A final case, a final pint, a fine farewell for DS Morse
Farewell then, Endeavour (ITV1). Or should that be in the Latin? If it’s handkerchiefs anyone needs, Dr Max Debryn (James Bradshaw) came to the climactic nuptials with a plentiful supply. Who didn’t dab a tear as young Morse hugged his bride-not-to-be, and the script permitted him the dream fulfilment of a smooch on the never-never?
It’s ancient history now, but in 2012 it felt heretical that John Thaw’s old sleuth should regenerate as a perky pipsqueak played by Shaun Evans. After young Morse and young Herriot, young Tennison and young Del Boy, who’s next for the prequel treatment? Lad’s Army? Babes from the Blackstuff? Tinker Toddler Soldier Spy?
Nine series on, parting was such sweet sorrow – perhaps over-sweet when Chief Superintendent Bright (Anton Lesser) summoned Prospero. “These are actors as I foretold you,” he intoned at the grave of his daughter while faces from Morse’s yesteryear bloomed on the screen.
With close to perfect pitch, this final denouement had you sitting ever more uncomfortably. If you were there in 1987, you may remember the running joke that soon affixed itself to Colin Dexter’s novels as they made their way onto television: since when did Oxford, genteel to the tip of its mortar board, become the crime capital of England?
The final series stuck with the gag. Murder in the string section, the death of an artist: this was crime from the culture pages. This episode’s murder spree involved Latin messages on funeral cards. Then wham: drug turf wars, child abuse, corruption at the Yard. After all that perfumed elitism, here finally was a stronger stench.
“I know thee not, old man,” said Morse, quoting the Bard, as bagman and boss nursed a final pint. Thursday (Roger Allam), bless him, didn’t quite catch the reference to Henry V banishing Falstaff. But there was to be no banishment and, though the script flirted with it, no repeat of the heart attack that will eventually fell Morse. Instead, by Oxford’s Radcliffe Camera, there was a solemn valediction. “You’ll keep an eye,” said the old man, truncating a sentence for the last time. Morse even kept his gun.
From the charnel house of Blenheim Vale we moved to Blenheim Palace where two Jags passed in a golden sunset. The drivers’ blue eyes caught each other in the rear-view mirror just as they had in Endeavour’s pilot episode. You’ll keep an eye indeed. In his own way Evans has proved Thaw’s equal. Or as it almost said on one of those funerary bouquets, omnia Morse aequat. Jasper Rees
The original The Last of Us (Sky Atlantic) on the Playstation had one of the most morally ambivalent conclusions in the history of video games. I recall finishing it and setting my controller down in shock, unsure whether to cry or scream.
That devastating ambiguity was preserved as HBO’S adaptation of the dystopian tale thundered to a searing finale. Brooding smuggler Joel (Pedro Pascal) had delivered teenage “cargo” Ellie (Bella Ramsey) to the rebel Fireflies, who believed that her unique DNA could be distilled into a cure for the apocalyptic plague. Next came a terrible twist that pushed Joel to breaking point.
Even before this gut-punching final episode, The Last of Us had banished the so-called “curse” of video-game spin-offs as epitomised by Bob Hoskins’s horrifying Super Mario
Brothers movie. Much of its power has flowed from the blistering central performances: Pascal as the lone wolf, Ramsey as his reluctant side-kick.
The best horror is always about more than monsters under the bed and that is especially true of The Last of Us. The cordyceps strain that turned people into mindless killing machines was a prism through which to explore Joel and Ellie’s search for human connection. In the end, their bond was ripped asunder as the Fireflies’s plans for Ellie gave Joel an excruciating dilemma.
Echoing the game, the viewer was pulled in two directions. Was Joel justified in sacrificing a cure to save his proxy daughter? There were no straightforward answers: it was possible to see Joel both as underdog hero and selfish villain. It was an extraordinary tightrope walk. And a testament to Ramsey, especially, who was cast as Ellie over the objections of a mewling segment of The Last of Us fanbase.
Nevertheless, the ballad of Joel and Ellie is not done. With series two already greenlit, a dark story is set to become even more tragic. At least it will if it stays true to The Last of Us 2 – a video-game sequel so remorseless it makes the original look like a trip to Peppa Pig World. Ed Power
Endeavour ★★★★
The Last of Us ★★★★★