History Series / InspectorMorse

''"Coded messages, murder - right up my street. It's not a bad way to start the day."''

''Inspector Morse'' was a British DetectiveDrama based on a series of novels by Colin Dexter, which ran from 1987 to 2000. Set among the dreaming spires of {{Ox|bridge}}ford, it starred John Thaw as the grumpy, intellectual and beer loving Chief Inspector Morse, and Kevin Whately as his cheerful Geordie sidekick Sergeant Lewis. During the course of each episode, the pair would investigate a murder, which would often involve complex university politics, bright but emotional students and the opportunity for Morse to utilise his love of classical music, literature and cryptic crossword puzzles. Baddies are usually rich, arrogant, and well-connected.

''Inspector Morse'' was a British DetectiveDrama based on a series of novels by Colin Dexter, which ran from 1987 to 2000. Set among the dreaming spires of {{Ox|bridge}}ford, it starred John Thaw as the grumpy, intellectual and beer loving Chief Inspector Morse, and Kevin Whately as his cheerful Geordie sidekick Sergeant Lewis. During the course of each episode, the pair would investigate a murder, which would often involve complex university politics, bright but emotional students and the opportunity for Morse to utilise his love of classical music, literature and cryptic crossword puzzles.

''Inspector Morse'' was a British DetectiveDrama based on a series of novels by Colin Dexter, which ran from 1987 to 2000. Set among the dreaming spires of [[{{Oxbridge}} Oxford]], it starred John Thaw as the grumpy, intellectual and beer loving Chief Inspector Morse, and Kevin Whately as his cheerful Geordie sidekick Sergeant Lewis. During the course of each episode, the pair would investigate a murder, which would often involve complex university politics, bright but emotional students and the opportunity for Morse to utilise his love of classical music, literature and cryptic crossword puzzles.

* {{Bowdlerize}}: With the series often being broadcast during the day, this can happen quite heavily. In particular, the initial daytime edit of "Service of all the Dead" was severely chopped up to remove a subplot which involved a ten year old boy being murdered, rendering the end product barely coherent (fortunately, more recent versions of that episode just remove the reveal of the boy's corpse).

* FamousLastWords: [[spoiler:[[{{TearJerker}} "Thank Lewis For Me"]]]]

* OvertookTheSeries: Originally averted by mixing adaptions of the novels with original plots, but [[spoiler: since the death of Morse, the spinoff series ''{{Lewis}}'' has obviously ended up doing this.]]

* {{Spinoff}}: ''Series/{{Lewis}}'' and ''Series/{{Endeavour}}''.

* WhamLine: The penultimate line of the series, delivered to the just-apprehended murderer by Lewis: "[[spoiler:Inspector Morse is DEAD]]!"

* DistaffCounterpart: Dr. Grayling Russell is loosely this to Morse. While she has a different job and is significantly younger than Morse, she has a similar personality, a love of classical music and opera, and an EmbarrassingFirstName.

* DarkerAndEdgier: "Service of All The Dead," even compared to most other episodes of the show. Not only does it have the highest bodycount of any ''Morse'' episode, it also features themes of pedophilia and infanticide -- the latter of which the killer gleefully admits doing ForTheEvulz -- and even has Morse knowingly committing perjury to get the murderer's accomplice off with a lighter prison sentence, simply because he's attracted to her.

* AlwaysMurder: Well, 98% Murder, with the remainder being divided between actual suicides and deaths from natural causes. The only true aversion comes in "The Wench Is Dead," in which nobody dies at all in the story's present-day setting, while in the historical segment [[spoiler:Joanna Franks faked her death, and the boat crew had the misfortune to be falsely convicted of her death and executed]]. "Dead on Time" is a borderline case, as there's only one death involved, [[spoiler:and it actually turns out to be an assisted suicide,

* AlwaysMurder: Well, 98% Murder, with the remainder being divided between actual suicides and deaths from natural causes. The only true aversion comes in "The Wench Is Dead," in which nobody dies at all in the story's present-day setting, while in the historical segment [[spoiler:Joanna Franks faked her death, and the boat crew had the misfortune to be falsely convicted of her death and executed]].

%%* DownerEnding: ''The Remorseful Day''. Oh '''''[[ManlyTears God]]''''', ''The Remorseful Day''.

%%* ClearMyName: Morse himself in "Masonic Mysteries."

%%* ConMan: 'Death of the Self.'

%%* DidTheyOrDidntThey: Morse and Emma Pickford.

%%* NaughtyBirdwatching: George Jackson in "The Dead of Jericho".

%%* RoomFullOfCrazy: In 'Masonic Mysteries' and "Fat Chance".

* SentencedToDownUnder: In "The Wench Is Dead, Part 2", Morse is forced to go on sick leave and busies himself by reinvestigating a murder case from Oxford during the 1860s, which he suspects resulted in three wrongful convictions. The men were sentenced to hang, but one found religion in prison and became a model inmate. For this his sentence was commuted at the last minute to transportation (presumably to Australia given the time period).

The show was immensely popular in Britain, and John Thaw's portrayal of Morse is generally considered one of British television's most iconic characters. Still repeated fairly frequently on [=ITV3=].

Sergeant Lewis later received his own spin-off in ''{{Lewis}}''. A {{prequel}}, ''{{Series/Endeavour}}'', set in 1965 and starring Shaun Evans as the young Detective Constable Morse, aired in 2012; it has been renewed for a series airing from April 2013.

!!!This show provides examples of:

* DeathByAdaptation: Mr Greenaway, the man in the next hospital bed to Morse in "The Wench is Dead". In the book he recovers from his operation; not so in the series.
* DiegeticSwitch / LeftTheBackgroundMusicOn: Both are employed throughout the series, usually by way of Morse's love of classical music.

* InspectorLestrade: Sergeant Lewis (Although, in later series, he sometimes found the right answer before Morse and even once successfully hid the truth from Morse to spare Morse's feelings)

* RetCanon: Dexter has admitted he prefers the TV series portrayal of the young, Geordie Sergeant Lewis to the elderly Welshman he used in the novels.
* SesquipedalianSmith: [[spoiler: Morse himself]]

* TheCoroner: There were three regular ones -- Max in Series 1 and 2, Grayling Russell in Series 3, and Laura Hobson in the specials -- and a variety of one-off ones in Series 4-7.

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!!!Episodes of this series provide examples of:
* TheBadGuyWins: The murderer in "The Last Enemy" ends up achieving everything he set out to do, with the only thing that went wrong being that Morse eventually caught him. Even then, as Lewis openly acknowledges, there's no way the murderer will ever be charged with anything since [[spoiler:he'll be dead in a few months anyway from cancer]], and any halfway competent lawyer would easily get him off on an insanity plea.
* ClearMyName: Morse himself in "Masonic Mysteries."
* ClimbingClimax: In the episode "Service of all the Dead," Morse chases the murderer up a church tower. Note that Morse is not only AfraidOfBlood as noted above, he's also got a serious fear of heights.
* ConMan: 'Death of the Self.'
* DangerTakesABackseat
* DarkerAndEdgier: "Service of All The Dead," even compared to most other episodes of the show. Not only does it have the highest bodycount of any ''Morse'' episode, it also features themes of pedophilia and infanticide -- the latter of which the killer gleefully admits doing ForTheEvulz -- and even has Morse knowingly committing perjury to get the murderer's accomplice off with a lighter prison sentence, simply because he's attracted to her.
* DidTheyOrDidntThey: Morse and Emma Pickford.
* DisconnectedByDeath: In 'The Wolvercote Tongue'.
* DownerEnding: ''The Remorseful Day''. Oh '''''[[ManlyTears God]]''''', ''The Remorseful Day''.
* EverythingIsOnline: In 'Masonic Mysteries', a villain manages to hack the police database, alter Morse's file and frame him... after having taken a single computing course while in prison. However, Lewis does point out that the internet is only one possible way he did it, and that as a notorious con-man he may have been able to trick someone into giving him physical access to the system.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: In 'The Wench is Dead':
--> '''Strange:''' I don't know why you want to stay, it's all changing. There's a new generation waiting to take over -- why not let them get on with it?\\
'''Morse:''' You mean Series/{{Lewis}}?
* HistoricalInJoke: In 'The Daughters of Cain', the Morseverse equivalent of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Church%2c_Oxford#History Christ Church]] is called "Wolsey College".
* HospitalHottie: In 'The Wench is Dead', Morse is quick to note how attractive his nurses are.
* InfantImmortality: Averted - in 'Dead on Time', we see the death of a baby in a flashback.
* LiteraryAllusionTitle: 'The Wench is Dead,' 'Greeks Bearing Gifts.'
* LovelyAssistant: Joanna Franks, the victim in 'The Wench is Dead', had previously assisted in her husband's conjuring act.
* MyBelovedSmother: One of the two murderers in "The Sins of the Fathers" lives with his very overbearing mother. Subverted in that despite her obnoxious behaviour, she isn't actually responsible at all for the murders, and that it was his embittered old grandmother who poisoned his mind at an early age.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: The murderer in "Happy Families" actually says this out loud after it turns out that her accomplice, [[spoiler:Lady Balcombe]], disregarded the warning not to tell her supposed (and emotionally disturbed) long-lost daughter of their relationship, resulting in her being stabbed to death.
* NaughtyBirdwatching: George Jackson in 'The Dead of Jericho'.
* NeverGiveTheCaptainAStraightAnswer: 'In Service of all the Dead', after Lewis spots a corpse from the top of a belltower, he tells the elderly and exhausted Morse to 'come and see for himself'.
* RaceLift: In the televised version of 'The Wench Is Dead', Fiona the nurse is black.
* RoomFullOfCrazy: In 'Masonic Mysteries' and 'Fat Chance'.
* ScarpiaUltimatum: In 'Death Is Now My Neighbour', a female character agrees to sleep with an Oxford Don if he'll give her husband the position of master. Afterward he laughs at her and says [[ILied he never had any intention of making him master]], since the husband had already slept with the don's wife.
* SpanishPrisoner: Or in this case, a Russian Bride.
* TakeThat: In-universe; Kershaw jokingly compares Nuffield College to a "double-glazing establishment."
* TemporarySubstitute: Lewis isn't in 'The Wench is Dead'; his place is taken by a number of characters, chiefly Constable Kershaw.
* TheMaster: The Master of Lonsdale College in 'Death Is Now My Neighbour'.
* ThisIsWhatTheBuildingWillLookLike: The college that Baydon plans to endow in 'Twilight of the Gods'.
* WrongGenreSavvy: In the very first episode, Morse becomes convinced he is in a modern day retelling of a Greek tragedy. 'Sophocles did it'
* YoungerThanTheyLook: It's amazing to realize that John Thaw was only 45 in the first series. It's the white hair.

<<|BritishSeries|>>
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<<|CrimeAndPunishmentSeries|>>

* TheDanza: A retroactive example. Chief Superintendant Strange is never given a first name on this series, but ''Endeavour'' gives him the first name of James, after the actor who played him in this series, James Grout.

* PlayingAgainstType: [[TheGoodLife Richard]] [[WatershipDown Briers]] as the evil master of Lonsdale College.

* AuthorAppeal: Colin Dexter's love of crosswords and opera are big parts of Morse's character and important to many of the plotlines. Later on, he got Dexter's type 2 diabetes as well.
** Lewis' love of cricket is definite Author Appeal as well.

* CartwrightCurse

* AlwaysMurder: Well, 98% Murder, with the remainder being divided between actual suicides and deaths from natural causes.

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: The murderer in "Happy Families" actually says this out loud after it turns out that [[spoiler:Lady Balcombe, her main accomplice, disregarded the warning not to tell her supposed (and emotionally disturbed) long-lost daughter of their relationship, resulting in Balcombe being stabbed to death]].

* AlwaysMurder

* EmbarrassingFirstName: [[spoiler: Morse's first name is Endeavour]]
** "You poor sod."

* [[spoiler:FamousLastWords: [[{{TearJerker}} "Thank Lewis For Me"]]]]

* IrregularSeries
* NeverOneMurder

* NoNameGiven
* TheNotLoveInterest: Morse is too ... ''Morse'' to be exactly paternal, but Lewis still manages to be his MostImportantPerson, to the point that he [[spoiler: leaves a third of his estate to Lewis]] and Lewis finds that one of the few pictures in Morse's house is of himself and Morse in front of Morse's [[CoolCar Jag]].

* PutOnABus: The series' original pathologist, Max was mentioned as having been forced to retire after suffering a stroke between the second and third seasons, while his replacement, Dr. Russell, vanishes without a trace after the third season.

* {{Spinoff}}: ''{{Lewis}}''.

* ClearMyName
* ClimbingClimax: In the episode 'In Service of all the Dead', Morse chases the murderer up a church tower.
** Note that Morse is not only [[AfraidOfBlood]] as noted above, he's also got a serious fear of heights.

* BetterManhandleTheMurderWeapon: Happens on quite a few occasions. Even Morse himself finds himself on the wrong end of this trope in "Masonic Mysteries."

* BetterManhandleTheMurderWeapon