I've heard he's meant to be a very clever man.
The first episode, based on the 1981 novel of the same name. First broadcast 6 January 1987.
Anne Staveley, a friend of Detective Chief Inspector Morse, ostensibly commits suicide at her home in the Oxford district of Jericho. Morse, though, is unconvinced and comes to believe that she was murdered. While investigating her death, he works with Detective Sergeant Lewis for the first time.
This episodes contains examples of:
- Achievements in Ignorance: Lewis starts as he means to go on, unknowingly exposing the Richards brothers' Twin Switch and thus cracking the case.
- Actor Allusion: Quite possibly at play in the opening scene, in which the raid on the garage looks like it could be from The Sweeney, John Thaw's other cop show (for which, of course, he would have been primarily known to TV audiences back in 1987).
- Adaptational Name Change: A few examples. In the original novel, which was published in 1981 (six years before this episode was made), Anne Staveley was Anne Scott and the Richards brothers were Charles and Conrad, not Alan and Tony.
- Adapted Out: DC Walter, whose role at the beginning of the novel is taken by DS Lewis.
- Addled Addict: Ned Murdoch has shades of this. It leads to him temporarily losing his eyesight, with the risk of permanently losing his sight in one eye.
- Always Murder: Subverted in the case of Anne Staveley, who is eventually found to have killed herself. Played straight in the case of George Jackson, who is murdered by Alan Richards.
- Ambiguously Gay: When denying that he slept with Anne, Ned Murdoch states: "I don't have relationships with women". Since this is not expanded upon, it leaves the subject of his sexuality open for interpretation.
- Blackmail: Alan Richards is blackmailed by two different people, Ned Murdoch and George Jackson. Murdoch sends a blackmail letter, while Jackson does it over the phone.
- Blackmail Backfire: One blackmailer is hunted down and killed, not because of what he could tell Alan's wife (since she already knows), but in order to find and destroy the scandal-filled suicide note that he took.
- Birthday Episode: Very downplayed; Lewis mentions that it's his birthday, and Morse takes him to a pub for a celebratory pint.
- Blatant Lies: Ned denies stealing money from Anne's purse, and George Jackson angrily denies spying on Anne. In both cases, the audience has already seen them doing these actions.
- Composite Character: In the book, there were two Murdoch brothers, Michael and Edward. Ned in the episode takes on Michael's role, but with Edward's name.
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Ned Murdoch, towards Anne — even though their relationship is platonic, he having come to see her as a mother figure.
- Creator Cameo: Colin Dexter made these from the start. When Morse visits the rooms of Ned Murdoch at the college, he walks past Colin Dexter, who's walking in the opposite direction. After they pass, Morse turns around and looks back at Dexter as he walks away.
- Driven to Suicide: Anne Staveley actually did kill herself.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Quite a few examples, this being the first episode.
- It starts like something from The Sweeney with the police raid on the garage.
- Lewis is actually working with DCI Bell, although he gets paired with Morse after Bell's promotion.
- At one point, Morse later wears a leather jacket and a black trilby, both of which are never seen again.
- It is not stated which college Ned attends, which is unusual for any Oxford University student who gets caught up in a Morseverse investigation note . For the record, the college scenes for this episode were filmed at Magdalen College.
- Although Morse does state his trademark preference for real ale, he appears to be drinking lager in one of the pub scenes with Lewis.
- Finally, he drives an Austin Montego for most of the episode — but that's justified by the fact that his Jaguar is in for repair after being damaged in the raid on the garage.
- Everyone Meets Everyone: The first time Morse meets Lewis, it's when the former tries to barge in on the crime scene at Anne's house. They evidently know of each other, as Morse addresses Lewis by his rank, but at that point they have never worked together. They only start to do so when Bell, the DCI Lewis has hitherto been working with, gets promoted, which results in the case (and Lewis) being reassigned to Morse.
- Hidden Depths: Bell is surprised to learn that Morse sings in a choir.Bell: Often wondered what he did in the evenings. Apart from the boozing.
- Insufferable Genius: Morse; Strange explains that this aspect of his personality is why he's not being promoted.Strange: You're a clever sod, but you don't say the right things to the right people. You never will. It doesn't bother me, but it doesn't do you any good.
- Ironic Juxtaposition: The raid on the garage is juxtaposed with scenes from the choir practice. After the raid, Morse arrives late to the practice.
- Last-Name Basis: When Anne asks Morse what his first name is, he refuses to tell her. This will continue. This trope also applies to Strange and is defied by Max the pathologist (who, respectively, didn't get a first name and a surname until the prequel).
- Mistaken Identity: The Richards brothers intentionally muddy the waters, with Tony pretending to be Alan while Alan kills George Jackson. Cleverly done, as the dialogue between the brothers doesn't establish who's who, and the audience is led, like Morse, to think that Tony is actually Alan.
- My Local: Two Real Life Oxford pubs are used in this episode — the White Horse on Broad Street (where Morse has a drink with Anne Staveley) and the Bookbinders Arms on the corner of Canal Street and Victor Street in the Oxford suburb of Jericho (where Morse and Lewis go to discuss the case). Both pubs still exist — the former is quite proud of its Inspector Morse connections and is a must-see for
fans of the show who visit Oxford, while the latter is now called the Old Bookbinders. - Naughty Birdwatching: George Jackson spies on Anne Staveley when she is in her bedroom. It so happens that that particular room has no curtains, and can be seen from George's house.
- The Peeping Tom: George Jackson.
- The Precious, Precious Car: Morse's red Jaguar Mk. 2 gets damaged in the opening sequence during a raid on a dodgy garage. He gets it repaired, only for it to be damaged again at the end of the episode when Alan Richards crashes into it while trying to escape.
- Pet the Dog: Morse gives Ned the blackmail letter back, and tells him to burn it.
- Pregnancy Test Plot: Anne Staveley checks a home pregnancy test during Morse's second visit; since it's 1987, it's one that has to stand undisturbed for two hours before the result shows. This particular one shows positive.
- Punny Name: Anne Staveley, given that she's a piano teacher.
- Rank Up: Denied to Morse, who had been in line for promotion to Detective Superintendent. The less able but more amenable Bell gets the promotion instead.Strange: You didn't want it anyway, did you?Morse: No.
- Real-Place Background: Much of the episode was filmed in the Oxford suburb of Jericho which, as Morse states, was seen as a desirable area in the 1980s thanks to the urban regeneration of the two previous decades. Canal Reach, the street on which Anne Staveley and George Jackson live, is fictional — the Real Life street used for filming was Combe Road, which runs off Canal Street.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Strange, who visits Morse at his home to break the news about him not getting the promotion, and offers to take him to a pub (of Morse's choice) for a drink.
- The Reveal: The fact that the Richards brothers have been intentionally muddying the waters in terms of which one's which is exposed when Morse arranges for Lewis to be in the same room as both of them; Morse had previously met Tony but had been under the impression that he was Alan, while Lewis had met Tony and so introduces himself to Alan as if they've never met before, which they hadn't.
- Running Gag: The show starts as it means to go on, with Morse taking Lewis to a pub and then getting him to buy the drinks. This will be repeated in most subsequent episodes.
- Scenery Porn: The show starts as it means to go on, with plenty of shots of Oxford's impressive architecture. This is particularly apparent when Morse walks Anne home from the pub, and excuses their rather convoluted route from Broad Street to Jericho.
- A Simple Plan: The Twin Switch that was meant to give Alan an alibi (and to throw off the police in case he left fingerprints) goes wrong when Morse is unexpectedly assigned to the case, taking over for Chief Inspector Bell. Since he met Tony under a false name (and keeps coming around to ask questions) the family is forced into a series of awkward impersonation scenes, which finally collapse when Lewis speaks up. This is comical in retrospect.
- Stealing from the Till: PC Dixon helps himself to some of Jackson's fishing tackle, and ends up finding Anne's suicide letter wrapped around one of the rods. Morse decides to take no action against him.
- Summation Gathering: Morse gathers the Richards family for one of these at Anne's house. He then has to play for time until Lewis arrives, and promptly inadvertently cracks the case.
- Twin Switch: Done by the Richards brothers, who look similar but not identical; Tony pretends to be Alan at the talk to the choral society while Alan murders George Jackson. Alan therefore has a seemingly unbreakable alibi for the time at which Jackson was killed, since 'he' met Morse at the talk. This deception is only revealed when Morse has both brothers in the same room as Lewis, who met Tony during the course of the investigation, unlike Morse who met Tony but thought he was Alan because that's what he was told at the talk (and therefore, prior to Lewis's arrival, addresses both brothers by the wrong name, something they of course do not wish to correct). When Lewis introduces himself to the man Morse thinks is Tony, it's revealed (to the audience as well as to Morse) that he is, in fact, Alan.
- Wrong Assumption: Morse is on the wrong end of this as Lewis makes all sorts of assumptions about Morse being much closer to Anne Staveley than he actually was. Morse makes the same assumptions about Ned.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: A classic example occurs when Morse theorises that Sophocles was responsible for the death of Anne Staveley — because she'd been sleeping with Ned Murdoch, only to find out that he was actually her son who she gave up for adoption years ago. Inspired by the plot of Oedipus the King, Anne killed herself and Ned tried to blind himself. Lewis disproves this rather elaborate theory when he finds out that Anne's son actually lives in Wales. The fact that Anne happened to own a copy of Oedipus the King is a coincidence.
