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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/endeavorboxset.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The name's Morse ... just 'Morse'.]]

''Endeavour'' (2012-2023) is the second {{spinoff}} series of ''Series/InspectorMorse'', after ''Series/{{Lewis}}'', and chronologically, the first instalment in the {{Series/Morseverse}}. A {{prequel}} set in [[TheSixties the 60s]], it relates the early cases of the young Detective Constable Morse, starting with his arrival at Oxford CID.

The central characters are Morse (Shaun Evans), the brilliant--[[InsufferableGenius if at times intolerable]]-- detective in training; [=DI=] Fred Thursday (Creator/RogerAllam), his salty, quick-fisted mentor; and Reginald Bright (Creator/AntonLesser), the [[DaChief Superintendant]]. Younger versions of ''Morse'''s pathologist Max and Chief Superintendent Strange (who begins this series as a uniformed constable) also appear.

The title refers to Morse's [[EmbarrassingFirstName first name]]. Despite this, it's as rarely used as it is in the original series.

All episodes are written by Russell Lewis, who had previously written some of the episodes for ''Series/{{Lewis}}''.

Broadcast on Creator/{{ITV}} in Britain, with frequent repeats on [=ITV3=]. Airs in the United States as part of Creator/{{PBS}}' ''Series/{{Masterpiece}} Mystery''.

It ended in 2023, with its ninth and final series.
----
!!This show provides examples of:
* AbortedArc: At the end of the first series, Thursday's daughter Joan is dating Jakes. Thursday has got the wrong end of the stick and thinks she's dating Morse -- which he isn't thrilled about, but is willing to let it go because at least it's not Jakes. When the second series picks up four months later, the whole arc seems to have been resolved off-screen.
* AbsurdlySpaciousSewer: There is one beneath Beaufort College in "Trove". (Strictly speaking, it's a covered river.)
* AccidentalMurder: In "Canticle", the Rev. Golightly dies when he consumes a box of chocolates intended for Mrs Pettybon, and a LaxativePrank triggers a fatal heart attack.
* AllGermansAreNazis: In "Rocket", Thursday becomes confrontational with an engineer of German extraction and questions him about his past in Germany prior to coming to England. While Thursday is presented as showing a less pleasant, paranoid side of his character, he might not be off base, as this is a [[UsefulNotes/NazisWithGnarlyWeapons rocket engineer who lived and worked in Germany during the War]], a likely reference to [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun Wernher von Braun]].
* AloneWithThePsycho: Thursday ends up trapped on a rooftop with the killer in "Fugue". Luckily, Morse isn't far behind.
* AlwaysMurder: More so than the original series, which occasionally averted this. Generally, ''Endeavour'' episodes tend to have a higher body-count than ''Inspector Morse'' ones.
** [[LampshadeHanging "One day, Morse, I will send you out for a routine inquiry and it'll be just that. But I won't hold my breath."]]
** "Pylon" is a notable aversion, [[spoiler:with one of the three missing children having been accidentally run down by a distracted driver, the other two having just been abducted rather than killed, and the only other death in the episode being the result of an accidental drug overdose]].
* AndImTheQueenOfSheba: In "Fugue", Morse sniffs a teapot he suspects has been poisoned and comments "If that's the stuff chimps drink, then I'm a Chinaman."
* AndYourLittleDogToo: Thursday's family is threatened by the mobsters in "Home."
* AnimalAssassin: In "Prey", the murderer uses a ''tiger'' as their weapon of choice.
* AnonymousPublicPhoneCall: In "Striker", the ''Oxford Mail'' receive a phone call claiming to be from the [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles Provisional IRA]] threatening that if Jack Swift (Oxford Wanderers' star Northern Irish forward) plays in the upcoming FA Cup replay, they will shoot him dead. The police trace the phone call, which was made from the public payphones at the Royal hotel. [[spoiler: It turns out the affair is in fact an elaborate FalseFlagOperation by a Loyalist militia who want Swift dead for raising money for Irish youth groups (unbeknown to him, the IRA had been taking a cut of the money raised, so as far as the Loyalists were concerned he'd been raising money for ''them'')]].
* ArtisticLicenseChess: During the chess tournament in "Games", one of the display chessboards we see has the black queen and king on the wrong coloured squares.
* {{Backronym}}: The computer in "Game" is called the Joint Computing Nexus, which is done so that its initials (JCN, read as "Jason") are "IBM" shifted forward by one letter. Famously, shifting the other way gets you "[[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey HAL]]".
* BadgesAndDogTags: Morse did his National Service in the Royal Corps of Signals -- which comes in handy on several occasions. Thursday served in North Africa and Italy during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. Bright has previously seen service in pre-independence India, although it's unclear whether this was in the military or the colonial police.
* BeardOfSorrow: Well, technically it's a moustache of sorrow. Morse sports one throughout Series Six, following his being reassigned to a uniform position ''and'' rejected by Joan Thursday. Nicknamed the 'Morsetache' by fans, it was gone by the following series.
* BigDamnHeroes: In "Degüello", Morse is standing alone in a deserted quarry, facing off against a DirtyCop and a gang of local thugs. As the cop tells Morse that he is going to die alone, a police car rolls into the quarry and out step Thursday, Bright and Strange and take their place behind Morse, saying they don't abandon their own. Even as the the DirtyCop is saying he can kill all of them and get away with it, there is the wail of police sirens approaching. Bright calmly announces that while he might have some influence over uniform and CID, his reach does not extend into the Traffic division.
* BlasphemousBoast: At the end of "Quartet", Morse accuses Thursday of playing God. Thursday, unmoved, replies that God's away and has left him in charge.
* BlatantLies: At the end of "Passenger", Morse claims his first name is George, which is actually DC Fancy's first name.
* BloodFromTheMouth: In "Coda", Inspector Thursday starts coughing up blood just before he goes to make what might be his last stand against a gang of bank robbers. He then coughs up [[spoiler:the bullet fragment that had been lodged in his lung]].
* BluffingTheMurderer: How Morse wins the day in "Rocket": [[spoiler: when he tells the murderer they already have the evidence they need, he replies that he never thought anyone would look ''there.'']]
* BoardingSchoolOfHorrors: A few examples.
** Blenheim Vale in "Neverland" is more of a Borstal-style correctional facility, but it's still depicted as having been brutal to the point where the grown men who were there as boys still bear the mental scars of their time there.
** Blythe Mount School for Girls in "Nocturne" is a relatively mild example, although [[spoiler:one of the girls does end up getting murdered]].
** Coldwater in "Icarus" seems to be more intimidating for the teachers than the boys.
* BombproofAppliance: Not exactly an appliance, but in "Harvest", Morse dumps an grenade inside a lead lined drum intended to hold nuclear waste. The heavy drum acts as a sump and funnels the blast upwards.
* BoundAndGagged: In "Degüello", the crooks kidnap Max in order to lure Morse into an ambush. When Morse arrives at the quarry, Max is bound and gagged and lying in the back of a builder's truck.
* BrandX: As usual in the Series/{{Morseverse}}, all UsefulNotes/{{Oxbridge}} colleges are fictional and brand names are generally fake (although some of them are [[FictionalCounterpart not far off]] from their real-life equivalents). The one significant aversion is the ''Oxford Mail'', a real local newspaper, and its forerunner ''Jackson's Oxford Journal'' (the latter being referenced in "Trove"). It never had an editor called Dorothea Frazil, though.
* BreakTheCutie: The events of "Coda" break [[spoiler:Joan Thursday]] to the extent that she leaves town; though she subsequently returns, she's definitely not the woman she was before.
* BrokenWindowWarning: In "Cartouche", racist thugs attempt to throw a brick through the window of a public advice centre helping migrant families, but it bounces off the toughened glass.
* BuriedAlive:
** In "Fugue", the opera ThemeSerialKiller buries one of his victims alive to match the heroine's death in ''Theatre/AidaVerdi''.
** In "Degüello", Max discovers concrete in a victim' sinuses, mouth and lungs, meaning he was still alive when the killers dropped him into the wet concrete of a building's foundation.
* CallForward: To ''Inspector Morse'', naturally. The series addresses the origins of elements of Morse's character such as his taste for real ale, his limp and his friendship with Strange.
** In the pilot, Morse is asked to imagine where he'll be in twenty years, looks into a mirror and sees John Thaw looking back at him.
** In the pilot, Morse doesn't drink. However, Thursday forces him to drink a pint of ale after he has a shock. Morse likes it and continues drinking ale throughout the series (and on into ''Inspector Morse'').
** Subverted with the rooftop scenes in "Fugue", which could have provided an origin story for Morse's fear of heights. However, Morse does show some fear of heights on the rooftop in "Trove", after the events of "Fugue."
** In "Trove," one of the judges of the beauty contest is race car driver Danny Griffon (whose family is at the center of the plot of the pilot of ''Lewis''), and Dr. Matthew Copley-Barnes returns as a key character in the ''Inspector Morse'' episode "The Infernal Serpent."
** Strange gets a significant CallForward in "Trove" as well: the episode deals with his first brush with Freemasonry. He goes along with it, thinking it could be good for career advancement. Given that he goes on to rise higher in the police than the more capable Morse, maybe it was.
** In "Neverland", Thursday suggests that if he retires, DS [=MacNutt=] could take Morse under his wing. Morse recalls [=MacNutt=] as his mentor in the ''Inspector Morse'' episode "Masonic Mysteries". [=MacNutt=] is mentioned a few more times in the show but, as of Series 8, he's never shown.
** Also in "Neverland", when Thursday suggests he'll probably die as a policeman rather than retire, Morse quotes the last verse of "[[http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~martinh/poems/housman.html#MPxvi How clear, how lovely bright]]" -- the same verse he quoted in "The Remorseful Day" shortly before his own death in harness.
** "Ride" includes Morse's classmate Antony Donn, who reappears in the ''Inspector Morse'' episode "Deceived by Flight." Both episodes also feature drug trafficking plots that are unrelated to the initial murders.
** Also in "Ride," a minor character makes a reference to dating Julian Hanbury, who appears in the ''Inspector Morse'' episode "Ghost in the Machine".
** In "Prey", Philip Hathaway and the Mortmaigne family (from the ''{{Series/Lewis}}'' episode "The Dead of Winter") are central to the plot.
** "Coda" depicts the bank robbery that eventually leads to the events of the ''Inspector Morse'' episode "Promised Land". The funeral scenes at the beginning of both episodes, in particular, are structured in a parallel manner, with Strange and a colleague (Thursday/Morse) watching the proceedings from a distance through binoculars and commentating on the participants.
** The classics don Jerome Hogg (one of the hostages in "Coda") appears again in the ''Inspector Morse'' episode "Greeks Bearing Gifts".
** In "Cartouche", Morse attends the autopsy of a former police officer who took to drink; Max comments that it was a toss-up whether his heart or his liver gave up first. At the end of the episode, Morse wonders if that's what will happen to him. Thursday tries to reassure him, but we know that, give or take a few details, it will.
** One of the police officers in "Passenger" is DS Dawson, who as DCI Dawson will play a major part in the ''Morse'' episode "Second Time Around".
** "Zenana" features a side plot in which a motion to make the all-female Lady Matilda's College coeducational is defeated ... in 1970. Fast forward to the ''Lewis'' episode "Old, Unhappy, Far Off Things" in 2011, and Lady Matilda's has become the last Oxford college to go coed.
* TheCameo: The [[CoolCar red Jaguar]] owned by Morse in ''Series/InspectorMorse'' is seen on a garage forecourt in the pilot.
* CarCushion:
** In "Trove", the VictimOfTheWeek is coshed and tossed of a building to come to rest on top of a car in [[NeverSuicide an attempt to make it look like a suicide]]. Naturally, several aspects of the 'suicide' don't add up to Morse.
** Played for comedy in "Cartouche", when the manager of a cinema is poisoning the local pigeons, and then throwing the corpses off the roof. One of them lands on the bonnet of Thursday's police car, occasioning blank looks from both Thursday and Morse.
* CatchPhrase:
** Thursday (and occasionally other characters): [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHwXMGq-bbw "Mind how you go."]]
** Max DeBryn: "Shall we say two o'clock?"
** As he does in [[Series/InspectorMorse the original series]], Strange has a fondness for addressing people as "matey". Given that Morse is hardly ever addressed by his (hated) first name, this is perhaps just as well.
** In "Ride", it tips off Morse [[spoiler:that Joss Bixby has been replaced by his twin, as the imposter does not copy the real Joss Bixby's verbal tic ("Old man")]].
* CelebrityParadox: The Women's Liberation Movement meeting portrayed in the Series 7 episode "Oracle" ''really happened'' -- and was organised by (among others) Sally Alexander, who was Creator/JohnThaw's first wife and the mother of Abigail Thaw. She's played by Molly-Mae Whitmey, Abigail's daughter. Meaning that when Dorothea Frazil interviews Sally, Abigail Thaw is interviewing her daughter, who's playing her mother.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: In Series 1 and 2, Bright is the PointyHairedBoss, ObstructiveBureaucrat, and worse. In Series 3 he undergoes an abrupt change to become the BenevolentBoss and AFatherToHisMen. His rhotacism disappears around the same time.
* ChekhovsGun:
** In "Neverland", it's Chekhov's Scarf. [[spoiler: Monica's gift for Morse is stolen and used as a murder weapon in an attempt to frame him.]]
** In "Game", it's Chekhov's Computer. The original purpose of the JCN computer was to run a postal address database. Later in the episode Morse and Thursday need to locate an address, and find that the computer can look it up in mere hours, as opposed to the days a manual search would take.
** In "Colours", it's Chekhov's (literal) Minefield.
** In "Pylon", it's Chekhov's Public Information Film. [[spoiler: Yes, Bright's publicising of Pelican crossings has more to it than showing that he's been posted to the Traffic division. It turns out that the little girl whose body Morse finds in the field wasn't murdered; she was run over while crossing the road. Later, Bright is being followed by villains who wish to do him harm, but he's saved by a crowd of his young fans who've seen the film and want his autograph. Since the villains can't hurt him in front of witnesses, they back off.]]
** In "Confection, it is an actual gun. Of sorts. [[spoiler: The bolt-gun used to put the horse down is later stolen and used to kill Murray Cresswell.]]
* ChekhovsSkill:
** Subverted in "Home". Early on, Morse is established as an excellent shot, and this is brought up a couple more times in the episode. In the end, however, [[spoiler:it's Thursday whose skill with a pistol saves Morse, not the other way around.]]
** In "Prey", Chief Superintendent Bright's reminiscences of hunting [[spoiler:a man-eating tiger]] in India prove crucial at the climax.
** In "Game", WPC Trewlove's chess skills come in handy as she is able to recognise chess strategies.
* ChemicallyInducedInsanity: The episode "Canticle" has the murderer giving massive doses of LSD to their victims in order to make killing them easier, or even having them get themselves killed while in a delirious state. One of the intended victims does survive, but is left in an insane state from which we are told they may never recover.
* ChewingTheScenery: Chief Superintendent Bright in "Rocket", as the pressure of the murder investigation begins to tell on him.
* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome:
** Many characters from the pilot episode, in particular Superintendent Crisp and Sergeant Lott, disappear without any explanation in the first full series (although Thursday clearly wanted the corrupt Lott gone in the pilot, and it's plausible that Crisp met a similar fate).
** In Series Seven, no mention is made of whether or not [[spoiler: Ronnie Box survived after he was shot]] at the end of Series Six. [[spoiler: He eventually returns in Series Nine, with no mention being made of his having been shot.]]
** After Series Seven, no further mention is made of Ludo Talenti, the villain of that series. [[spoiler: Although he was shot by Fred Thursday at the end of that series, we never know if he survived or not.]]
* ComfortingComforter: Thursday drapes his coat over Morse in "Fugue."
* ComfortingTheWidow: The killer in "Home" [[spoiler: kills her husband to invoke this. It doesn't work.]]
* CompositeCharacter: The Series 3 premiere was a WholePlotReference to ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby''. Harry Rose is a combination of Meyer Wolfstein and [[spoiler:George Wilson (as the killer of the Gatsby Expy), or so we're led to believe; in reality, it's Dan Cody, the man who mentors a young Gatsby]].
* CondensationClue: In "Game", Morse investigates a suspicious death at the public baths. When he turns on the hot water, the mirror steams up to reveal the word "DENIAL" written on it.
* ConstructiveBodyDisposal: In "Degüello", Councillor Burkitt and his partner [=McGryffin=] dispose of the local borough surveyor who discovered they were embezzling funds meant to go into building a tower block, by burying him alive in the foundations. His body is found a year later after the tower collapses as a result of them using unsafe building materials.
* ConsultingMisterPuppet: In "Neverland", [[{{Ventriloquism}} ventriloquist]] Benny Topling can only speak about his suppressed childhood trauma through his dummy.
* ContinuityNod:
** In "Trove", the Saxon buckle from the ''Inspector Morse'' episode "The Wolvercote Tongue" gets namechecked.
** In "Harvest", the new reactor is controlled by a Joint Computing Nexus computer, harking back to the computer in "Game".
* ContinuitySnarl: A few examples.
** In the ''Series/InspectorMorse'' episode "Masonic Mysteries", Morse visits Desmond [=McNutt=], a retired police officer who is introduced as having been Morse's mentor. In ''Endeavour'', however, the mentor role is very much filled by Fred Thursday, with [=McNutt=] getting a few mentions in passing (in "Neverland", Thursday suggests that if he retires, DI [=McNutt=] could take Morse under his wing; later, in "Zenana", Morse and Thurday's public falling-out leads them to agree that things will be best if Morse transfers to be [=McNutt=]'s bagman) but [[TheGhost never being seen]].
** In "Oracle", the Thursdays are shown to have a cat ... which was not mentioned before, and hasn't been mentioned since.
** In Series 8, Bright has seemingly lost the war medal ribbons on his uniform, and appears to have been awarded the OBE.
** In the Series 8 episode "Striker", Thursday asks Morse if he's into football. Had he recalled the events of "Nocturne" in Series 2 (set five years previously, during the 1966 World Cup), he'd've known that Morse neither knows nor cares about football.
* ConvenientMiscarriage: Possibly invoked in "Harvest" -- Morse is called to [[spoiler:Joan Thursday]] in hospital, and the staff speak as if this is what has happened. But only she knows the truth.
* CorruptCop: A recurring theme throughout the series.
** Most of the police force in the pilot, to the point that Thursday takes Morse on partially because he actually trusts him.
** In "Trove", a notebook was stolen from the crime scene, and it's strongly implied that the villains pulled this off using a [[TheMole mole]] inside the police force, which becomes the main plot in "Neverland".
** Series 4 reveals that the Powers That Be aren't happy with Morse's constantly exposing corrupt coppers and [[spoiler:are effectively blackballing him to make sure he stays a constable, going so far as to nick his Sergeant Exam so he'll automatically fail.]]
** Ronnie Box in the fifth and six series, [[spoiler: although it turns out that the BigBad is actually his sergeant, Alan Jago]].
** Shockingly, [[spoiler: Fred Thursday]] takes a bung from Ronnie Box, although [[spoiler: he later gives him the money back]].
** Jim Strange is an interesting case. He's an honest copper .... who doesn't see anything wrong with using his Masonic connections to rise up the police career ladder. He also has no problem indulging in occasional brutality.
* CountingBullets: In "Coda", Morse tells a gangster who is holding Joan hostage that he has been counting the shots and that he has emptied his revolver. This causes the gangster to move his gun from Joan to Morse. As he is doing so, Inspector Thursday shoots him. [[spoiler:Morse was bluffing. There was still one live round in the gun. He just wanted to get the gun moved away from Joan.]]
* CoveredInGunge: In the opening of "Trove", a beauty queen is attacked with paint by a feminist protester.
* CoversAwaysLie: The posters that advertised the sixth series showed what appeared to be Morse and Joan Thursday about to kiss, possibly a teaser given that the previous series had ended with him asking her out. Turns out, though, she said no and they never even got close to almost kissing, let alone actually kissing.
* CreatorCameo: Colin Dexter appears as one of the dons in "Home". He also appears in each episode of series 2, always within the first few minutes of the episode. His photograph can also been seen in "Muse" and "Passenger".
* CrosswordPuzzle: This is the [[Series/InspectorMorse Morse]] prequel, so it would be surprising if this wasn't present. Only occasionally becomes a plot point, most notably in the pilot episode when [[spoiler: a crossword compiler uses his weekly crossword to send a PublicSecretMessage to his lover.]]
* CryptidEpisode: "Prey" has Morse and colleagues investigating a series of mysterious deaths which are eventually found to have been caused by [[spoiler: ''an actual tiger'' that's on the loose in rural Oxfordshire; it had been kept by the gamekeeper of a stately home whose owners had wanted to convert some of their land into a drive-through safari park, but it escaped. Bright has a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome when he shoots it.]]
* CunningLinguist: In consecutive episodes, it is revealed that Thursday speaks both Italian and German fluently as a result of his wartime experiences. Morse himself has a good grasp of Russian thanks to his having done his National Service in the Royal Corps of Signals.
* DaChief: Superintendent Bright, although his air of authority is slightly undermined by his [[ElmuhFuddSyndwome rhotacism]].
* DaEditor: Dorothea Frazil is a more subdued example being more of a subdued DeadpanSnarker rather than the LargeHam normally associated with the trope. She's normally the one doing the reporting so there's nobody for her to yell at, and she's one of the only characters from the Pilot to carry over into the series proper.
* DarkerAndEdgier:
** Series 1-2 had antagonism between Morse and Jakes, Bright as a much more corrupt and unsympathetic character, before he TookALevelInKindness and became DaChief in series 3 onward, as well as heavy themes of police corruption which came to a head in the ''very'' dark series 2 finale, "Neverland".
** Series 6 returns to this after the much lighter tone of series 3-5 following the the DownerEnding of the series 5 finale. This series shows the results of the closure of the Cowley station and merger into Thames Valley Police, with Bright KickedUpstairs to the traffic division and feeling humiliated as a result, Morse initially demoted back to uniform work on the very edges of Oxford (at least until the ending of the first episode, "Pylon", where he is restored to his previous position), Thursday demoted to DI and answering to the [[Series/TheSweeney sweeney-like]] DCI Ronnie Box and DS Alan Jago who [[PoliceBrutality abuse their authority and mistreat suspects]] and other officers, and being drawn into their more brutal and corrupt way of policing, as well as having his wife be frosty with and grow away from him due to the events of the series 5 finale, a growing rift between Thursday and Morse due to Morse's constant clashes with Box and Jago, Strange on a quest to find out and exact revenge on Fancy's killer and a frosty relationship between Morse and Joan [[spoiler:due to Joan turning down his offer for coffee at the end of the previous series]].
* DayOfTheWeekName: Fred Thursday and family.
* DeadpanSnarker:
** If we had such a trope as Crowning Moment Of Snark, Thursday's deadpan response to Bright's anecdote about meeting Princess Margaret would definitely qualify.
--->'''Thursday''': One for the memoirs, sir.
** Or his response in "Fugue" when Bright emphasizes Morse is only being taken off general duties to assist with this one case:
--->'''Bright''': I don't want him getting ideas.\\
'''Thursday''': That's kind of what I'm counting on.
** Max [=DeBryn=] also has his moments.
--->'''Morse''': You're the, you're the pathologist, I presume.\\
'''[=DeBryn=]''': Better hope so, hadn't you. Otherwise I'm making one hell of a mess of your crime scene.
* DeadPersonImpersonation: In "Trove", a successful local businessman turns out to be a case of this. As a soldier during [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the War]], he was on long range patrol with his commanding officer when the latter was killed. Seeing a chance to escape his unhappy life at home, he stole the officer's rank and identity. [[spoiler: It comes back to bite him when he has sex with a young lady ''who turns out to be his daughter'']].
* DependingOnTheWriter: Averted, as ''every episode'' has been written by Russell Lewis, who had previously written a few episodes for ''Series/InspectorMorse'' and ''Series/{{Lewis}}''. Despite this, there are a few plot holes, especially in relation to ''Inspector Morse''.
* DepravedBisexual: [[spoiler:Gerald Wintergreen]] rapes both boys and girls.
* DomesticAbuse: The B-plot in "Quartet" involves Thursday seeing evidence of the increasing violence being inflicted by a newsagent on his wife, and attempting to get her to report him. His abuse eventually lands her in the hospital and when, after she returns home, he dies in a fatal StaircaseTumble, Thursday chooses to turn a blind eye.
* TheDon: Eddie Nero. That is, until he was finally killed by his [[TheRival rival, Cromwell Ames,]] in "Icarus" after a brief [[MobWar gang war]], at which point his [[spoiler:silent partners, [[CorruptPolitician Councillor Clive Burkitt]] and [[CrookedContractor George Craven]]]], started to take over both his protection rackets and the local drug trade with the help of some [[DirtyCop cops]] on their payroll.
* DoubleMeaningTitle: "Colours", referring to both the military, and race relations.
* DownerEnding: Series 5 ends with [[spoiler: the gang rivalry between Eddie Nero and Cromwell Ames resulting in a shootout in which both gang leaders and the majority of their gangs are killed, and in the process DC Fancy is killed trying to stop the shootout with the unknown person who shot him escaping. The other major arc of the series, the impending closure of the Cowley station, where all the main characters have been based up to this point, also comes to a downbeat close with all of them being sent to separate positions around Oxford and some being demoted. Trewlove, while grieving for Fancy, departs for Scotland Yard and leaves the series. To top it all off, Thursday's retirement plans are shattered when his brother Charlie loses the money that Thursday lent him to criminals using his shipping business as a front for fraud, leaving Thursday with a much longer career than he'd hoped, as well as leaving him looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life worried that his name on the cheque he'd given to Charlie could be traced back to him and lead to his arrest for involvement in fraudulent activities. The only bright spot seems to be Morse finally making a move and asking Joan out for coffee, only for the next series to reveal that even this ended badly and she refused, leaving the pair frosty with each other.]] Overall this sets the tone for the much DarkerAndEdgier series 6.
* DrivenToSuicide: In "Canticle", Joy Pettybon (a NoCelebritiesWereHarmed version of self-appointed {{Moral Guardian|s}} Mary Whitehouse) is a widow by the time the episode begins. We later learn that her husband committed suicide after he was arrested and charged with gross indecency (i.e., homosexual solicitation) and couldn't face the shame the trial and resulting publicity would bring on his family.[[note]] The real Mary Whitehouse's husband, Ernest, was married to her for sixty years and pre-deceased her by only one year.[[/note]]
* DudeWheresMyRespect: Morse is very bright and talented but is stuck on General Duties, despite being a natural-born detective. Subverted as the show goes on and the others besides Thursday begin to appreciate his talents.
%% * DyingClue: [[spoiler: The Reverend]] in "Girl" leaves one.
%% * EeriePaleSkinnedBrunette: The daughter of one of the victims in 'Fugue'.
* ElmuhFuddSyndwome: Bright has a noticeable case of rhotacism at the start of the series. Apparently he got speech therapy at some point between Series 2 and 3, as it's far less noticeable (and sometimes completely nonexistent) from Series 3 onward.
%% * EmbarrassingFirstName: It's right there in the title: ''Endeavour''.
* FairCop: WPC Truelove ([[SpellMyNameWithAnS Some publicity material spells it 'Trewlove']]) in Series 3 to 5 -- young, blonde, beautiful and bright.
** Morse himself. A couple of schoolgirls in "Nocturne" said, "He could take down my particulars any time. Oh, Detective Constable Morse, what big blue eyes you have!"
* FamilyRelationshipSwitcheroo: In "Pilot", the VictimOfTheWeek is a teenage girl who is actually the daughter of her older 'sister' -- who had gotten pregnant as a teenager, leading her parents to take the child as their own so she would not ruin her life.
* AFatherToHisMen: Thursday. It helps that he has two kids of his own.
%% ** Bright, starting in Series 3.
* {{Fingore}}: In "Girl", the post office robbers cut off two of the postmaster's fingers to force him to open the safe. [[spoiler:And then it turns out that ''he did it to himself to establish an alibi'']].
* FloorboardFailure: While investigating an abandoned area of the school in "Nocturne", Morse falls through a rotten part of the floor.
* FoodSlap: In "Muse", HighClassCallGirl Eve Thorne throws a drink in Morse's face following a loaded conversation between the two of them.
* ForegoneConclusion:
** Morse starts the series as a teetotaller, and is slowly introduced to alcohol through his time in the police force. If you've watched ''Series/InspectorMorse'', you know he eventually becomes very fond of beer. And whisky. And the occasional glass of wine.
** We know Detective Constable Morse ''will'' become Detective ''Chief Inspector'' Morse ... eventually. [[spoiler: But given that Morse's Sergeant Exam goes missing because he's made enemies with the wrong people for exposing corrupt coppers, it'll be a very long wait.]]
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** In "Ride", the first episode of series 3, a conjurer shows Thursday one of his tricks: he loads a revolver, fires at Thursday (who is uninjured), and then coughs up the bullet. This prefigures [[spoiler:how Thursday resolves his own bullet-related issues in "Coda".]]
** "Pylon" opens with Bright, now exiled to the traffic division, presenting a public information film on [[LookBothWays crossing the road safely]]. [[spoiler:It turns out that the first victim wasn't murdered as everybody thought, but was knocked down by a car]].
* FramingTheGuiltyParty: In "Pylon", Thursday worries that in a past case, Lott framed the obvious suspect (who was subsequently hanged). Morse, looking into the case, discovers proof that the man was framed -- but also that he was guilty.
* FriendInThePress: [[IntrepidReporter Dorothea Frazil]] is the editor of the Oxford Mail, and a highly dedicated journalist (having previously reported on the Korean War from pretty much right on the battlefield). Whilst Morse is initially wary about forming close relationships with the press for fear of it being corrupting, the two quickly become friends and she serves as a valuable asset to Morse and Inspector Thursday's investigations. Many times through the series Dorothea's access to the Oxford Mail archives provides essential information to the case and she is likewise very good at digging up information about figures who deliberately attempt to stay off the police's radar. Notably unlike most examples, whilst her paper does report on the events, she never attempts to use this relationship to gain any particular advantage in reporting the stories over her rivals and is not afraid to put herself in the firing line (the most extreme example being in "[[Recap/EndeavourS4E01Game Game]]" when her attempts to catch a SerialKiller who murdered one of her journalists leads to her being abducted by them, [[DamselOutOfDistress only to break free]] and be instrumental to their arrest).
* TheGhost: Desmond [=McNutt=], who Morse said was his mentor in the original series episode "Masonic Mysteries", is not seen in the show -- the mentor role is taken by Fred Thursday instead. [=McNutt=] is mentioned several times, usually in the context of Morse transferring to work under him, but this never comes to pass and we never see him.
* GirlOfTheWeek: In series 5, Strange is [[LampshadeHanging moved to comment]] on Morse's proclivities after he's had four girlfriends in as many episodes.
* GoingByTheMatchbook: In "Home", Morse finds a matchbook with the phone number of the girl of the week written on it. He initially goes looking foe the girl and learns that she is a cigarette girl at a nightclub and brought the matchbooks home with her. When she goes missing, Morse uses the book to identify the club she works at at goes looking for her.
* GrammarNazi: In "Rocket", Morse is sent to keep an eye on a group of anarchist protesters and make sure they don't cause trouble. He can't resist pointing out a spelling mistake on one of their banners.
* HandOfDeath: One appears at the end of "Nocturne", [[spoiler:opening a ring]] (one of the clues in the case) to reveal a Masonic emblem.
* HappierTimesMontage: At the end of "Coda": [[spoiler:Realising that Joan Thursday has been traumatised by her experiences in the bank robbery, Morse gets a montage of her ShipTease moments with him.]]
* HappilyMarried: Fred and Win Thursday, who represent the happy family life that Morse himself never had.
* HardWorkHardlyWorks: Morse is a dedicated officer who naturally has a detective's intuition, proven to be a valuable asset. And finds himself blackballed for offending the wrong people, [[spoiler: who arrange for his Sergeant Exam to be nicked.]] In contrast to Strange who failed his Sergeant Exam ... and then joins the local Masonic Lodge, which arranges for him to be promoted anyway.
* HaveAGayOldTime: Strange tells Morse his colleagues think he's a "Queer fish, stand offish ... rude".
* HeelFaceTurn: In "Degüello", Thursday, horrified at what he has become by taking a share of departmental kickbacks from Box, returns the money he received in "Confection"; Box tries to persuade him to change his mind back with a visit to two occupants of higher rungs on the corruption ladder, [[spoiler:Councillor Clive Burkitt and construction mogul and prominent Freemason George [=McGyffin=], but this just enrages Thursday further. Box then confesses that he didn't start out corrupt himself, but one kickback led to another until he was in over his head. In the climax, Box takes a step toward redemption by gunning down the even more corrupt DS Jago, who has Morse and Thursday at gunpoint -- though he takes a bullet himself for his trouble, and the question of whether he survived or not isn't revealed until he returns, seemingly no worse for wear but no longer a police officer, in Series Nine]].
* HighClassCallGirl: In "Muse", Morse has to locate, and then protect, a high-class call girl (and artist's model) named Eve Thorne who seems to be the only connection in a series of murders. When Morse says she is nothing more than a common prostitute, Eve retorts that there is nothing common about her.
* HighVoltageDeath: The second VictimOfTheWeek in "Rocket" is electrocuted when he walks through a puddle that the killer has run a live wire through. Intended to look like an accident, the killer's mistake was killing him as he was leaving the building, rather than arriving.
* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Princess Margaret in "Rocket" and Lady Isobel Barnett in "Trove", both non-speaking parts.
** A speaking one in "Striker" -- Eamonn Andrews (played by Lewis [=MacLeod=]) presents the ''This is Your Life'' red book to Jack Swift, one of the characters in that episode.
* HospitalHottie: Monica, Morse's new neighbour in "Trove." He asks her out in "Nocturne". The relationship doesn't last, but she later appears in "Lazaretto".
* HostageSituation: In "Coda", Morse is in Joan's bank following a line of inquiry when the bank is robbed. The robbery goes pear-shaped when the getaway driver panics, shoots a copper and takes off. Soon Morse and Joan are caught up in a hostage situation.
* HumbleHero: Morse, who was awarded the George Medal at the end of "Harvest" [[spoiler: for preventing a terrorist attack on a nuclear power station]], does not have the ribbon on his uniform in "Pylon".
%% * HyperCompetentSidekick: Effectively, Morse himself is this to Thursday, at least when he's on form.
* IDontPayYouToThink: The only person who ''doesn't'' say this to Morse and actually listens to him is Thursday.
* ILetGwenStacyDie: In a rare platonic example, Thursday's partner was killed by the mob earlier in his career, causing a lifelong hatred of the mobsters who killed him.
* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Through series 3. Thanks to his injuries in "Neverland", Thursday has a bullet in his lung, and suffers from coughing fits that get worse as the series progresses, much to everybody's concern. It's exacerbated by his refusal to seek medical attention. In the final episode it reaches the point that he's bent over a sink coughing up blood -- [[spoiler:and then [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] as he coughs out the bullet and after that everything's fine.]]
* IntoxicationEnsues: In "Canticle", Morse is given a glass of lemonade laced with a homemade concoction of black henbane and jimsonweed that causes him to hallucinate violently.
%% * {{Jerkass}}: DS Jakes starts off as one, especially (though not only) toward Morse, but seems to have wised up by the second series.
* IWantYouToMeetAnOldFriendOfMine: Creator/RogerAllam (DI Thursday) and Creator/AntonLesser (Superintendent Bright) played separate antagonists in the episode "Eagle Day" of ''Series/FoylesWar''.
* JackTheRipoff: In "Passenger", a pair of killers use the M.O. of an uncaught killer from several years earlier to make it appear that he is active again. However, they miss several crucial details that were never released to the public, such as the original victim being strangled with her bra.
* JerkassHasAPoint: While Bright's attitude towards Morse seems unjustified, he points out that his role as Thursday's NumberTwo undermines the police rank system, it normally goes to a sergeant not a constable. He also believes that Morse is just too inexperienced to be a detective (reinforced by Morse making two big mistakes, a false arrest and overlooking a suspect in a murder investigation), something which Thursday reluctantly agrees is true.
* JurisdictionFriction:
** There's one between the Oxford City Police, which Morse and co. work for, and the Oxfordshire Constabulary (a.k.a. "County"), which arises when a student at a local girl's boarding school is murdered.
** In "Quartet", the investigation into the deaths of the Swiss and West German contestants in ''Jeux sans Frontières'' is initially carried out by the Oxford City Police, since the murders happened in Oxford. However, as Max is examining the bodies, two Special Branch agents show up to take over the investigation; they start by removing the bodies and the other pieces of evidence. However, Max says they couldn't confiscate his memory, and relays as much detail as he can remember, allowing Morse to conduct a parallel investigation.
%% * JustOneLittleMistake: Happens very frequently, and mentioned by name in "Rocket."
%% * KansasCityShuffle: The killer's EvilPlan in "Fugue" involves pulling this on Morse and Thursday [[spoiler: ... twice]].
* LastNameBasis: Already in full effect with Morse, who refuses to tell anyone his EmbarrassingFirstName. Thursday knows it and uses it to get his attention in the pilot, but otherwise he's just "Morse".
* LaxativePrank: A laxative prank turns fatal in "Canticle". The Rev. Golightly eats a box of chocolates laced with laxatives, but his liver is shot and the laxatives trigger a fatal heart attack.
* LetterboxArson: In "Cartouche", a house occupied by Kenyan Asians is torched by racists pouring petrol through the letterbox and igniting it.
* LighterAndSofter: Series 3-5 in comparison to the much DarkerAndEdgier series 1, 2 and 6.
* LimitedAdvancementOpportunities: [[spoiler: Series 4 reveals that Morse's constantly exposing corrupt coppers has made him unknown enemies within the powers that be, who arranged it so his Sergeant Exam paper went "missing" so he'd automatically failed. Bright advises Morse to actually leave Oxford and go somewhere else.]]
* LondonGangster: One of them, an old nemesis of Thursday, sets up a nightclub in Oxford during the events of "Home". Said gangster is an associate of the Fletcher Brothers, who are implied to be even worse, and he is rumored to have gone to Oxford to escape their wrath.
%% * LookingForLoveInAllTheWrongPlaces: Morse! Dear Morse!
* TheLostLenore: The serial killer in "Game" is motivated by incestuous love for his late sister, who [[DrivenToSuicide killed herself out of fear of him]].
* MasterApprenticeChain: [[{{Literature/Discworld}} Vimes]] → Thursday → Morse → Series/{{Lewis}} → Hathaway.
* TheMenInBlack: The two Special Branch agents in "Quartet" are tall, well-dressed, and never say a word on camera, which makes them all the more sinister. They show up late in the evening while Max is examining the murdered Swiss and West German ''Jeux sans Frontières'' team members, and the next morning, Max says they explained they were taking over the investigation and removed the bodies and the other pieces of evidence. They show up again as [[spoiler:Mullion]] is taken into custody, and one final time along with Millie Bagshot after Morse confronts [[spoiler:Elsie Dozier]] over being a Soviet mole.
* MuggedForDisguise: "Quartet" opens with an episode of ''Jeux sans Frontières'' being filmed in Oxford; a KGB assassin kills a member of the Swiss team and steals his tracksuit to allow him to infiltrate the contest and kill a member of the West German team.
* MushroomSamba: The murderer in "Canticle" [[spoiler:spikes Morse's drink with a mixture of herbal hallucinogens]], causing him to go on one of these.
* MutualKill: In "Icarus", [[spoiler:The gang war between Eddie Nero and Cromwell Ames ends with both their deaths.]]
* MyGreatestSecondChance: "Prey" proves to be one for Bright. Before the war, he and a colleague had to hunt down a man-eating tiger; he killed the tiger, but couldn't save his colleague. [[spoiler: This time, he kills the tiger and saves Morse.]]
* MythologyGag:
** In the pilot, the question of whether Morse's girlfriend at university was called Wendy (as in the books) or Susan (as in the series).
** There are also a number of episodes that use plot elements from ''Morse'' novels that were AdaptedOut in their own televised episodes:
*** "Ride" involves two brothers called Charles and Conrad. These were the names of the Richards brothers in the book of "The Dead of Jericho"; the TV version renamed them to Anthony and Alan.
*** The murderer's motive for revenge in "Cartouche" is based on a subplot in "The Riddle of the Third Mile" which didn't make it into the TV adaptation "The Last Enemy".
*** In "Icarus", Morse is assigned to the case because the previous investigating officer was killed in a traffic accident. In the book version of "Last Seen Wearing", Morse is assigned the case after the death of Inspector Ainley in a traffic accident.
* NaziNobleman: Charity Mudford in "Colours" is a nod to two RealLife examples (sisters, as it happens); her name is a nod to Unity Mitford, while she acts more like Diana Mosley.
* NeverOneMurder: Frequently; episodes of this show invariably have a much higher body-count than those of [[Series/InspectorMorse the original series]].
* NeverTrustATrailer: Combined with a ShipTease; publicity posters for Series Six featured images of Morse in s romantic clinch with Joan Thursday, an event that never came to pass in that series (or in the entire show, for that matter).
%% * NewOldFlame: Thursday acquires one in "Sway".
* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed:
** "Canticle" has several.
*** Joy Pettybon is clearly intended to recall real-life moral crusader Mary Whitehouse, with particular reference to an occasion where she sued a magazine into bankruptcy and got its editor jailed for printing an article that depicted Jesus Christ as a homosexual.
*** Chat show presenter [[PunnyName Julian Calendar]] looks, dresses, and acts like 1960s TV presenter Simon Dee. He shows up again in "Quartet" as the presenter of the UK heat of ''Jeux sans Frontières''.
*** While the "Wildwood" are most clearly an analogue of the pre-British Invasion Beatles, the lead member, Nick Wilding is closely based on Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd. Like Barrett, Nick was a founding member of his group and drew inspiration from eclectic/highbrow literary sources. Also like Barrett, Nick becomes increasingly alienated from his band due to LSD usage and ends up as an AddledAddict following a "bad trip".
** "Colours" references the real-life occasion when Malcolm X spoke at the Oxford Union; here, his place is taken by one Marcus X. His opponent, Charity Mudford, evokes Unity Mitford.
** "Apollo" features Jeff and Hildegard Slayton, who make puppet shows in an identical manner to the real-world [[UsefulNotes/{{Supermarionation}} Gerry and Sylvia Anderson]], creators of Series/{{Thunderbirds}} and other shows.
* NoSmoking: Very much averted; TruthInTelevision for the time period. Fred Thursday is rarely without his pipe, and quite a few characters smoke cigarettes. Even Morse picks up the habit in later episodes (he was a smoker in the books, but this was AdaptedOut for the original TV series, apparently at the request of Creator/JohnThaw, the actor who played him).
* NotMyDriver: In "Coda", a group of hostages are loaded on to a coach by a bank robber. When coach runs into a roadblock, the robber orders the driver to open the doors. The driver turns around and points a pistol in his face. it's [[spoiler:Trewlove]].
* NotSoDifferentRemark: In "Fugue", the murderer claims that he and Morse are the same and share the burden of being intelligent.
* NotWhatItLooksLike: Morse asks his neighbour Monica out, then has to cancel (and lies about it) because he's previously promised to accompany Constable Strange to the cinema with Strange's girlfriend and her friend. The friend turns out to be Thursday's daughter ... and, of course, Monica sees them together and draws the worst possible conclusion.
* NumberTwo: Or, to use the police terminology, "bag man". Morse is briefly this to Thursday, but his inexperience and Bright's criticism of the arrangement (a bag man should be a Detective Sergeant, not a Detective Constable) mean he's sent back to General Duties; Jakes takes on this role, to be replaced by Strange when he leaves. Eventually, the role becomes Morse's again.
* ObfuscatingDisability: In "Ride", a magician's assistant (actually his son) lives as a badly disfigured mute (supposedly crippled in the bombing of Coventry). This allows him to ditch and appear as someone else whenever the magician requires a stooge.
* OldCopYoungCop: Inspector Thursday and Constable Morse.
* OldFashionedCopper: Fred Thursday, most definitely. Strange too, at the ''Series/DixonOfDockGreen'' end of the spectrum.
* OldFlameFizzle: Alice in "Rocket", when she realises Morse is still carrying a torch for Susan / Wendy.
%% * OneWordTitle: Each episode has one, as does the series.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
** Thursday pretending not to know what sort of sandwiches Win's made for him, and Morse telling him (because she always makes the same sort on the same day of the week) quickly becomes a bonding ritual. In "Trove", it's a sign that Morse is deeply troubled when he stops playing along.
** Max, the coroner, is typically shown maintaining the utmost sang-froid examining every dead body he sees and usually making [[DeadpanSnarker a few droll comments]], but he's shown as very shaken by the murder of a schoolgirl in "Nocturne" and begs Morse to catch the person responsible.
** Also in "Nocturne", while Bright is usually an ObstructiveBureaucrat, but he's furious when an office from the County Police tries to raise JurisdictionFriction, angrily commenting that they shouldn't be butting heads over this kind of issue when there's the murder of a child to be solved.
%% * PapaWolf: Do not go after Thursday's family. You will regret it.
* ParallelPornTitles: In "Coda", Morse and Trewlove search a car that has a boot full of blue movies with surprisingly highbrow titles, such as ''[[Theatre/MourningBecomesElectra Moaning Becomes Electra]]'' and ''[[Theatre/HeddaGabler Hedda Gobbler]]''.
%% * ParentalSubstitute: Thursday to Morse in a manner of speaking.
* PistolWhipping: A bank robber smacks Morse in the face with a pistol for standing up to him in "Coda".
* PlotBasedPhotographObfuscation: In "Nocturne", Morse looks into an unsolved Victorian era murder of a wealthy family which was popularly blamed on the youngest daughter (who was the only person left alive who was in the household), and support seems to be lent to this by the fact that the daughter died in an institution and her father scratched her face out of all photographs and even painted over her portrait, leaving her TheBlank. At the end of the episode, after having figured out she wasn't the killer, Morse comes across one photograph which was unscathed, and reveals the daughter had Down Syndrome, indicating that far from being an AxCrazy monster, she was a disabled person who suffered horribly due to [[DeliberateValuesDissonance Victorian mores]] and her jerkass father.
* PoliceBrutality: Being an OldFashionedCopper, Fred Thursday is not above this.
** In the pilot episode, a suspect [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique 'suddenly' gets a nosebleed]] when left in a room alone with him.
** In "Trove", he goes full-on PapaWolf and beats seven bells out of the two thugs who've been roughing Morse up.
** He loses his temper and assaults a prisoner in "Prey". Bright, while bawling Thursday out, notes that the standard cover story for this trope will be given out: that the man fell down the stairs on his way to the cells.
** He escalates this behavior in "Coda," leading to his suspension from the force due to public complaints.
** In "Harvest", he tracks down Joan and beats up the (married) man she's living with, in addition to which he threatens to fit him up as a "nonce" (British criminal slang for a sex offender).
** He's at it again in "Pylon", beating up a local pervert with Ronnie Box, and later laying one on [[spoiler: the doctor who's been abducting pre-pubescent girls to indulge his fetish for photographing them]].
** In "Degüello", [[spoiler: Ronnie Box]] is on the receiving end; it's thoroughly deserved.
* PublicSecretMessage: In "Pilot", a university professor and cryptic crossword compiler uses his weekly crossword to supply his paramour with the time and location of their next assignation.
* PutOnABus:
** Jakes leaves both the police force and Oxford (on a literal bus) in order to start a family in "Arcadia". Also counts as EarnYourHappyEnding, considering what we found out about him in "Neverland".
** Monica, after being a recurring character and potential love interest for Morse (even if any relationship would have been DoomedByCanon) throughout Series 2, is DemotedToExtra for the first two episodes of Series 3, and then dropped altogether after that. She [[TheBusCameBack comes back]] for a brief appearance in "Lazaretto," which mostly just serves to close the book on her character.
** After the events of the bank robbery in "Coda", [[spoiler:Joan Thursday]] suffers a HeroicBSOD and quietly leaves Oxford, asking Morse (and her parents via a letter) not to try tracking her down. Halfway through the following series it turns into CommutingOnABus, and she starts appearing again.
*** Joan does not make any appearance in Series 7 with an explanation that she is working outside Oxford. This was due to her actress, Sara Vickers, having a baby during the filming period. In Series 8, she's back.
%%* RageAgainstTheLegalSystem: This turns out to be the motive of the killer in [[spoiler:"Fugue"]].
* RailEnthusiast: Follows where ''Inspector Morse'' led -- basically, any man who lives with his mother and has a model railway in the attic is AlwaysChaoticEvil. LampShaded by Trewlove:
--> '''Trewlove:''' What is it with men and trains?
* RankUp:
** Strange becomes a Sergeant in Series 3 and Morse's immediate superior when Jakes leaves. Morse himself finally takes his Sergeant exams during the finale; [[spoiler: Series 4 reveal that his exam paper went "missing" meaning he automatically failed.]]
** At the end of Series 4, [[spoiler:Morse is promoted to Detective Sergeant, and preventing a nuclear incident and being awarded the George Medal]].
* RealAwardFictionalCharacter: In "Harvest", Thursday and Morse are both awarded the George Medal for preventing an act of terrorism at a nuclear power station.
* RealMenCook: Subverted with Strange. In "Raga", he's cooking along to a TV cookery show -- only to give up, pick up the phone and order a takeaway curry instead.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Thursday, as he has no problem listening to Morse.
* ReassignmentBackfire: At the start of Series 6, Bright has been KickedUpstairs to the Traffic division and has been reduced to a figure of fun for CID by appearing in road safety commercials with a pelican to promote the then new Pelican Crossing traffic lights. [[spoiler: This backfires twice in the finale, as when Bright is lured to an ambush with two thugs he's spotted by a group of schoolchildren who recognise him from the commercials and mob him to get his autograph (thus foiling the attempt to kill him by providing loads of witnesses), and then in the final showdown as he turns out to have been in command of a group of officers the corrupt coppers didn't subvert because they didn't think they were important enough.]]
* ReassignedToAntarctica: At the start of "Pylon", following the closure of the Cowley police station (and, implicitly, the fall-out from Fancy's murder), Morse is a uniformed sergeant in a quiet country police station, Thursday has been effectively demoted, with Strange implied to have only avoided the same fate via his freemasonry connections, and Bright has been KickedUpstairs to the traffic division.
* RiddleForTheAges: We never learn of the fall-out of the climactic events of Series Seven. [[spoiler: Morse travelled to Venice to arrest the Talentis, with no explanation as to how he would manage to overcome the obvious JurisdictionFriction issues that would arise from this. Thursday followed him to Venice and shot Ludo, although it was not made clear, and has not been subsequently revealed, if he killed him or not. A shot of Morse in what looked like an Italian police interview room, shown as a teaser at the start of the series, was also shown at the end but not expanded on. In Series Eight, these events are barely mentioned, with the same going for the plan to have Morse transferred to work with [=McNutt=], the officer stated to have been his mentor in the original series but who has not been seen in this one.]]
%% * RightBehindMe: In "Neverland", while Strange is passing on station gossip about Thursday to Morse.
* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The "Cranmer House" apartment block collapse in "Degüello" is likely inspired by the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronan_Point Ronan Point]] collapse in 1968, in which a gas explosion blew out some load-bearing walls and caused the collapse of an entire corner of the building. As with Cranmer House, severe structural deficiencies contributed to the diaster.
* RunningGag:
** Win always gives her husband Fred the same sandwiches on the same days of the week.
** In the second series there's also a kind of running gag involving a billboard advertising Grimsby pilchards, which is in fact a very clever ShoutOut.
* ResignedInDisgrace: The very first episode features Richard Lovell, a respected government minister with a taste for prostitutes (including several underage girls). When one is murdered and throws a spotlight on the issue, he initially believes he'll get through it with his career intact thanks to [=MI5=] covering up his involvement. However, in the climax, Dempsey reveals that the government has deemed him too big a liability and he's been instructed to take early retirement. When he tries to protest, Dempsey makes it clear his orders come from Harold Wilson himself and if he does not agree, he'll shoot him dead on the spot and frame it as a burglary gone wrong.
* SavedByCanon: Morse, Strange and Max are all guaranteed to survive through this series, seeing how they're recurring characters in ''Series/InspectorMorse''.
* ScaryScarecrows: In "Harvest", Morse discovers a very odd and creepy scarecrow in a maize field: one that turns out to be wearing the VictimOfTheWeek's jacket. And a radiation badge.
* ScrewTheMoneyIHaveRules: Superindentent Bright delivers an excellent one in "Degüello" when a SleazyPolitician offers to get his terminally ill wife on test program for an experimental cancer drug in exchange for burying an investigation. When the politician remarks "What are friends for?", Bright coldly turns him down, saying:
-->"You are not my friend, and you never will be."
* ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections: Strange admits that his Masonic connections may have helped him become a Sergeant and his transfer from being a general policeman to the Criminal Investigation Department; earlier in the show he failed his Sergeant exam.
* SerialKillerBaiting: Convinced that the police are not doing enough to catch the "Towpath" serial killer in "Zenana", students and teachers at Lady Matilda's College set up a trap -- one student acts as bait then the others swarm the attacker. During his ensuing escape the attacker is run over by a car and mortally wounded. [[spoiler: Unfortunately the attacker turns out to be a [[JackTheRipoff copycat killer]], although in the aftermath the police are obliged to release the ''actual'' killer, as his lawyer argues that he can't be the killer as a seemingly identical attack was attempted while he was in custody]].
* SequelHook: "Trove" ends with the criminals vowing to use their Masonic connections to get revenge on Morse, and Morse positive that he's overlooked something. We're then shown a shot of what he forgot: a notebook that went missing from the crime scene, being passed from one unknown figure to another.
%% ** Reiterated in "Nocturne" -- see HandOfDeath above.
%% ** Both of these pay off in "Neverland".
* SettingUpdate: Reaps what the ''Inspector Morse'' series sowed in this regard. That series updated novels set from 1970 onwards to the then-present (1987 onwards). ''Endeavour'', which is initially set in 1965, follows the TV chronology, so its setting is 20+ years before the original series, not five.
* ShellShockedVeteran:
** Inspector Thursday was clearly traumatized by his experiences in World War II, which left a darkness in him that he does his best to suppress.
** Colonel [=MacDuff=] in "Colours" even more so, since his flashbacks lead to outbursts of violence.
* ShipTease: Morse and Joan Thursday, so very much. Even though anyone even vaguely familiar with [[Series/InspectorMorse the original series]] must know that it'll never happen.
* ShoutOut: [[ShoutOut/{{Endeavour}} Has its own page.]]
* ShovelStrike: A flashback in "Harvest" reveals that the VictimOfTheWeek woke up as the killer was attempting to bury him, as was finished off by a blow to the head from a shovel.
* SignificantAnagram: Repeatedly in "Fugue".
* SinisterWhistling:
** In "Coda" Peter Matthews (the younger of the [[SiblingsInCrime Matthews brothers]]) whistles tunelessly to himself as he advances on Joan Thursday and the other hostages they've taken.
** Whistling "Antonio" in a slow and stilted manner is the CallingCard of the [[SerialKiller Towpath Killer]] from Season 7. This is used to great effect, with several scenes involving the killer entirely offscreen and we just hear him whistling as he closes in on his victims. It's likewise used as a plot point twice: first to [[spoiler:signify his [[JackTheRipoff copycat]] isn't the real killer as he instead whistles "Molly Malone"]], and second to cause Sergeant Strange to realise [[spoiler:Carl Sturgis is the real killer when he starts whistling "Antonio" in his kitchen]].
* SleazyPolitician: Chief Inspector Bright has some definite shades of this (at least until season 3), as he's shown on more than one occasion attempting to quash investigations by Morse and Thursday into criminal behavior by people of importance, clearly motivated by a fear that they could hurt his opportunities for advancement if angered (or would help him if he remained on their good side).
* TheSixties: The temporal setting, albeit not the "Swinging Sixties" but a much more true-to-life drab setting full of [[RealIsBrown grey cars, brown suits, beige sofas and olive green paint.]] Occasionally, Sixties Oxford does try to swing, most notably in "Canticle" and parts of "Passenger".
* SmokingHotSex: Morse and Claudine share a post-coital cigarette in "Colours".
%% * SomethingWeForgot: At the end of "Trove" -- see SequelHook.
* SpyFiction: "Quartet" is probably closest to Bathtub Gin flavour, with Morse drawn into the world of espionage while investigating the shooting of a foreign athlete. It also has elements of both Stale Beer (Millie Bagshot is strongly reminiscent of [[Literature.TinkerTailorSoldierSpy Connie Sachs]]) and Martini (the perfume factory boss is a pastiche Bond villain, complete with a tank of poisonous fish in his office, who suggests his secretary could make Morse a Martini).
* StandardSnippet: The music heard as "Quartet" opens is ''Zadok the Priest'', timed so that the singing begins as the 'Endeavour' caption appears onscreen.
* SteamNeverDies: "Passenger" still has steam-hauled trains on the branch lines around Oxford in June 1968. It's theoretically possible (steam wasn't fully banned until August 1968) but unlikely since the Western Region had officially moved completely to diesels by 1966.
* StoryArc:
** Season 2 has a running theme of police corruption.
** Season 5 has an undercurrent of conflict between a local racketeer, Eddie Nero, and a rival gang trying to take over his patch.
** Season 7 notably has two, the Towpath Killer and a mysterious series of fatal accidents. The season also puts less emphasis on the Case of the Week in order to devote time to both arcs.
* StressVomit: Morse throws up his socks after being saved just in the nick of time from a charging man-eating tiger in ''Prey''. As he is shielding a woman and baby this came very close to being a HeroicSacrifice.
* StrongFamilyResemblance: Combined with MythologyGag in "Home". Morse's dad doesn't look much like the Endeavour Morse played by Shaun Evans... but he does look remarkably like John Thaw! In other words, there isn't a strong family resemblance ''yet'', but there will be. (This isn't a CastingGag, though - without the make-up, actor Alan Williams ''doesn't'' look like John Thaw at all.)
* SurpriseIncest: In "Trove", a man performing a DeadPersonImpersonation discovers he has just slept with his daughter. The girl had been an infant when he [[FakingTheDead faked his death]] and stole his commanding officer's identity. The girl had taken her stepfather's surname so he had no idea who she was. This causes him to vomit.
* SurvivalMantra: In "Muse", the victim of a gang-rape is shown reciting "Hail Mary, full of grace..." as she's assaulted.
* TallPoppySyndrome: Morse, he's extremely bright and talented, and he's clearly wasted on general duties, but Bright uses his rank as Constable and his relative inexperience to keep him there, until he passes his sergeant exams.
* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: In "Arcadia", an extortionist who is targeting a supermarket plants tainted products on their shelves: putting arsenic in the bloater paste, and crushed glass in the baby food.
* TarotTroubles: Morse is given a Tarot reading in "Harvest" that turns up the Fool, the Lovers (inverted; he's unlucky in love), Judgement, the Tower and Death.
* TemptingFate: It is, of course, at the very moment that Chief Superintendent Bright is congratulating himself how well the security operation in "Rocket" went, that the news comes in: somehow, he and his men missed a murder being committed under their very noses.
* ThemeSerialKiller:
** In "Fugue", a WickedCultured opera-themed serial killer seems to be choosing the names of his victims in the order of the notes of the treble clef, EGBDF. [[spoiler: While he is doing that, more specifically he's killing people who were involved with his original trial, or were related to those who were.]] He also murders them in ways that are based on death scenes in operas.
** In "Muse", Morse investigates a series of murders where the victims are killed using methods inspired by Biblical murders as depicted in Renaissance art. Small wonder that Morse does not twig to the theme until he he sees several paintings reproduced in the same book.
%% * TitleDrop: The last line of the pilot, as Thursday calls Morse by his given name.
* TooDumbToLive: Tessa Knight in "Game", who decides to go in search of the [[VillainOfTheWeek serial killer of the week]], on her own, at night, without telling anyone what she's about to do. Unfortunately for her, she finds him.
* TookALevelInJerkass:
** Strange starts out as Morse's friend and appears to be a trustworthy ally. However, he betrays Morse in "Neverland" to advance his career, and when promoted to Jakes's position in "Prey", immediately starts ordering Morse around. And then proceeds to follow Thursday's example of [[PoliceBrutality knocking around informants]]. This shift makes sense, as in the original ''Morse'' series, Strange, who has risen to the position of Chief Superintendent, has a relationship of mutual respect with Morse, but is decidedly ''[[CommanderContrarian not]]'' a friend, let alone a close friend.
** Thursday too, still reeling from being shot in "Neverland" begins to indulge more and more in PoliceBrutality in Series 3 much to Morse's shock and disgust.
* TookALevelInKindness:
** Morse began the series as a bit of an arsehole. His personal growth is complete in "Arcadia": Rather than spoil DS Jakes's farewell party with his dour presence, he gift-wraps some savings bonds as a present to the soon-to-be Mrs. Jakes.
** Jakes starts out appearing to be an all around JerkAss and stereotypical OldFashionedCopper. However, he starts to become somewhat more likable throughout series 2, culminating in the reveal of his [[DarkAndTroubledPast horrendously abusive childhood]]. He then parts with Morse on friendly terms early in Series 3.
** Bright, of all people, goes from an ObstructiveBureaucrat with SleazyPolitician tendencies in the first two series to a much more sympathetic character in Series 3. As penance for railroading Morse in the 'Who Shot Thursday?' case, he exposes himself to serious danger while protecting his subordinates in "Prey" and "Coda." It is also revealed he personally watched over Thursday in hospital after the events of "Neverland", to protect him from the corrupt coppers trying to finish the job. This [[WatsonianVersusDoylist probably has something to]] do with the actor, Anton Lesser, striking gold with ''Series/GameOfThrones'' and needing to be enticed back to his (rather thankless) old role.
%% * TurnInYourBadge: In both the pilot and "Girl".
* UndercoverAsLovers: Morse and Trewlove have to pose as a married couple in "Icarus". ThereIsOnlyOneBed -- so Morse sleeps in the bath.
* TheUnfavourite: The murderer's motive in [[spoiler:"Passenger"]] turns out to be jealousy of their sibling.
* VomitDiscretionShot: After Morse comes within a split second of being [[spoiler:killed by the tiger]] in "Prey".
* WeakButSkilled: As Thursday points out, Morse might be a good detective, but he is a ''horrible'' policeman, and that "no one can teach you the first, any fool can learn the second".
* WeaponsUnderstudies: The Standfast SAM in "Rocket" is played by a Bristol Bloodhound.
* WellDoneSonGuy: Cyril Morse (Alan Williams, incidentally a dead ringer for Creator/JohnThaw). He's not exactly a people person, either. He never liked coppers -- as he blithely admits to his son, who's a Detective Constable! Morse's stepmother, Gwen, has always treated him as an interloper and basically kicked him out of the house. We do learn that he took his son out shooting, and while this is probably not how lil' Endeavour wanted to spend his afternoons, he ''is'' nevertheless an expert shot. So the gist of it is that Cyril's personality (cold and exacting) rubbed off on Morse.
* WhamEpisode: "Neverland". [[spoiler:It ends on a cliffhanger: Thursday has been shot and seriously, possibly fatally injured. Morse has been framed for the murder of the Chief Constable.]]
** The series 5 finale "Icarus" as well, ending with [[spoiler:The gang war that has been building up over series 5 culminating in a shootout leaving the vast majority of both gangs, both their leaders and Fancy dead. On top of this, a grieving Trewlove leaves for Scotland Yard, Thursday's retirement money is lost to fraudsters, Cowley station is closed and the team is separated due to the creation of Thames Valley Police and Morse finally asks Joan Thursday out for coffee ... although we don't learn that she turned him down until the next series.]]
* WhamLine: In "Confection", Bright confides in Max that [[spoiler:his wife]] has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer, and asks if Max knows anyone who might be able to give a second opinion. Max offers to put Bright in touch with a doctor whom he describes as the finest cancer specialist in the whole of the UK... to which a clearly shellshocked Bright responds that said specialist was the person who made the initial diagnosis. Poor Max is left trying to VerbalBackspace and assure Bright that the specialist isn't infallible, after all.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Did DCI Box survive after being shot [[spoiler:by DS Jago]] at the end of the sixth series?
* WholePlotReference:
** "Rocket" features Henry Broom and his children Richard, John, and Harry (deceased)- all [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfPlantagenet Plantagenet kings]], but more specifically it is one of many references in the episode to ''Theatre/TheLionInWinter''. There's also the Broom matriarch, Nora, returning from "exile" (like Eleanor of Aquitaine); the death of Harry, the favored son and heir, causing a SuccessionCrisis for the family; a proposed merger with the French; and an IKnowYouKnowIKnow line that can be seen as a ShoutOut to Geoffrey's famous one in ''Theatre/TheLionInWinter''. Finally, there is Broom's secretary, Alice, who appears to be a shoutout to Henry's lover Alais in ''Lion'' - Nora implies rather spitefully that Broom only hired her for her attractiveness, and Alice is clearly very fond of her boss. Ultimately, this is subverted though, with Alice instead showing interest in Morse, who is an old friend. Even the last name is a reference: "Plantagenet" comes from ''planta genista'', the medieval word for the broom flower.
** The plot of "Ride" is fairly transparently a reference to both ''Literature/TheGreatGatsby'' and ''Film/ThePrestige''.
* WickedCultured: The entire plot of "Fugue" is about a series of murders based on the deaths of characters in operas.
* WickedStepmother: In the episode "Home" Gwen is implied to be this. Morse's reaction to her is not one of friendliness. She [[TheBusCameBack returns]] in "Scherzo".