himself.
- Dirty Cop: Len Drury, an old colleague of Thursday's, is based on several real-life examples of this (see Composite Character above). While Thursday is indifferent to what Drury gets up to in London, he is not happy about the fact that Drury's blue movie distribution sideline has caused three deaths in Oxford.
- Domestic Abuse: Patty Grady gets beaten up by her husband when he finds out that she's been having an affair with Dudley Lunn.
- Foreshadowing: The pictures of scantily-clad women on the wall of the cab firm's control room offer an early hint about Ifan Roberts's pervy nature.
- Generation Xerox: They may not be related, but Dudley Lunn (the first murder victim) is very similar to Morse's late father — both were taxi drivers who gambled, cheated on their wives and then left them to start a second family with another woman. And they both taught their sons (who they abandoned when they left their first wives) how to shoot. Also counts as a Contrived Coincidence. The similarity is not lost on Morse, especially given that he's unwillingly having to spend some time with his stepmother.
- Headscratchers: Why does a social worker (Joan Thursday), insist that Patty Grady not talk to a police officer (Morse) about the domestic abuse inflicted on her by her husband?
- Hidden Depths: Bright is quite the artist — painting has evidently been a hobby of his for many years, although he seems to have only got back into it recently following his wife's death. Even the life model in his class is impressed, to the point of asking him to sign the picture he's done of her when he says she can have it.
- Irish Priest: Father Mahoney, the second murder victim. Dorothea Frazil describes him as a "whisky priest" as she thinks that there was something in his past that was at odds with his calling. She is not wrong. He was a Pedophile Priest who was blackmailed by Len Drury into providing the cover for the blue movie distribution network. Ultimately, this cost him his life.
- Lighter and Softer: Averted. The episode appears to start out as this — the title note , opening music and some of the character interactions suggest something fun and light, but given that we end up with several murders, a suicide and sub-plot involving pornography, this isn't how things eventually turn out.
- Not What It Looks Like: Subverted when Gwen walks in on Morse watching one of the blue movies. He's actually telling the truth — it really is evidence that he's going over for work — but she doesn't believe him. As it happens, his diligence pays off, as he recognises Dudley Lunn and — later — Lynn Parry in the films, in addition to which he's able to recognise a room in Commodore Maynard's home as the place where it was filmed.
- Rank Up: After Ifan gets arrested for the murders, Clarry takes over in the control room. The first thing he does is get rid of Ifan's girlie pictures.
- Red Herring: A couple, both of which appear rather late for them to be seriously considered.
- Clarry Haynes lied to the police about having not gone to Paradise Court on the day Dudley Lunn was murdered, and failed to mention that Dudley owed him £25 note . However, the latter isn't revealed until after the second murder, and he would have had no motive for committing this or the third one.
- Del Grady's wife was having an affair with Dudley Lunn ... who was killed close to Grady's place of work. But the police don't realise his connection to Lunn until after the second and third murders, and he would have had no motive for committing those.
- Scenery Censor: At the nudist resort, there are plenty of strategically-placed objects to cover the customers' naughty bits.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Strange's reaction to Joan in her evening dress is basically this.
- Ship Tease: Strange takes Joan to the Masonic dinner-dance. They have a good time and win tickets to a Carpenters concert in London, setting up a second date.
- Shout-Out: As per usual for this show, quite a few...
- A taxi is sent to pick up a Mr. Benn from 52 Festive Road.
- The name of the nudist resort, Paradise Court, refers to the 1958 film Nudist Paradise.
- Del Grady, the handyman at the nudist resort, is named for the ghostly butler in The Shining.
- The murderer's motive, revenge for his daughter being coerced into starring in pornographic movies, is reminiscent of Get Carter and (to a greater extent) Hardcore.
- At the Masonic dinner-dance, Strange and Joan dance to "Earth Angel" — the song George and Lorraine danced to in Back to the Future.
- The name of the taxi company, Speedy Taxis, is almost the same as Speedee Taxis in Carry On Cabby. Morse previously encountered a similarly-named cab firm, Speedee Cabs, in "Home".
- There are also some nods to the Awful British Sex Comedy films of the 1970s...
- One of the taxi drivers is called Joe North, the name of the protagonist in Adventures of a Taxi Driver.
- Father Mahoney's window cleaner is called Lee Timothy, which is similar to Timothy Lea who is the protagonist in Confessions of a Window Cleaner (and the other films in that series).
- The driving instructor works for the Noglea School of Motoring, the driving school in Confessions of a Driving Instructor. "Noglea" is an anagram of "an ogle" (as in, an amorous or flirtatious glance or stare).
- Wicked Stepmother: Gwen was this to Morse after his mother died. When she turns up to stay at his home, the hatred is deep, and mutual.
- Wham Line: Gwen's remark about Morse's mother cuts him to the core.Gwen: I didn't kill her!
