History Series / InspectorMorse

* WickedStepmother: Morse had a dreadful relationship with his stepmother Gwen. He claims that he only read poetry to annoy her, and that her petty bullying almost drove him to suicide.

* FirstNameBasis: Max is never given a surname while on this show, though in ''Endeavour'' his full name is revealed to be Max [=DeBryn=].

* NoNameGiven: Until the third-last episode, Morse was only ever referred to by his rank and/or surname.

* FamousLastWords: [[spoiler:[[TearJerker "Thank Lewis for me..."]]]]

* GuiltyPleasures: One of the characters in "The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn" is embarrassed to have been caught having attended a screening of ''Film/LastTangoInParis'', almost treating it as if he had gone to a pornographic cinema.

** ''Dead on Time'' ends with the woman who's apparently the nearest Morse has never had to a true love [[spoiler:turn out to have assisted her husband in killing himself, then tried to use the death to falsely pin a murder charge on her son-in-law, before committing suicide herself]]. The only thing preventing it from being even ''more'' of a downer ending is the fact that Lewis destroyed the tape that confirmed she was involved in the former two actions.
** ''The Remorseful Day''. After the collapse of the only true relationship he's actually had in the series, Morse's health declines throughout the episode, [[spoiler:eventually resulting in him dying of a heart attack. At least he was able to solve the case shortly before he dies.]]

* EmbarrassingFirstName: [[spoiler: Morse]]'s first name is Endeavour, leading Lewis to comment "You poor sod."

* ExtremelyColdCase: In "The Wench Is Dead", Morse is laid up in hospital and passes the time by reinvestigating a murder case from Oxford during the 1860s, which he suspects resulted in three wrongful convictions. (The murder case is fictional, but inspired by a real 1839 case.)
* FakingTheDead: In [[spoiler: 'Service of All the Dead']] and [[spoiler: 'The Way Through the Woods']], the murderer ends up being someone who's established to be dead very early on in the episode.

* FramingTheGuiltyParty: In 'The Setting of the Sun', a tape full of cocaine is planted on one of the victims in an attempt to make the police believe that the murder was drug related. Turns out the dead man ''was'' actually a drug smuggler.
* FrameUp: [[spoiler:In 'Dead on Time', a couple plot to make the husband's assisted suicide look like murder in order to land their son-in-law (who caused the death of the couple's daughter and grandchild) in prison with a murder charge.]]

* ObviouslyEvil: Played with; characters who ''behave'' in an Obviously Evil manner are generally innocent, but characters who are played by actors well-known for playing villains almost always turn out to be murderers, or at least accomplices.

* PassedOverPromotion: It is mentioned several times that Morse would have been promoted above and beyond Chief Inspector at Thames Valley Police CID, but his cynicism and lack of ambition, coupled also with veiled hints that he may have made enemies in high places, frustrate his progression despite his Oxford connections.

** [[spoiler: 'Service of All the Dead']], where [[spoiler: first 'murder' victim]] is not as dead as Morse and Lewis thought, and uses the opportunity this brings him to kill everyone he felt wronged him.
** [[spoiler: 'The Last Enemy']], where a [[spoiler: a brain damaged man with mere months to live]] is compelled to murder everyone who even remotely slighted him over the course of his career.
** [[spoiler: 'Happy Families']] where the relative of a murdered man ends up killing nearly all of the members of the family who caused his death.
* RomanticRunnerUp: 'The Last Enemy' reveals that Morse was the unlucky runner up in the past. The woman in question turns up again in his life in 'Dead on Time', at which point shes seems to be much more receptive to his advances...[[spoiler:only for history to wind up repeating itself, as once again she ultimately [[TogetherInDeath chooses her husband]] over Morse.]]
* RoomFullOfCrazy: In 'Masonic Mysteries', the murderer takes pictures of Morse throughout the episode, and pins them up in such a room. In "Fat Chance", one character is obsessed with the idea that all women are harlots, and has dedicated a room to pictures demonstrating this.
* 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.

* SentencedToDownUnder: In "The Wench Is Dead", Morse is forced to go on sick leave and busies himself by re-investigating 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).
** In 'Promised Land', Morse placed a gang member in witness protection in Australia. When the Australian police find out about this, they remark that they thought Britain had decided to stop sending them their criminals by now.

* OvertookTheSeries: Averted by mixing adaptions of the novels with original plots.

** "Dead On Time" is one of the most downright bleak episodes that features themes of suicide [[spoiler: pacts]] and ''strongly'' averts InfantImmortality, not to mention its incredibly depressing DownerEnding.

* InfantImmortality: Averted in "Dead on Time". We see the death of a baby in a flashback.

%%* SpanishPrisoner: Or in this case, a Russian Bride.

** 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.

* BizarroEpisode: "The Day Of The Devil" which centres around the manhunt for a Satan-worshipping serial rapist and MasterOfDisguise and features an unintentionally hilarious scene where said rapist dresses up as Satan and attacks some Satanists performing a black mass. For a series that's usually as laid-back and down-to-earth as Morse, this episode sticks out like a sore thumb.

* DangerTakesABackseat

* TheMaster: The Master of Lonsdale College in "Death Is Now My Neighbour" is a very nasty piece of work.

%%* DangerTakesABackseat

* HappyEndingOverride: "The Wench Is Dead", the originally planned final episode ends with Morse in the first stable relationship he's been in in years and quietly deciding to retire early to preserve his health after solving the Victorian Oxford canal murder cold case. "The Remorseful Day" reveals that Morse's relationship collapsed due to him cheating with a woman who would become the murder victim in what would turn out to be his final case, as he dies of a heart attack by the end.

%%* SesquipedalianSmith: [[spoiler: Morse himself]]

%%* LiteraryAllusionTitle: "The Wench is Dead", "Greeks Bearing Gifts".

%%* TheMaster: The Master of Lonsdale College in "Death Is Now My Neighbour" is a very nasty piece of work.

* PassedOverForPromotion: It is mentioned several times that Morse would have been promoted above and beyond Chief Inspector at Thames Valley Police CID, but his cynicism and lack of ambition, coupled also with veiled hints that he may have made enemies in high places, frustrate his progression despite his Oxford connections.

%%* DisconnectedByDeath: In 'The Wolvercote Tongue'.

* ItWasHisSled: Morse's first name, and the fact that he dies in the last episode.

* LongRunners: The show ran for 33 installments across 13 years, which is an incredibly long time for a British series. The franchise kept on running long after, with ''Series/{{Lewis}}'' lasting nine series and ''Series/{{Endeavour}}'' having broadcast six series (as of 2018).
* LoopholeAbuse: In "Twilight of the Gods", Andrew Baydon uses one legal maneuver after another to block Lithuanian academic Victor Ignotas from telling the world that, rather than a Holocaust survivor, he was, in fact, a concentration camp guard. However, Victor will soon be charged with attempted murder after attempting to assassinate Baydon and hitting an opera singer instead - and there's no rule to block him [[TakingYouWithMe spilling his guts in the witness box]].

* MentorOccupationalHazard: In extremely compressed form in "Masonic Mysteries": [=MacNutt=] is introduced as Morse's former mentor from when Morse was a sergeant, and promptly becomes the killer's next victim.

Sergeant Lewis later received his own spin-off in ''Series/{{Lewis}}'', joined by Laura Hobson (Clare Holman) as the only other regular returnee from this series. A {{prequel}}, ''Series/{{Endeavour}}'', set in [[The60s the 60s]] and starring Shaun Evans as the young Detective Constable Morse, aired in 2012; it was renewed for a series airing from April 2013.

Sergeant Lewis later received his own spin-off in ''Series/{{Lewis}}'', joined by Laura Hobson (Clare Holman) as the only other regular returnee from this series. A {{prequel}}, ''Series/{{Endeavour}}'', set in 1965 and starring Shaun Evans as the young Detective Constable Morse, aired in 2012; it was renewed for a series airing from April 2013.