Seventh series of Endeavour has started filming (just three episodes this time but, as Fred Thursday would say, "beggars can't"). Also eighth series confirmed. Filming has begun on the new series of hit detective drama, Endeavour starring Shaun Evans and Roger Allam Sixth-series closer "Deguello" is possibly my favourite episode to date, so high hopes for the next bunch.
Another fantastic, if short, series just finished. I don't understand why this show isn't more widely acclaimed.
Just watched it last night. I like Morse better without that mustache. The playboy and his wife must lead to something....
I enjoyed the latest three, although for me the peak so far is Deguello, the last episode of the previous series, just an amazing piece of work where the tension of the episodes that preceded it just sort of explodes.
Alright, so in “Oracle”, the episode that aired Sunday night on PBS (Series 7, Episode 1), Morse gives the playboy character a vinyl test pressing. The vinyl test pressing’s cover has artwork. Has anyone seen a test pressing with artwork? A bit nit picky, I know. Or maybe I just imagined that dialogue? Glad that narrow boats and canal towpaths were worked into the storyline. Loved the episode overall. This is my favorite series.
I heard it too, but I don't have the esoteric know how. What I asked was, with all that snow in Italy on his way back, weren't the leaves in trees back home rather green?
Yes, I have TPs with art work, even slightly different artwork from the finished product or proof sleeves, there is no hard and fast rule, most major label Classical test pressings from the sixties would have come in just the inner sleeve or a plain card sleeve and may even be single sided, but from memory the record in Endeavour was on a small label so all bets are off and it was perfectly plausible. Just to add that TPs were sometimes used for review copies, magazines were much more important back then and if the TP was used for that purpose, rather than checking the pressing by those involved in the recording, then it may well have been given a sleeve, back then sleeves were generally printed separately and sent to the pressing plant so finished sleeves could well have been available before the test pressings were made.
That’s good to know, thanks @Dubmart! My vinyl test pressing experience is strictly non-classical and more modern (‘90’s +).
ENDEAVOUR: S7E1. ‘ORACLE’; Review + Locations, Literary References, Music etc. SPOILERS. The strange thing about the scene at the first Women’s Liberation meeting is that Abigail Thaw who plays Dorothea Frazil meets her mother who is played by Abigail’s daughter, Molly-Mae Whitmey . Sally Alexander who is Abigail’s mother and was John Thaw’s first wife was one of the organisers of the event. Try reading that fast 3 times and see if you understand it. I think I finally got it.
I found that part in Oracle when Fred brings the birds home, & tries to explain to his wife why, very moving. Soon to watch the second episode tonight.
Watched the second episode last night. The playboy plot is not developing in a way I expected, I can't understand his wife's motivation at all. Sorry to hear the PBS voice say the season ending will be broadcast next week.
And then another three to end the whole series. (I don't think it's been confirmed that the net season will be the last, just a hunch.) It would've been fun to see them go through the whole of the '70s, but I sense they won't. Am I correct in thinking that the Morse book series was set in the early '70s when it started but the original Morse TV series started in the '80s?
The first episode in the TV series aired in 1987 if my memory is correct. The first Morse book was published in the mid-‘70’s. I never got the impression from the Morse series that any episode was set a decade in the past per se, so it’s a bit disappointing that the folks behind Endeavour feel compelled to end the series so quickly. I’m sure there are other reasons involved. Artistically, it might be a challenge to square the Endeavour Morse with the bitter old git featured in Inspector Morse. Actually John Thaw and/or the creators of the Morse series softened up the main character quite a bit and made him a much more relatable and sympathetic character compared to the books.
The second episode was ok. Thing is, Fred is a very dominating character in the story. Morse seems to be 2nd place here.
Well, now I know about the Playboy and his wife, but for me the series overall, was too convoluted and filled with un-believableness
Anyone watched season 8? I found the first episode (Striker) a bit slight and predictable - perhaps a self-conscious return to a more measured approach after the baroque excesses of season 7. Scherzo was fun, playing on that smutty seaside postcard-esque strain of "humor" in British culture at the time - burly handymen, randy cabbies, even (confessions of) a window cleaner; this being Endeavour, the kitsch was balanced out by the melancholy. Terminus was...ambitious. I enjoyed the show playing with Agatha Christie tropes more conspicuously - more specifically, the "disparate group of characters trapped in a creepy mansion" trope - along with a side order of horror. It seems slightly chronologically incongruous that Lewis is explicitly referencing Halloween, as that was a late 70s thing (1978?); thinking about it, I wonder if he's also indiectly referencing the popularity of the big screen Christie adaptations starring Albert Finney and Peter Ustinov..but, again, those were also later in the 70s. Perhaps he wanted to squeeze those allusions in before the clock runs out on the show. For those who found the resolution of the season 7 arc convoluted and absurd, be warned that the mystery of this episode is similarly implausible. I'm starting to think Russell Lewis is better at dialogue (the interaction between Morse and Miss Frazil is always to be treasured), character and subtext than he is at plot, though perhaps that hasn't always been the case. It would be nice to see (at least) one more episode - an even 100? - and I expect that will happen.
Also: first Hawkwind reference in Endeavour! Shame he didn't write an episode involving them...perhaps a murder at a free festival at the Rollright Stones?
Didn't even know there was a season 8, futoncritic has no mention: Shows A-Z - endeavour on pbs | TheFutonCritic.com I see it's on imdb though.
Series 8 has already aired in the UK. If PBS sticks to their usual strategy, these should air in the US in the summer, which is a bummer.
