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An obvious "Endeavour" observation...

Roger Allam looks at Shaun Evans the way Fred Thursday wants to look at Morse.

#itv endeavour #endeavour morse #fred thursday #roger allam #shaun evans #awwwww #yes

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Damian Barcroft: What was Shaun Evans like to work with as an actor and a director?

Stephen La Riviere: As I said earlier on, one of my great concerns about this was having a repeat of the Halifax experience – trying to work through another director. But Shaun said that I should direct the Moon Rangers bit as it was a specialised form of filmmaking. So my level of respect for him is huge. Not every filmmaker has the lack of ego to be able to say, ‘Actually, it would be better if we let this person do this bit’.

That’s not to say Shaun had no involvement – everything done was to service his show. But ultimately, this was one long special effects sequence involving specialised knowledge and it was fantastic that we were allowed to get on and do the things we needed to do.

A specialised sequence like this – in the middle of a big production with its down demands – could have been a nightmare to get right. But it was just a pleasure. Nearly two years on, I’m still surprised to be able to say that as it’s so unusual!

-- THE ENDEAVOUR INTERVIEWS 2020: STEPHEN LA RIVIERE

#itv endeavour #shaun evans #endeavour: apollo #barcroft #stephen la riviere #endeavour #endeavour morse

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One of the most terribly sad exchanges between Morse and Thursday happens at the end of "the pub scene" in Prelude.

I never had the impression, really, that Thursday was so quick to leave because of the drinking so much as because Morse was asking questions that were hitting a little too close to home.

"Huh. I wonder why Mickey Flood wanted to talk to you? Why not sell the information to some London hat?"

"Well. I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of it," Thursday replies, looking slightly green. "One way or another."

It's S6 all over again. There's a widening gulf between them.

As he's leaving, Thursday looks bereft. He tells Morse, "Mind how you go."

Morse nods.

Ordinarily, that would have been that.

But then, Thursday moves closer. He tells him, "It's good to have you back."

He sets his hand on Morse's shoulder.

"I ....." he begins....

I can only imagine that he was about to say, "I missed you,"—much as he said to Joan when she returned from Leamington.

But Morse looks so horrified at the thought of any such exchange of feeling that Thursday stops dead in his tracks.

"It's good to have you back," Thursday says again.

Which is something he's allowed to say, I suppose. And then Morse returns to his drink.

#itv endeavour #endeavour: prelude #endeavour morse #fred thursday #shaun evans #endeavour #endeavour series 9 #endeavour fan opinions #🥺🥺🥺

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Endeavour 5x02: Cartouche

Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

#endeavour #reginald bright #endeavour morse #fred thursday #it's endeavour cinematography appreciation time #shaun evans #endeavour: cartouche #endeavour gif

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I stay away from comparison. Endeavour is my show and I’m not interested in diluting it with the others, but some of you may be interested.

Lewis/Hathaway - quasi-paternal?

Reading through some old interviews with Kevin Whately, and found one in The Daily Beast back when S7 was planned to be the final season, where he mentions “a bit of a father/son thing going on” when describing the Lewis/Hathaway relationship in the show.

Of course, the initial season or two of Endeavour was just taking off at the same time, with the father/son relationship between Thursday and young Morse.

Which show did better justice to the relationship? Or is it even fair to compare them given how different the circumstances were - Thursday with his full family life, and Lewis as a heartbroken widower whose kids had flown the coop?

#itv endeavour #itv lewis #endeavour morse #robbie lewis #fred thursday #james hathaway #inspector lewis #shaun evans #endeavour

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Shaun Evans in “Monroe” clip 1 of 2

#shaun evans #monroe #endeavour morse #endeavour #itv endeavour #our fallen angel

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There is a galaxy of interlaced tragedies happening in season 9 but for me the biggest one is that Thursday thinks Morse's drinking is one of his foibles like his grammatical prescriptivism or refusal to watch TV. Even if he accepts that Morse has a problem and its something deeper than a personal failing, like his numerous phobias (blood, heights), I don't know that Thursday has the personal capacity really get what that means-- he might intellectually know it, or have heard something along those lines, but I think in his gut he's disappointed and even a little disgusted at Morse for not being able to tough it out.

What makes their relationship so beautiful and compelling is that Thursday liked and chose Morse from the beginning despite the fact that he is (in terms of a 60s detective unit) a genuine freak, but Thursday is usually just as pleased as he is baffled by all the opera and ancient greek and poems. But this one thing he just doesn't get and can't accept, this young man he's poured so much time and effort into his just throwing it away on booze. Here's Thursday thinking "was I wrong in seeing that potential? Was it a waste of time to bring him up by hand?" Even when Morse is back there's a lingering frost there, a distance caused by that betrayal of trust-- Morse let him down, and he's pulling away when Morse needs his support now more than ever.

He may not say anything but that scene where he accepts a drink in front of Morse is a perfect example of how he just doesn't get it. It's not a pub, Morse can't get up and walk around or ask for a squash to nurse or anything that might relieve the moment, he just has to sit there and wallow. And Thursday seemingly has no idea what it takes to just sit there and watch. "We heard it flow, we heard it ripple. Do you understand that word, ripple? It is a sound you hear with your tongue! You put your tongue out of your mouth to taste it better!" Then there's the relapse and Thursday decides to just walk away. Some people can't be helped. It kills me.

#shaun evans #endeavour #endeavour morse #itv endeavour #endeavour series 9 #endeavour fan opinions

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The perfect shot

takes a village (of crew) to pull off

#itv endeavour #endeavour morse #shaun evans #fred thursday #roger allam #endeavour #endeavour behind the scenes

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Morse and drinking in the 70s...

Long....because I can't write short. And obviously, a lot of you will already know this stuff...

Just want to take a moment to talk about alcohol and alcoholism in the context of the early 1970s and remind folks of how totally and completely different it is from how we see it today.

Drunk driving had not been outlawed in most countries. Not only that, it was widely regarding as funny—funny enough to be used as a regular “gag” in movies. Problem drinking was also seen as funny. There were regular cartoon strips about it. The “drunk” was a funny stock character in all sorts of plays and movies.

Alcohol was ubiquitous. We’re not just talking liquid lunches. We’re talking drinking at work, while you work—just as you see in Endeavour. Think about that for a second.

And politely saying no wasn’t something you did without social consequences. It wasn’t just seen as a personal preference. Unless you had a specific, acceptable reason, turning down a drink was often seen as stand-offish and judgmental or as a social snub. Teetotalism was regarded as rather naive and ridiculous—not something any man or woman of the world would embrace.

In the early 1970s, there was no widespread understanding of alcoholism as a disease. It was still seen very much as the consequence of personal weakness—still a matter of “If you cared enough or tried hard enough, you wouldn’t do this so it must be a character flaw.”

Plus, most people, “normal” people don’t have problems with alcohol, so if you do then there’s something abnormal and defective about you—most likely something you brought upon yourself.

And as a “personal weakness” and a “defect,” the shame around it was profound and the secrecy matched. If someone went away for treatment, it was very much akin to an unwed mother going off to have her baby and then returning without the child. You never spoke of it. You pretended that it had never happened.

If you were a kind person, you also didn’t go out of your way to parade babies in front of her or talk constantly about children when she was with you. But refer to it directly? Never. Ask for help? Never. It was always something to be hidden. Everyone did their best to forget that it had ever happened and saw this as the "kindest" thing to do.

When Morse returns from his “cure,” it would simply be assumed that everyone would pretend that nothing unusual has happened. Why he’s  just been off on a tour of the West Country and nothing else! Hope you had a lovely time! That sort of polite fiction was exactly what he would have expected upon his return. Anything more direct—at least in a public setting—would have been shocking to him and everyone else.

Where things break down, however, is in the more personal interactions. His relationship with Thursday is such that they can at least broach the topic of drinking. When they do, my impression is that Thursday is well-aware that Morse not “cured.” However, in the context of the time, saying this would be akin to saying, "You failed," because there was no disease model of alcholism in widespread use. You went to be cured and it worked or it didn't.

However, I'd also add that Thursday is almost to the breaking point with the cumulative strain he is under. He can’t cope with the “burden” of Morse being in a precarious state and he knows it. He feels desperately guilty about that—as well as about other things like Strange and Joan or about life having moved on so much while Morse was gone—and so he just shuts down. 

Shutting down is Thursday’s go-to strategy when he’s overwhelmed. We’ve seen him do it many times before. And part of that for him, is that he pretends that the people around him are ok—even if they are anything but ok. Not surprisingly, he does it the most with the people he has the closest emotional ties with—Win, Joan, Sam, and Morse.

So the only way that Thursday can cope is by having Morse be perfectly fine. Conveniently, his preferred coping strategy fits exactly with his society's expectations about how alcoholism works. If Morse is "cured," you don’t need to worry about sparing him the constant offers of alcohol in the same way that the young unwed mother might hope to be spared babies. You certainly wouldn’t embarrass him (especially after he’s been through the humiliation of rehab) by drawing attention in any way to a possible to the idea that he still has a problem. 

And finally, a last note on time context. The scene in the pub where Morse has that first drink after finding out that Joan is marrying Jim is utterly heartbreaking for so many reasons. One of those reasons, however, is that we know it’s the first drink—and that the first drink leads to the second, and so on and so forth. Then Morse says to Thursday, “They said the, the odd beer, the odd shot, does no harm…"Everything in moderation," they said,”  and we automatically assume he’s lying.

I’m fairly sure that those scenes were meant to be interpreted through our modern viewpoint. However, it’s worth noting that again, the model of alcoholism in the 1970s was nothing like what we have today. The idea that someone with a drinking problems/addictions needs to abstain entirely was not even close to universal at that point. It’s perfectly possible that the advice Morse is quoting is the advice he received!

#endeavour morse #itv endeavour #shaun evans #endeavour fan opinions

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If you want to track down the orchestra members and have a word, it's probably more up your street than Jim's or mine. Most likely just putting a name to him. Be alright with that? I should think I'll manage.

#endeavour #itv endeavour #endeavour itv #shaun evans #endeavour morse #roger allam #fred thursday

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okay okay so in this particular situation Morse was there bc he was invited by the soloist but how often do you think he and Max end up at the same concerts and don't realize

#itv endeavour #max debryn #literally why are they not there together #endeavour morse #max's cute velvet blazer... #endeavour #shaun evans

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“Mind you, you had a good teacher” “The best”

😭😭😭

#they said goodbye here!! #endeavour #itv endeavour #shaun evans #endeavour morse #roger allam #fred thursday

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They come at you through what you love...Pt. 2

Last Thursday Thursday I wrote about how “They come at you through what you love,” and the three times that phrase is used in Endeavour—starting back in S1...

*long post*

I talked a little bit about Morse and @astridcontramundam, @thewatcher98, and @fanficrocks had some great insights about about how Morse never seems to see himself as included within anyone's circle of love.

I don’t think though, that I was very clear about the last point I tried to make. I said:

“every once and a while it strikes me again that so much of this show is about a very simple premise: It explores the idea that love and connection are what make you most vulnerable to the evils of this world. At the same time, they are also the things that make life worth living and that give us strength.  So how do you live that terrible paradox—with both of these things being true at the same time?  And how do you respond when your love is used against you?”

The person I was actually thinking about most there was not Morse, but Thursday.

This is a man who at his core is a guardian. His primary mission in life is to take care of the people he’s supposed to take care of. He wants to love and protect. Especially these people...

But from the very beginning, his love is weaponized against him. His relationship with Mickey Carter and his desire to protect his family are used initially to drive him out of London.

Oxford is hardly more safe. Everyone seems to realize that threatening Thursday himself is pointless. You have to get at him through what he loves. And so they threaten his family and they threaten Morse.

And then they secure further leverage via his loan to Charlie which places both his job and his marriage--the very foundations of his identity--at risk.

What makes it all the more difficult for him is that he is constantly navigating between worlds--often opposing worlds.

He grew up as an East End barrow boy with an alcoholic father. He was raised to watch out for his own.  Now he’s a fairly well-off suburban father in academic Oxford with a job that in some sense makes him responsible for the entire community.

He was raised with violence, and by all accounts was involved in brutal campaigns and resistance work in WWII.  Fists were an accepted part of the game when he started policing. It’s not his first resort, but it’s a tool he uses.

Now Morse is trying to pull him away from that. Morse says he’s better than that--but he’s genuinely torn. What happens if the bad guy gets away with it because they didn’t have the nerve to “do what had to be done?”

One of the most poignant examples to me is when Charlie asks for the loan. While Win and Fred’s marriage looks dated to contemporary eyes, it’s notable for the time to see them making decisions mutually as a couple and to see them being fairly open in talking to one another.

But when Charlie asks for the money, there’s a sense that Fred’s immediately back in the world where he grew up—a world where consulting your wife about anything is akin to asking her “permission.”  It's also a world where saying no and refusing generosity to your brother would make you seem less of a man.

So which rules does he follow? The ones he and Win currently live with or the ones he and Charlie grew up with? Well, unfortunately, we know the answer.

S9 is I think the hardest example. So much of it is centered around the question of who Thursday is supposed to be taking care of—the victims of crime and the people of Oxford that he’s sworn to protect as a policeman? His immediate family—Win, Sam, Joan—and now Jim? His extended family—Charlie and the rest? His...whatever Morse is?

The bad guys are using everything he cares about to manipulate him and the cruelest twist of all is that he must seemingly choose one of his worlds to save and sacrifice the others. Which will he put first?

And then suddenly, he's not given anymore time to decide...

#itv endeavour #it's a story about hope #endeavour morse #fred thursday #roger allam #thursday thursday #shaun evans

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Throwback Thursday Thursday

#itv endeavour #endeavour morse #fred thursday #shaun evans #roger allam #thursday thursday #endeavourtv

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Nice detective work! Morse worthy! 👏🏻

That moment...

in ‘Confection’ when you realise an outtake was actually an edit point!

One of my favourite Masterpiece PBS behind the scenes features for Season 6 was 'Endeavour, Season 6: The Cast on Shaun Evans as Director' [x], mostly because of all the outtakes where Shaun is flashing that fantastic smile!

At about the 1min 20sec mark, there's a wonderful outtake from 'Confection' when Shaun looks at Anton Lesser and breaks up. If you run the outtake directly after the actual scene, however...

...the frames matched exactly!

How lovely to think that at the end of any given scene, no matter how dark, that they all could have laughed! In this scene DeBryn is telling Bright and Endeavour about the bullet that killed Fancy!

This knowledge might just get me through the toughest scenes. And also the Morsetache, of course.

#itv endeavour #endeavour morse #shaun evans #endeavour: confection #reginald bright #max debryn #anton lesser #james bradshaw #season 6 #endeavour behind the scenes

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Morse and Thursday —ale and kindred spirits

I've still been thinking about this scene in S9, of Thursday missing Morse after Jim fails to play "the sandwich game," and I was struck again by the two glasses, so visibly different, on the table. Morse and Thursday usually have two dark ales, but Jim goes for the trendy beer the new guys are drinking.

It really shows how—no matter how Jim may begin to dress like Thursday in S8 and even start dropping a few "mind how you goes,"—on the inside, despite all outward appearances, it's Morse and Thursday who are both made of the same stuff....

From their enjoyment of poetry...

From their enjoyment of aiming a little snark at the higher-ups every now and again ...

To their occasional social ineptitude ... (really, Fred?)

To occasionally feeling like the odd man out ...

(I love Thursday channelling Morse and Jago's raised eyebrow there.)

To being curious enough about the world to get each other's references...

To most of all, being the sort of idealists who are willing to risk their lives to bring justice to the children of Blenheim Vale. Of all of City and all of County, it's only they two who race to answer the call.

You can almost see the moment of recognition—as if each is seeing into the other's very soul—in their eyes...

They each complete the other in so many ways...

#shaun evans #endeavour morse #endeavour #itv endeavour #roger allam #fred thursday #endeavour fan opinions #lovely take

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I'm still thinking about that deleted scene of Joan touching the side of Morse's face and him putting his hand over hers.

It reminds me of the end of Coda when she gently brushes her thumb across his wound, and he instinctively holds on to her. I love that moment because it showed a loving side of Joan which was reminiscent of Monica and demonstrated she was Win's daughter as much as Thursday's. You could totally see why Morse fell for her.

I realized Joan kind of lost that side of her in the rest of the series. The closest which comes to mind is her silent kiss with her hand in Harvest.

I feel like it would've been really lovely to see that parallel of her being able to look past all the bullshit for a minute and let Morse know how much she cares for him. I think it would've gone a long way in explaining why he could never get over her.

(gif by @sircolinmorgan)

#endeavour #joan thursday #itv endeavour #endeavour morse #sara vickers #shaun evans #endeavour fan opinions