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SHAUN EVANS REVEALS A WHOLE NEW WORLD FOR MORSE…
The series five finale of Endeavour made it apparent that change would be coming, as Cowley Station was closed and the team deployed elsewhere. And as the Inspector Morse prequel returns this weekend, it’s clear that the move hasn’t worked out terribly well for Endeavour. After his transfer to Woodstock, its CID was closed, so he has had to return to uniform – and he’s not wearing his new lower status well…
“I think he’s resentful of what it represents,” Shaun Evans, who plays him, tells Inside TV. “At least if he’s out in the countryside, no one can see him anyway. When he’s brought back into town, it must feel humiliating.”
The uniform isn’t the only change to Morse’s look in this series. As you’ve probably noticed, he’s now sporting a moustache. So how did Shaun feel about that?
“I don’t think my family was too keen on it!” he chuckles. “But I don’t mind it, actually. There’s a danger with doing something for too long that you end up pulling it towards yourself, as an actor. Although it’s only a ’tache, the more you can do to keep something away from yourself is a good thing, so I don’t mind it!”
As for the rest of the team, Thursday is now working in Castle Gate, as is Bright – who has had a similarly humbling demotion to working in traffic – and Strange is in Banbury. And the shocking death of DC George Fancy in last year’s finale is still haunting them all.
“Thursday has taken responsibility for Fancy’s death, to a degree,” explains Shaun. “While he’s been put into a new station, he’s now underneath two new officers, so he’s sort of been demoted. But then things happen that bring Endeavour back to him, and the overarching story is Fancy’s death, and who’s responsible for that.”
Another ongoing unresolved matter is the romantic tension between Endeavour and Joan. Sadly, there’s little cheer for fans of that potential pairing…
“My take is he asked her to marry him, and she said no,” muses Shaun. “And if she tried to hook him up with this French journalist, she’s not interested – the writing’s on the wall! I think he’s hurt about that, so when they meet in the first episode, he barely gives her the time of day. Inevitably, they’ll be in and out of each other’s lives, but they don’t have a mad night of passion. But they could do that and go, ‘This isn’t what I thought it would be at all!’ It’d be true to life, and kind of interesting…”
RETURNING TO UNIFORM MUST FEEL HUMILIATING FOR MORSE”