'Muse'. An ironic title, as a powerfully independent redhead (Charlotte Hope) is the only link to three murders - turns out it all links back to a horrible 'Rotter's Club' type incident, which even suggests the infamous Blair-pig's head moment. Gangster Eddie Nero (Mark Arden) is introduced, sixties racism is present, and there's a new detective on the block, George Fancy (Lewis Peek).
I must get my actors in the right order. James Bradshaw is De Bryn, Sean Rigby is Strange.
'Cartouche'. OED again = Archaeology, an oval or oblong enclosing a group of Egyptian hieroglyphs, typically representing the name and title of a monarch. This is great. The stuff about 'The Pharaoh's Curse' for example, everyone involved dying, is a complete red herring. And, you know, 1968, cinemas could be packed, they still had organists, and doormen... Not for much longer, I'll wager. I started going to the cinema soon after, don't remember any of that.
Joan's back - as predicted she's pissed off with her dad for getting involved in her life, leading to her being assaulted and losing her place to live in Leamington Spa.
Fun stuff going on - ice cream girl Betty Persky - that's Lauren Bacall's real name. Inspector Atwill is probably a reference to horror film actor Lionel Atwill. Mammoth Films - Endeavour's production company is Mammoth Screen. Donald Sumpter is the aging film star, Christopher Sciueref the Egyptologist who suggests that his line of work and being a detective is the same thing - they're both 'guardians of the dead'.
'Passenger.' Damned clever episode, centring around railways, and missing sister. Jamie Cairney's photography excellent. Also, there's a new, murderous gang in town. Thursday: "Forget it - it's Summertown" (Chinatown?) Dexter on poster in railway station?
'Colours'. Murder at army base. Fancy almost gets blown up, Morse is shot at. Features Fascist aristocracy. Ian Pirie is Lt. Col. 'Mad Jack', perhaps based on 'Mad Jack' Churchill who went into battle armed with sword, bow and arrow and bagpipes.
Morse has a new girlfriend, but she's one of these continental types who doesn't believe in love, only sex. Since when did Morse take up smoking?
There seem to be six films this season rather than the usual four. Perhaps Lewis was enjoying a particularly creative spurt. We think Thursday thinks Morse is a better detective than he is.
'Quartet'. Begins with 'Jeux Sans Frontieres' but rapidly becomes an international spy thriller. The evidence in the lethal fish tank seems to reference the 'Live and Let Die' novel. All the supporting characters are involved. Good acting from various cast members - Richard Durden, Ian Bartholomew, Mary Roscoe, Ellie Haddington.
Lewis interviewed for Radio Times 14 April 2020: "I’m unhealthily obsessed with that early 70s aesthetic… It’s the world of Peter Serafinowicz and Robert Popper’s Look Around You… An era of Doomwatch, and Nigel Kneale’s The Stone Tape…
What about the TV series and screenwriters that made an impression on the young Russell Lewis? It’s a huge list, which includes Play for Today, the Dennis Potter dramas (Pennies from Heaven, Blue Remembered Hills, The Singing Detective), Mike Leigh, Alan Clarke, Ken Loach, Steven Poliakoff’s Bloody Kids, Alan Bennett… In short, “Oh my goodness. Everything! Between the 60s and 70s, I was just a living VCR with its button stuck on record. And crime writers? “I guess everything has an influence – for good or ill. Agatha Christie, as a kid. Those Tom Adams covers had me hooked. Around 1975, the BBC aired the Ellery Queen Whodunit series, which was fantastic, if short-lived. Conan Doyle, naturally. Like a lot of boys, I’m sure Ian Fleming was an early influence. I’d write Bond knock-offs over the summer holidays, filling exercise books with chapter after chapter of derring-do!
“An English teacher – Mr Harris – indulged my scribbling and pointed me towards Chandler and Hammett, and the whole hard-boiled school. My interest was fired further by a string of adaptations of Chandler on Radio 4, starring the late, great Ed Bishop as Philip Marlowe.
“These days, I try not to miss any of Martin Cruz Smith’s Arkady Renko novels. The late, great Ruth Rendell writing as Barbara Vine was and remains another favourite. I don’t know if you’d class it as crime, but the early Len Deighton novels featuring the nameless hero, upon which the Michael Caine movies were based, have owned my heart ever since I first read them in my teens.”
Then, extremely weird to find myself back in Reading School in 'Icarus', which turns Unman Wittering and Zigo into If... but also features the death of Fancy. What on earth was he doing in there?
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