You can also choose to be emailed when someone replies to your comment. The more Dexter spoke yesterday, the more it became clear that the detective's state of health - physical, mental and spiritual - mirrors that of his creator. and this is a big "Ah, but": "Inspector Morse" is arguably the best character-driven detective series in the history of television. I have no knowledge of John Thaw's leg(s). Weather Alert in Winnebago, Ogle, McHenry, Lee, Kane, DeKalb and Boone counties. But, in chapter 74 of The Remorseful Day, Morse falls into a diabetic coma at home. Somehow, he always manages to inveigle his partner into buying his beers. But none of them is more rueful than the finale, in which Morse sometimes seems vague and vaguely defeated by changing police procedures, years of beers, and a gnawing sense of the emotional vacuum of his unmarried independence. He was married to actress Sheila Hancock, and, sadly, he died in February, 2002, at the young age of 60. "Morse" addicts know what I mean. he asks in "Daughters of Cain," adding, "I'd rather have a pint.". It's just the kind of transporting and civilized entertainment Morse himself might enjoy, single malt or pint of bitter in hand . You can find our Community Guidelines in full here. Due to the sheer scale of this comment community, we are not able to give each post the same level of attention, but we have preserved this area in the interests of open debate. And here is the irony, or paradox, of Morse's popular and critical success. John Edward Thaw, CBE (3 January 1942 – 21 February 2002) was an English actor who appeared in a range of television, stage, and cinema roles. Independent Premium Comments can be posted by members of our membership scheme, Independent Premium. That, says his widow, is exactly why she wrote The Two Of Us: My Life with John Thaw (Allen & Unwin). For 13 years, John Thaw brought the hard-drinking, sarcastic, and somewhat snobbish detective inspector to life on the screen. Veteran actress Sheila Hancock appears in Inspector Morse prequel Endeavour tonight (Friday February 5) and she is the widow of John Thaw. The novelist called a press conference to confirm that Morse, as long rumoured, does indeed expire in the latest and last novel which is in the shops today. I am sorry to say that, whereas John Thaw was such a screen presence, the actor who plays Endeavour is, for me, utterly without any. I think we'll miss him in a lot of ways. "Is this a dagger I see before me?" Fans of … Endeavour Morse is a fictional character appearing in novels written by Colin Dexter. "Death Is Now My Neighbor," a top-notch "Morse," can be seen as a scalding satire on the snobbery, depraved ambition, and sheer malice that seem to thrive there. He grew up in the Burnage area of the city and attended Ducie Technical High School|Ducie Technical Hig… The late John Thaw played the legendary Inspector Morse for 13 years, and without him there would be no Endeavour, the prequel series about the Oxford detective’s early days. Dexter himself fell in love with the TV version of his homicide detective and, as a result, deepened the character on the pages of the later Morse novels. It allows our most engaged readers to debate the big issues, share their own experiences, discuss real-world solutions, and more. There's a good chance he's playing a Wagner or Mozart tape en route to a crime scene in his beloved cherry-red Jaguar. After the equivalent of 32 feature-length movies broadcast over 13 seasons, the popular British-made "Inspector Morse" detective series is coming to an end Thursday night (9 p.m. on WTTW-Ch. Varney ended his days by throwing himself into Mount Vesuvius, because like the author, he was bored. The author angered many readers when his hero was shot dead less than half way through A Long Silence, the last of eleven books. The untimely death of John Thaw from cancer in February 2002 not only left a big hole in the legacy of British television, but also in the lives of his many long-time fans. High on the list, of course, is the perfectly tailored fit of actor to character, a combo that has created an illusion almost more real than life itself. It also requires superbly controlled and nuanced acting. The pampered grass quadrangles, like the breeding of many of the robed scholars, form a thin veil of civilization that doesn't fool Morse. Unforgettable was not big on BBC Four-style cultural analysis but it made a good go of swiftly sussing The Sweeney ’s appeal, and arguing that Life on Mars owed it everything. "But if Colin Dexter says Morse is dead, that is good enough for me. Anthony wrote “The Bible” for it and he realized, “John Thaw always looked much older than his age. He subsequently ret-conned the question of car, Morses appearance, Lewis’ age, and so on, to let the books follow the tv-series. I found Morse to be a superb series with a wonderful array of that older generation of actors. His father was a long distance lorry driver. Thaw is Morse. but I don't believe he owns a television. However, he regains consciousness and is able to dial 999. They went out at the top by all accounts. What fine acting. . It helps, too, that Morse-Thaw has actually aged before us in real time, losing hair and acquiring wrinkles and jowls in the almost decade and a half he's been on the air. By any standard, "Morse" is a classic, and there are many reasons why. Christie wrote the book, Curtain, during the Second World War because she was afraid that she might die, but her publishers persuaded her to place it in a bank vault. Was he talking about Morse or was he talking about himself? The closing scene is a doctor telling him that's he's patched it up, but that he may develop a minor limp in middle age. Are you sure you want to delete this comment? Morse's television persona, John Thaw, was at the novelist's side. Both novelist and detective are aficionados of philosophy, literature, music and The Archers. He died at 61 and he always looked 80,” he said, “from the the minute he left RADA.” Other, related killings follow, prompting multiple, overlapping investigations. It is time for me to finish, too.". He dies of complications from diabetes, exacerbated by too much alcohol. Several recent episodes touch on his declining health and the impending and unwelcome retirement of both Morse and his boss, corpulent Chief Superintendent Strange (James Grout). The deerstalker-wearing detective originally died in a cliff top fight with arch enemy Professor Moriarty. After "Morse" he went onto another series, "Kavanagh QC". https://dianecapri.com/2012/05/remembering-john-thaw-and-inspector-morse Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile. And his buried sorrow, or whatever it is (Morse is teasingly mysterious himself), simply adds to his vulnerable appeal. In such circumstances, sending your hero to his grave is a bold move. Endeavour Morse, ITV’s longest-serving detective, celebrated his 30th anniversary last week. Lewis, ITV's long-running Morse spin-off, is effectively cancelled after UK series nine. Devotees have to wait until the last chapter to clear up the mystery and establish the truth. Read our full mailing list consent terms here. While he's deeply fond of loyal, literal Sergeant Lewis (the estimable Kevin Whately), most of their exchanges are variations on mutual exasperation. The series, broadcast in the United States as part of PBS' "Mystery," is even better than the smart, polished John Dexter novels that inspired it. The smooth and usually seamless editing and the absence of cinematic tricks or tics make you forget about the notion of style. . Dexter has diabetes and said yesterday: "I was up all night eating cereal and sugar. Mired in work and settled bachelorhood, Morse has never married, and his love life is spotty at best. Still, Morse reveres learning to a silly fault. You are transported directly and without distraction into Morse's vividly detailed world of murder, police politics, and Oxford University tradition. Please continue to respect all commenters and create constructive debates. I would not make any more films about Morse after his death.". Please be respectful when making a comment and adhere to our Community Guidelines. Again the two appeared to merge. His creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, finished off his hero because no one took his other fiction seriously. Ah, but . Want an ad-free experience?Subscribe to Independent Premium. The existing Open Comments threads will continue to exist for those who do not subscribe to Independent Premium. It all came to an end in 1978 when Thaw realised there was nowhere left for the storylines to go and departed. Art mirrors life. "With the body count in books and on TV risen to almost 80, Oxford has become the murder capital of the UK, and the time has come to put an end to this.". Kevin Whately was first cast as Robbie Lewis opposite the late John Thaw's Morse, on … He's pulled toward a kind of melancholy loneliness, fitting for a virtuous knight-errant. Rarely has a novelist had so blatant an alter ego. While neither gritty nor flashily contemporary, the series has a finely detailed sense of reality and a human pulse and depth that few movies, and fewer TV shows, ever achieve. "Had he pursued a healthier lifestyle," it said in a statement, "he could have continued to be the scourge of the criminal element for many years to come. Poor Morse is aching and aging in "The Remorseful Day," facing retirement in a matter of months. "The Remorseful Day," however, leaves no doubt about their devotion to each other. J.B. Pritzker gives a coronavirus update, After Twitter outcry, 5 women detail Chris D’Elia’s alleged sexual improprieties. Dexter added: "Various possibilities suggested themselves. Leaving behind a troubled family life, he shot to fame in The Sweeney and went on to create the best-loved detective of modern times. Which means we must be rather concerned about the health of his creator, Colin Dexter. Sadly, Lewis, and even more so Endeavour, are pale imitations with cast lists of fairly unmemorable actors. Just take Thursday night's "The Remorseful Day: The Inspector Morse Finale." "Certainly," he ruminated, "in the last few years I have found it increasingly difficult to pursue the lonely and demanding discipline of writing. They're often riveting in the early going, but they can become too crazily webbed to make strong sense or sustain conventional crime fiction tension. Some of the series' virtues aren't so obvious as the richness of Morse's character and the way Thaw inhabits him. Retirement perhaps; perhaps less probable, marriage; failure in a case; the sack; nervous breakdowns; death while performing CID duties, or death when he was not on duty. Morse is turning 70, Dexter is turning 69. Known as Varney the Vampire, he was an anti-hero and the first popular fictional character to be killed-off by a bored author, James Malcom Rymer. Great fiction generates not merely credible characters but dynamic human beings who seem to exist beyond their made-up universes. But in the Endeavour series (Young Morse), Series 1 Episode 4 concludes with the young Morse receiving a minor bullet wound to his leg. Are you sure you want to mark this comment as inappropriate? Episode to episode, the plots aren't the most suspenseful or artfully fashioned mysteries on TV or movie screens. Mr Rymer wrote the serial, The Feast of Blood, which was over a million words long, between 1845 and 1847. He had a younger brother called Ray. Morse's fondness for drink, which he says is required to oil his mental machinery, is beginning to seriously affect his health. No doubt, there are other ways to do it, but this modified Method works wonders for Thaw-Morse. In the next chapter his condition is "critical but stable" and, shortly after a glass of whisky, he tells the nurse "thank Lewis for me". Although details of Morse's career are deliberately kept vague, it is hinted that as a schoolboy he won a scholarship to study at St. John's College, Oxford. Thaw came from a working class background, having been born in Gorton, Manchester, to parents John and Dorothy (nee Ablott). John Thaw, who first played Morse in 1987, said he was saddened by the character's death. The Dutch detective who worked in Amsterdam was the basis for a 1970's television series and was killed off by author Nicolas Freeling, a cook married to a Dutch woman. He lost the scholarship as the result of poor academic performance, which in turn resulted from a failed love affair (mentioned in the series at the end of \"The Last Enemy\") and recounted in detail in the novel The Riddle of the Third Mile, chapter 7. {{#verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}} {{^verifyErrors}} {{message}} {{/verifyErrors}}, Art mirrors life, as Inspector Morse is finally defeated by drinking, You may not agree with our views, or other users’, but please respond to them respectfully, Swearing, personal abuse, racism, sexism, homophobia and other discriminatory or inciteful language is not acceptable, Do not impersonate other users or reveal private information about third parties, We reserve the right to delete inappropriate posts and ban offending users without notification. The novelistic ability to suggest interior thought and feeling is, in addition to Thaw's presence, what defines and distinguishes the series. When the attractive Adele Cecil correctly deploys the word "whom" in "Death Is Now My Neighbor," he instantly falls for her. John Thaw limps on his left leg, Inspector Morse on his right. Educated for a while at Oxford, he nonetheless casts a cold eye on academic pomp and pretension. Our journalists will try to respond by joining the threads when they can to create a true meeting of independent Premium. Now, after fighting cancer, John Thaw … "I'm naturally saddened," he said, "to take leave of the melancholy, sensitive, vulnerable, independent, ungracious, mean-pocketed Morse. The episode features a replica of Morse’s last scenes in 2000, when Lewis (Kevin Whately) nursed an orange juice as his boss, played by John Thaw, broke the news he was quitting. Mr. Thaw announced in June that he had cancer but that he intended to continue acting. Thaw says he projects what's in Morse's mind by literally thinking on-camera what the character is supposed to be thinking. He contemplates death while being ferried to hospital in the ambulance and wakes to find his long-suffering colleague Lewis by his bed. Manchester-born John Thaw played many roles during his TV career. It will star a relative unknown, Shaun Evans, in the role last played by the late John Thaw. Probably only "Morse" fanatics will appreciate all of "The Last Morse" documentary, but it does contain a few instructive insights into the crafts of acting and creating effective screen drama. The drama will be called Endeavour , a reference to Morse's first name. A married woman drawn to kinky, promiscuous sex is found murdered, handcuffed to her bed. Create a commenting name to join the debate, There are no Independent Premium comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts, There are no comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts. The British Diabetic Association last night used it for a new publicity campaign. He can't stand the sight of blood and is known to get sick at the sight of a corpse, as he does in the finale. John Thaw as Detective Chief Inspector Morse. The novelist called a press conference to confirm that Morse, as long rumoured, does indeed expire in the latest and last novel which is in the shops today. The Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie and famous for his "little grey cells". John Thaw, the British television actor known to millions as the crusty, music-loving Chief Inspector Morse of Oxford, died at his home in Wiltshire, England, on Thursday… Posted in Adele Cecil, Inspector Morse, Women Tagged Adele Cecil, Death is now my Neighbour, Inspector Morse, John Thaw, Judy Loe, The Wench is Dead Author: Chris Sullivan After having looked after my mum for some 11 years she is now unfortunately in a nursing home. The elegiac two-hour finale, starring John Thaw, is the last we'll see of the unforgettable, dyspeptic chief inspector of the Thames Valley Police. In The Widow, the detective's wife, Arlette, became the hero. The effect is a kind of transparency, a spotless window on the leisurely and engaging action and photogenic Oxford settings. . At yesterday's press conference in London, Lewis was yet again not there to hear what was being said. He dies after refusing to take his medicine, thereby concealing the identity of the murderer in his final mystery. Dexter, though, was on form and needed little help in addressing his hero's demise. ", DETECTIVE DEPARTURES: THOSE WHO WENT BEFORE. "I don't want people to think he was Morse. He is undergoing a trauma that even the king of detective thriller writers cannot solve - contractual difficulties with ITV, which could even keep him out of the final Morse television film, when the new novel is filmed next year. The writers and directors of "Morse" are finely attuned to the characters' inner lives. CHIEF INSPECTOR Morse was killed off yesterday. The books were later adapted into the ITV television series Inspector Morse (1987-2000), starring John Thaw as the title character, with Kevin Whately as Detective Sergeant Robbie Lewis.Shaun Evans plays a younger Morse in the prequel series Endeavour (2012-present). Perhaps least obvious are the programs' unselfconscious clarity of style. I drink far too much alcohol.". For those unacquainted with him, Morse is wonderfully complex and contradictory. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? At least 106 people shot, 14 fatally, in Chicago weekend violence, Watch live: Gov. By somehow dimming the light in his pale blue eyes and tightening his lips, and through a less visible repertoire of responses, Thaw's Morse evokes loss, repressed grief, and piercings of mortal fear. 11). To see him playing other roles or being himself in the hourlong documentary airing just before the final episode -- "The Last Morse," about the making of the finale -- is to see a mock Morse, a provisional man whose only purpose or completion is to be the grouchy and all too messily and likably human inspector. Thanks to Thaw and Dexter and executive producer Ted Childs, Morse ranks in that pantheon of memorable, fully and artfully fleshed creations. It all gets a little murky, like the fog that sometimes envelops Oxford, the beautifully realized setting of most of the Morse stories. To see him playing other roles or being himself in the hourlong documentary airing just before the final episode -- "The Last Morse," about the making of the finale -- … On taking the role of Morse, John Thaw insisted that the Lancia Morse drove in the books was changed to a Jaguar Mark 2. But Lewis, or rather the actor Kevin Whately, was absent. Suffice to say he will be fondly remembered for the many roles he played in his long career as an award-winning actor, including the classic Inspector Morse. Thaw is Morse. William Barrett, London, UK I believe that John Thaw suffered from polio as a child, hence the limp. He has lived with me now for more than a quarter of a century. But the nurse does not hear him properly. The great sub-theme of "Inspector Morse" is the corrupt underbelly of the university, a reservoir of suave, tweedy, and odiously dangerous and hypocritical characters. The most insightful comments on all subjects will be published daily in dedicated articles.

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