The Following Interview Comes From Carlton TV - Life's never straightforward for Inspector Morse. Even in the final stages of the great detective's last performance, things were never destined to run smoothly. "We were using a hand-held camera to film the scene when Morse collapses," John recalls as he played out the beginning of the inspector's end in the quad of Exeter College. "On the shout of 'Action!', the camera wouldn't start - three times they said action and it still wouldn't work. Finally it sprang into life at the fourth attempt. To this day, they still don't know what was wrong." But though the camera may have known - like the cast and crew - that this was the end for the great Oxford detective, Colin Dexter's decision to let Morse meet his end took John completely by surprise. We spoke to John Thaw about his 14-year-career as Morse and his feelings as the era of Morse has come to a close.

Morse.co.uk: John, how did you initially become involved in acting?

JT: I was involved in school plays but when I left school I did a couple of odd jobs as a bakers apprentice and then as a fruit market porter in Manchester. I went to a youth club in Manchester at the same time where we used to do concerts and shows. Someone pointed out to me I should have a go at doing it [acting] for real so I went back to my headmaster and asked how I should go about it. He suggested 'The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art' (RADA) so I found a lady who was involved with the youth club who taught me elocution and then I went for a RADA audition and was offered a place .

Morse.co.uk: Executive Producer, Ted Charles, said that when you were first offered the role of Morse you were hesitant; why is that?

JT: Because I'd already played a policeman in The Sweeny. I'd played this part for four years, we'd done two successful feature films and I thought well, I've done policeman now. When Ted came up with Morse I thought this was really pushing my luck, to play another one and I remember speaking to the late Kenny McBain, who produced the first series of Morse and I said "What's different? Persuade me that Morse is a good part to do." I hadn't read the book at this time and Kenny's description of the guy as being a music lover, a more cerebral person than old steely Jack Reegan convinced me that it was different enough to give it a go.

Morse.co.uk: Why do you think the show has been so successful? What are the key reasons for its success?

JT: For my money, it's because it's quality. It's quality TV and I think the audience knows the difference these days. When we started we started with a film crew a lot of whom had worked on Superman, the set people - some of them had won Oscars. I mean, we had some of the best film directors and they set the standard and in those first two or three films because of the people involved in making it that set the standard. I think one of the things that makes it different from other mystery dramas is that the writers have built up the Morse and Lewis characters, and their relationship. You're fascinated how these two men get to the result they get to. It's watching them work; weaving their way through this old plot as it were. It's the way they do it as opposed to other detectives, so in that sense the episodes are often more about the characters than about "who dunnit?" We all know that somebody did it but how did they find the answer?

Morse.co.uk: What is your interpretation of Morse as a character?

JT: Shakespeare said, "No man is an island". I think sadly that Morse thinks that he is and can exist on his own and he only realises at the end that he can't and never really has been able to. He's a sad man and I feel sorry for him, possibly not as sorry as he feels for himself in his quiet moments at home in his flat. I think he has those moments in the middle of the night where he thinks "Hey, wait a moment I've got this all wrong" but when he wakes up there's something in him that drives him on, i.e. being a policeman - trying to find the answer. In the same way he's fascinated by crosswords, the puzzle of solving the murder is what drives him on and when that's gone, when he's solved that particular clue, then he's back to reality and he doesn't like the reality of it. I think that's why he drinks more than most. He's also fascinating because of his fallibility; he's not Superman. Throughout the series, as we know, time and time again he's got it wrong. Halfway through an episode he'll say "I know what happened - this and that and that..." and he's quite, quite wrong and we don't realise that for another half and hour. As I say, his fallibility both as a policeman and as a human being, I think we can all identify and empathise with him in some way and think "Oh thank God, he's not James Bond and not Sherlock Holmes".

Morse.co.uk: What about his unorthodox methods? He's been called "a poor policeman but a very good detective". Tell us about those strengths and comparative weaknesses of Morse.

JT: I think that thing about him being "a poor policeman but a good detective" is a very good description of him. He would never have been able to follow the rules in the police sense. He certainly wouldn't be any good at that because his brain doesn't work like that. You can't say to someone with a brain like Morse "This is the way you do it, regardless of the circumstances; this is the way it is done." He can't have that; his brain is too open to other possibilities and that's why he's a good detective because he has to go through all sorts of possibilities to solve a murder.

Morse.co.uk: Are you similar to your character at all?

JT: I like classical music and the poetry of A.E. Housman like Morse, but I can't do crosswords. And although I now don't drink at all, I have never liked beer!

Morse.co.uk: Morse has no real life partners, no wife and no girlfriend. Is his relationship with women a difficult one?

JT: The problem is, he falls in love; he's a romantic but the point is he's too self-centred, too selfish. He can't give of himself, he can't give the last ounce which I think you need to be able to give if you're to love somebody and be loved and he can't do it; he holds something back and says "This is mine, I'm not giving you everything. I'm keeping a little bit back for myself" and that's no good. The relationship won't work and you see this time and time again. Of course there are also times when he's banging his head against a brick wall with a lady and he'll go all gaga about her and she thinks "Ugh!" about this white haired little old man and doesn't want to know and that's equally as sad.

Morse.co.uk: He might be a white haired little old man but he's extremely clever isn't he?

JT: Oh yeah. He's a very clever man, very well read, intellectual. He's a walking dictionary really but he's also an arrogant man. He doesn't have any friends. His closest friend is Lewis who's a workmate. I don't think Lewis wants to see him after work, in fact I know he doesn't - he's a happy family man. So he's got no friends and this is partly because of his arrogance. He can't help but show his superiority.

Morse.co.uk: Tell us about the relationship Morse shares with Lewis...

JT: Morse is an arrogant, rather pompous well-educated intellectual. Lewis is anything but. He's very straightforward, very down-to-earth, probably not all that educated - probably went to a good secondary modern, maybe a local grammar or something but it stopped there and then he joined the police force. I think Morse is a little patronising to Lewis a lot of the time but he envies him. Morse envies Lewis - his certainties about life and his certainties that he's going to go home and his wife's going to be there and his two children and his home and everything that that involves is going to be there for him and Morse doesn't have that and envies him. Therefore you've got a classic sort of double-act.

Morse.co.uk: But Morse is almost cruel to Lewis at times...

JT: Yes he is. Most of the time Morse is aware that he's being cruel to him and immediately regrets it. There have in fact been times when Morse consciously tries to change his approach to Lewis and starts to say "Thank you Lewis" quite deliberately. He realises he's going a bit too far with him. But when Morse says thank you, it's said in such a way that it sounds like he doesn't mean it!

Morse.co.uk: What holds the characters' relationship together?

JT: I think trust is important in anything and with these two it's vital. Trust is something we need whatever job we do; whatever relationship we're in. I think that Lewis trusts Morse implicitly. If Morse says he'll do something he knows that he'll do it and vice-versa. If they've got their backs against the wall on any occasion, they can trust each other to help.

Morse.co.uk: And now the final Morse performance is over, how do you feel about not working with Kevin Whately any more?

JT: I'll miss working with Kevin - that was one of the first things I thought when I finished watching 'The Remorseful Day'. From the start, we used to share a caravan - we got on so well - and go through our lines. Kevin is very easy to like. Of course I had my eyes closed for Morse's final scene with Lewis, so couldn't see what Kevin was doing. But when I watched the film, I thought he did it beautifully - as did Jimmy Grout.

Morse.co.uk: As you filmed your final scenes for 'The Remorseful Day', did you have any particular feelings in terms of your own mortality?

JT: Oh very much so yes, throughout the filming of the episode because he's ill right from the beginning. I began to feel unwell because before each scene you have to say to yourself "remember you're ill." I used to go home and feel really unwell. I think there's a lot in this psychosomatic thing!

Morse.co.uk: When the final tape was ready you watched it on your own. What did you think as you watched it?

JT: I thought yeah it's a good film, a good script. You look at it as objectively as you can. At the end though I was choked up to say the least. I thought that last panning shot across the roofs of Oxford beautifully finished it for me. It's a very moving little film.


Morse.co.uk: How do you feel about saying farewell to Inspector Morse?

JT: I have mixed feelings about it. It's sad since I'm losing one of my favorite characters. I've enjoyed doing it very much, and I feel very proud to have created a character that is so respected. On the other hand, as an actor, I have more freedom now to do other things.

Morse.co.uk: What's been most challenging about the role?

JT: Without question just keeping it fresh-for me and the audience. That's been my job for 13-some years.

Morse.co.uk: Morse is very subtle yet very expressive. Do you have to work at this as an actor?

JT: Yes, I give it a lot of time and a lot of thought just to make it fresh and subtle and believable. That's my main task really-to make viewers believe that this is a real man with real problems. It's consciously done. I'm not an instinctive actor.

Morse.co.uk: What will you miss most about playing the character?

JT: I will miss working with Kevin [Whately]. I think we have a great rapport together. I'll miss that contact with him as an actor. Parts like Morse don't grow on trees. That's another reason I'll be sad, because he's a great character. He's so complex and there are so many sides to him which, for an actor, is a joy. In one scene he'll be churlish-he's not exactly the kindest person in the world-and yet in the very next scene he'll be a sensitive, caring man in a totally different situation.

Morse.co.uk: Has he evolved over the past thirteen years?

JT: Oh yes. No question. He has gotten more sensitive than in the very early episodes. I think the series has gotten more elegiac, both in the style in which it is shot and in the way it is written and performed.

Morse.co.uk: Do you have a favorite episode?

JT: I have two or three. For sentimental reasons, I like the very first one we did: The Dead of Jericho. There, we were laying down the roots for all the years to come. I like the one called Masonic Mysteries, which was quite different. For other reasons I like the one we shot in Australia-Promised Land-which finishes with Morse walking up the steps of the Sydney Opera House to the strains of Der Rosenkavalier, the Strauss opera. I thought that was very touching. That was shot by John Madden who did Shakespeare in Love.

Morse.co.uk: What other traits do you share with Morse?

JT: I'm an introspective person. I'm not an extrovert.

Morse.co.uk: In the last film, Morse is very sick. Is it difficult to play a person who is chronically ill?

JT: It showed me the importance of mind over matter, because I was concentrating on remembering all day long that I was ill. When we got up to do a scene, I'd say to myself, 'Now remember, you're a very sick man.' And that carried over, so that when I got home, I'd be thinking, 'I really don't feel well at all.' I couldn't get away-from that feeling of not feeling well.

Morse.co.uk: There have been many "final" episodes. Just for the record, is it impossible for Morse to come back now?

JT: Yes-unless he comes back as a ghost. I think this is why Colin wanted to make a real end. There is no more final end than death. This is it!

Morse.co.uk: Is there one moment in the whole of the series that stands out in your memory?

JT: One moment? Yes. There's one thing that sticks out above all others in my memory and that is the day Colin Dexter bought a drink! It was about 8 years ago I think. I can't remember the specific day but it sticks in my memory!

Morse.co.uk: And a last word from The Man himself...

JT: I've enjoyed Morse more than anything I've done; I've loved working with Kevin and the crew. It's like meeting old friends every time we do it. My message to Colin Dexter is a big thank-you.

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This farewll to Morse comes from Ron Miller, author of the popular book "Mystery! A Celebration" - When John Thaw died on February 21, 2002, of esophageal cancer at the premature age of 60, he knew he was leaving behind a remarkable legacy of accomplishment as an actor. In fact he knew many millions of mystery fans already considered him a show business immortal because of just one role, his greatest: Chief Inspector Morse.

Ironically the last Thaw performance most of us saw was the dying Morse in last year's The Remorseful Day, the final Inspector Morse mystery. Morse, too, was struck down by illness, long before his time, leaving millions of us mourning, tears in our eyes for the cranky old Thames Valley police detective we'd come to love over the years.

Before he died, Thaw made peace with the knowledge that he'd always be remembered as Inspector Morse, in spite of all the roles he'd played. He once told me he regularly received letters from fans who thought he really was Morse. "Women write to me 10 to 1 over men," Thaw told me. "I really think they're writing to Morse, not to me, which I find kind of sad. I think it's sad they have to tell their troubles to that man they watch on the box in the corner of their rooms."

When first approached to play Morse, Thaw read one Colin Dexter's novels and decided he didn't like the man much. But then he began to realize there were some subtle things that really appealed to him, especially Morse's love of classical music and opera. "I love music," said Thaw, "and I listen to it the way Morse does. It helps me to think, to learn my lines. I thought that was a pretty good indication of what kind of guy he was. That was the key for me."

Thaw's instincts were correct. Though Morse was a bachelor, a heavy drinker, and a very hard man to live with at times, he grew on viewers week after week until he was perhaps the most beloved of all the detectives in the MYSTERY! family. Thaw reasoned that people responded to Morse's faults and imperfections, perhaps feeling that made him one of them. "His viewers run the gamut from bus drivers to judges to academics," Thaw told me. "They're always very polite to me. They seem to want to express their gratitude for giving them so much pleasure."

Author Colin Dexter sensed the public's love for Thaw's Morse and never cared that the actor didn't resemble the man on the printed page much. Thaw also had great respect for Dexter and took pride that "his descriptions of the character in the later books are actually descriptions of me." When Dexter finally decided to reveal Morse's never-before-disclosed first name -- Endeavor -- one of the first persons he told it to was John Thaw. "It was very sweet of him," Thaw told me. "At that stage, only Colin, his wife and I knew the name."

After playing Morse for several seasons, Thaw began to take on a genuine proprietary interest in the show, though he didn't own any part of it. In the final years, he negotiated the title of "executive producer" for himself by involving his own production company with the program. Though quite common in the U.S., where the stars of long-running TV series often begin to "take over" their show, that move was extremely rare in British television. "Artistically, I have a big input," Thaw told me. "I have a say over who writes them and who directs them."

At the heart of the show's success was the fact that Thaw brought warmth, sincerity, and great understanding to the Morse character. Viewers really felt for him when he was frustrated in his many attempts to have a long-term relationship with a woman -- and showed the hurt in his eyes. They understood when he often went off in the wrong direction on a case and earned some disparaging remarks from his superiors. For his obvious vulnerability, we all forgave his frequent crankiness and his insults to poor Sergeant Lewis, his loyal assistant.

In The Remorseful Day, the final chapter in the long career of Chief Inspector Morse, the grand old man of MYSTERY! enjoys the sort of wistful, affectionate sendoff that every great detective might envy. Well, perhaps "enjoys" isn't quite the proper word, considering Morse neither gets to toast this special occasion with a glass of beer nor wave good-bye over a rousing Wagnerian chorus. In fact, Morse really isn't feeling all that well when the final curtain falls. Remorseful Day author Colin Dexter, whose novel was adapted for the TV finale of MYSTERY!, clearly wanted Morse to leave totally in character, without putting his fans through the ordeal of excessive keening and wailing. Morse hates that sort of thing.

Rather than turn the final Morse into some kind of holy tribute, Dexter chose instead to air just a bit more of the old boy's dirty laundry. Morse becomes the object of suspicion in his final case -- the gruesomely kinky murder of Yvonne Harrison, a frolicsome nurse Morse is romancing. He is so smitten that one of his love letters nearly winds up in the official evidence bag. Even if Morse does cover up his involvement somewhat with the murdered lady, we fans certainly know he couldn't have committed the crime. That's because we've seen the squeamish Morse lose his lunch so many times at murder scenes -- not exactly modus operandi for a cold-blooded killer. Still, the coincidence gives the mischievous Dexter an excuse to play a familiar refrain -- the one about how unlucky Morse always was when it came to picking the women in his life.

Dexter has always had lots of fun exposing Morse's vulnerability, starting with his unfulfilled longing to be some poor woman's husband. Morse is much too fussy and cranky to be put up with by any normal woman, so Dexter wisely dodges any thought of sending the old boy off to retirement as a married man. Instead, he maintains the integrity of this brilliant and beloved character, even if it means putting him in an embarrassing jam just when Sergeant Lewis, Superintendent Strange, and the rest of us are feeling more than a little sad. It seems to me Dexter strikes just the right tone with his farewell to Morse. That isn't easy. Finding the right way to say good-bye to a great detective character has troubled so many masters of mystery that very few have actually done it.

Some mystery writers simply can't bring themselves to "wrap up" a favorite character. Not long ago I asked Robert B. Parker, creator of the long-running Spenser mysteries, if he'll write a finale when the time comes. His answer: "No. His end will be coincidental with mine." But if there's a standard reason why writers don't "finish off" their heroes, this is surely it: It's bad for business. That attitude probably dates back to the late 19th century, when Arthur Conan Doyle grew tired of writing Sherlock Holmes stories and killed Holmes off in a fight to the death with Professor Moriarty. There was so much public outrage at Holmes's death that Doyle realized he'd better find a way for Holmes to survive that struggle at the Reichenbach Falls if he wanted to continue making a living as a writer.

In 1917, Doyle once more tried to say good-bye to Sherlock in His Last Bow, which involved Holmes in World War I espionage. Doyle even wrote a scene in which Sherlock poignantly tells Dr. Watson: "Stand with me here upon the terrace, for it may be the last quiet talk that we shall ever have." But once burned, Doyle resisted the temptation to have somebody pronounce Holmes dead. And sure enough, he went back to writing more stories and didn't stop until 1927 -- three years before his own death. In the final story, The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place, a robust Holmes delivers his final line: "It is nearly midnight, Watson, and I think we may make our way back to our humble abode."

Today, mystery writers with popular characters like Morse realize many others now have a stake in them, including agents, publishers, networks, and movie studios. They're constantly advised against killing them off for fear it will derail the gravy train. But some authors, like Dexter, just don't like leaving loose ends behind. They want to finish the hero's life story themselves, not risk the possibility that somebody else might do it after they're gone.

That's why Agatha Christie decided to write Curtain, the finale for her master detective, Hercule Poirot. Like Conan Doyle, Christie had grown tired of her hero, but knew he was still "good business." So in the mid-1940s, she wrote the novel in which Poirot dies, then put it away until 1975, when her own health had deteriorated badly. (Christie died in 1976, after Curtain had become a best-seller.) Curtain could be the model for all career-ending detective mysteries. It surely must have influenced Dexter, a lifelong Christie admirer. In the novel, Christie rang all the bells Poirot fans needed to hear. She showed him in advanced old age, ailing and confined to a wheelchair, but still with his "little gray cells" functioning well enough to solve his final mystery. She also reunited him with his old sidekick, Hastings, and brought them both full circle to the very scene of their first adventure: Styles Court, setting for Christie's first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles.

Christie wanted to write her own epitaph for Poirot, which she did in his final message to Hastings: "We shall not hunt together again, my friend.... They were good days. Yes, they have been good days." Dexter's epitaph for Morse is equally poignant. In the final paragraphs of The Remorseful Day, Chief Superintendent Strange startles Sergeant Lewis by revealing one last noble act by Morse. Then, as if speaking for Dexter to all the Morse fans around the world, he adds, "So just keep thinking well of him, Lewis -- that's all I ask."

When the series ended its run in early 2001, Inspector Morse had become the longest running detective series in the 22-year history of the MYSTERY! series -- 64 episodes over 13 years, starting with The Dead of Jericho in 1988. Thaw knew he owed a great debt to the role because, "It has made me very materially comfortable. I don't have to work again in a series. If I do anything now, it's because I really want to do it, not just to pay the rent."

Once the Morse series wound down to just a pair of movie-length episodes per year, Thaw took on another series, Kavanagh, Q.C., playing a lawyer with a family, quite a departure from the Morse character. But he remained loyal to Morse despite a couple of announcements that he'd finished with the character, always coming back to the role when Dexter had a new Morse novel for them to film.

When I asked him why he always came back to Morse, Thaw conceded he still loved playing him, but mostly came back because, "It'll give the fans a lot of pleasure and, after all, that's my job, isn't it?" Well, the truth is John Thaw gave us a very great deal of pleasure for a very long time and, like Inspector Morse, he did his job awfully well. They'll both be missed more than we can say.

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And here is what Kevin Whatley had to say about working with John and his years on Inspector Morse - After the success of the series 'Auf Wiedersehen Pet', Kevin met John Thaw to read for the part of Lewis but at the time it didn't look like he'd be able to take part in the new detective drama. "I thought I wouldn't be able to appear in Morse anyway, because at the time I was in a Ray Cooney comedy out of town," he explains. "We thought it would come into the West End for a long run - but luckily it flopped in somewhere like Hornchurch or Bromley and left me free to be Lewis!"

Kevin recalls that first meeting with John: "He was eyeballing me, working out whether we could work together! But it did click very early on." Looking back at this year's filming of the last episode, he says he didn't dwell on thoughts of Lewis's final scene with Morse, filmed just three days before the end of shooting. "We were quite busy with all the other scenes, though obviously it lurked in the back of everyone's minds." "On the day itself, I woke up thinking 'Bloody hell, this is it!'"

Only two takes were needed for the scene, which Kevin reckons is par for the course in filming these days. "When you've got an emotional scene like that, you sometimes want to do it a dozen times," he says. "But that would only have given a slight variation on what we did film."

Kevin, who didn't appear in the 1998 film 'The Wench Is Dead', says that filming the last 'Morse' film was odd for him, in contrast to the rest of the regular cast and crew. "In a way I had already said goodbye to Morse and Lewis when I filmed what I thought was the last one for me, 'Death Is Now My Neighbour', in 1997," he explains.

However he didn't need any persuading to come back for the last ever Morse. "I wouldn't have missed it at all - particularly as Morse dies. It would have been very churlish not to be in it." One of the main regrets for Kevin is that it is unlikely that he and John Thaw will ever work together again. "I'd love to but the reality is that you couldn't do it. It'd be too jarring for an audience. This is so high profile that something else, particularly on screen, would be too odd I think for an audience."

The relationship between Morse and Lewis has progressed through the years and is at it's strongest in the final performance. Kevin believes the unspoken comprehension between the two characters is vital and that they play off each others strengths. "Lewis is much more 'the common man' on whom the cerebral Morse relies to do the dirty work," he says. "And, after all, if Morse and Lewis got on like a house on fire, it would have made fairly dull television!"

Looking into a Morse crystal ball, Kevin reckons that Lewis, who has been on an inspectors' course before the start of 'The Remorseful Day', would eventually have won promotion. "Presumably, it would have been at Morse's expense," he concludes, "but who knows?"

Kevin readily admits how Insepctor Morse has opened acting doors for him, starting with a long run in Peak Practice. "Playing Lewis has taken 14 years out of my 25-year career - more than half my acting life. And it's certainly something I never expect to equal again in terms of success, viewing figures and quality."

Whately, who as Sgt Lewis acted alongside Thaw for all 13 years of the ITV drama series, said the country had lost its "finest screen actor" in John's passing, while he had lost a "great pal and mentor". Despite efforts to tell the actor about his friend's death on Thursday afternoon, Whately had been at the opera in London and only learnt of it yesterday morning. He said: "John had a wonderful sense of humour which is belied sometimes by journalists' impressions of him as irascible. "In between takes he was like an Irish storyteller in a bar - he wouldn't tell jokes, just stories and you would find yourself rolling around and crying with laughter." He described his fond memories of a dedicated but humorous actor who loved to tell stories and mimic their directors.

Speaking on a tribute programme broadcast last night on ITV, Whately revealed that Thaw was a "wonderful mimic" - "particularly of people on the set rather than famous people. He would pick up a director's little tics very fast," he said. The pair shared a caravan together during filming and Whately said he could not remember them ever exchanging a bad word. "I remember his incredibly fierce concentration. It could be quite scary. But John loved doing the work and that concentration came out of that; it was all important to get it right." He and Thaw had a lot in common, Whately added. "We are similarly shy and not showbizzy types. He loathed the whole celebrity circuit."

Alongside playing the long-suffering Sergeant Lewis, Kevin has appeared in stage productions like 'Twelve Angry Men' and 'How I Learned To Drive at the Donmar Warehouse'; starred in 'Peak Practice' creator Lucy Gannon's 'Trip Trap' and 'Pure Wickedness', the series 'The Broker's Man' and the film 'Gobble'. Kevin appeared in the Oscar-laden film 'The English Patient', directed by Anthony Minghella, with whom he became friends after Anthony wrote the first ever Morse screenplay.

Since filming 'The Remorseful Day', Kevin has made Lucy Gannon's new two-part drama 'Plain Jane' for Carlton, to be seen next year. In this, he plays David Bruce, newly arrived in Edwardian London with his wife Dora, played by Lesley Manville, to take up a post as manager with the London Gas Company. He can also be seen in the newly-released British feature film 'Purely Belter'.

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Here is an interview with Morse creator Colin Dexter about the time "Death Is Now My Neighbour" was published (1996) -

Q: It is well known where the character of Morse is drawn from, but what about the character of Lewis?

A: Well, nowhere in particular. When I first wrote him he was the same age as me, but we've conveniently forgotten that now because T.V has made him so much younger. Lewis is an amalgamation of people, but certainly in the first book I thought he was a grandfather. But having forgotten what I wrote in the first book it doesn't really bother me.

Q: Do you think that your writing has changed as a consequence of being represented on television?

A: Well not with Morse at all, I think he's as miserable and mean-spirited and mean-pocketed as ever he was, isn't he? He's a bit melancholy and sad and pessimistic about the universe and I think that John does him very well. But certainly from the Lewis point of view it makes it difficult sometimes yes. But I solve the problem easily by ignoring it. Instead of putting "The burly, middle-aged grandfather walked into the room", I put "Lewis walked into the room". No problem then.

Q: You've been quoted as saying that not buying a round is a worse crime than adultery. Is there a worse crime than not buying a round?

A:There's not much is there? I don't know if you ever go to a pub, and somebody hangs back, and just when all the glasses are going he gets up, or she gets up, and says "I'm awfully sorry but I've got to go". And I feel really that these people are disastrous in a social sense. At least there's something to be said for adultery, but there's nothing at all to be said for just being so miserably mean-pocketed that you never buy a round, and Morse is like that. Poor old Lewis is on half the salary and has to buy nine tenths of the beer.

Q: Do you have a favourite beer?

A: I like any beer. I'm not really a fan of any particular beers or pubs. What I am a fan of is the landlord, if the landlord can keep the beer well he's a friend of mine. But so many landlords haven't got a clue, they don't know anything about storage or temperatures. So if I find a good pub with a good landlord then that's my favourite.

Q: In the past you've talked about Morse's pessimism and you've said that you share some of that pessimism.

A: I'm profoundly pessimistic about the future of the human race. It's not just a question of Adolf Hitler or Saddam Hussein, wherever you look there's immense cruelty and signs of man's inhumanity to man. We learn more about it than we used to. I do feel more and more pessimistic about the ability of the human race to survive with itself.

Q: Is that in an environmental or military sense?

A: Environmental, certainly. But military above all I think. We are lacking any compassionate interest in our fellow human beings, you see it all the time and you see more of it now. I don't give us much chance; two or three decades.

Q: You have been quoted as saying that in your view there are three main accolades for a crime writer: to be mentioned in Private Eye; to be awarded a dagger by the Crime Writers Association; and to be included in the summer selection that the Royal Family takes to Balmoral every year. Now, you've achieved all of those, but which gave you the most satisfaction?

A: I've won a diamond dagger from the Crime Writer's Association. I think that because it's not given for an individual book, it's given for services to crime fiction. I won that last year and only twelve people have won it.

Q: In the early series of Morse, Anthony Minghella was a writer and Danny Boyle was a writer and director. Did you work with them much?

A: Yes, I worked with them a lot. Anthony did the first one we ever did, The Dead Of Jericho, and that was excellent. I got to know him quite well, and we did try to get him to do one or two of the later screen plays , but he was engaged in rather more important things. I do have contact with the directors but above all I have contact with the screenplay. Usually I go through these with the producer rather than the director, and very often with the actual screenwriter.

Q: Is there any significance to Morse's car registration -248 RPA?

A: No, I don't think there is. We tried to get a Lancia but instead we got this clapped out pre-electrics non-M.O.T. Jaguar.

Q: You don't like it?

A: Yes, but it's a bugger to drive according to everybody who drives it.

Q: You're quoted as saying that once you start to write, ideas happen in an almost physical way. Can you elaborate on that?

A: Well I think that you've got to be prepared to write a load of nonsense to start with and then you can tart it up. The business of getting going, getting started, is enormously important , and this can be physical. Solvitur Ambulando as the Romans used to say, which means the solution comes through walking.

Q: Morse's lustfulness and alcohol dependency have been watered down for television. Does that worry you? Does it make him a different character?

A: No, I think that T.V. and radio and novels are totally different mediums. When you've got an hour and 5 minutes to squash 360 pages, things have got to go; literary clues have got to go, an awful lot of thinking has got to go. You can't think on the T.V. and you can't drink that much on the T.V. Morse is not giving up booze, it's the only thing that he's not giving up.

Q: You say that you began writing Morse on a wet family holiday in Wales in 1972. And, from what I can make out, it was, initially at least, a product of boredom. Is that accurate?

A: My children used to ask why I didn't take them to places where the sun was always shining like everybody else's father did. Everybody gets fed up with children on holiday, especially when it's raining. Anyway, there where two detective stories there and I read them and thought that they were pretty ordinary, and I thought that I could do just as well. I didn't write very much when I started, I think I only wrote two paragraphs or one page at the outside. But that was the time I thought I'd try to write.

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'The Wench Is Dead' was dramatised by the novelist, critic and part-time Professor of American Studies, Malcolm Bradbury. He is the author of six novels, one of which, 'Rates Of Exchange', (1983) was short-listed for The Booker Prize. His critical work has included essays on the American novel and he co-edited the Penguin Book of Modern British Short Stories. Malcolm's writing for television includes 'The Gravy Train' and 'The Gravy Train Goes East'. He has adapted Tom Sharpe's 'Porterhouse Blue' and Kingsley Amis' 'The Green Man' for television. Here is Mr. Bradbury speaking about his first Morse adaptation -

Q: The Colin Dexter novel on which the show is based is quite different from the other books. What were the specific challenges of adaptation?

A: It has all sorts of dramatic problems...It was out of line with other Morse stories and posed three main problems.

Q: Firstly, for quite a lump of the story, Morse is actually in hospital and that's an inhibitor of action. I had to get him out of bed more quickly. And also I had to find a way of making the story he was investigating real.

A: Morse gets involved in the case through research and there was the problem that you can't just have him reading a book on television, so I had to invent the author of the book. Which meant inventing a whole new character that wasn't in the novel. That was Millie Van Buren played by Lisa Eichorn. The third challenge came halfway through when we discovered we didn't have Lewis. That meant inventing a whole new side-kick. As it happened, it turned into an advantage because, given Lewis' down-to-earth nature, he wasn't the natural side-kick fo this particular story. Whereas Kershaw, who is a graduate fast-track trainee, is just the sort you need to chase down Victorian evidence.

Q: Colin's book was inspired by an actual murder case. Can you tell us a bit about that?

A: It was a sensational murder case. I think the victim's name was Christina Collins, she was killed by boatmen and it happened on the canal system, but not in Oxford...Colin Dexter refers in his acknowledgements to accounts of this case which helped him think up his own story. There was a pamphlet written by a man called John Godwin about the murder. But Colin moved far away from that. I moved it even further away from the historical factual murder of Christina Collins.

Q: What were the most interesting things you discovered during your research for the show?

A: I think Colin's instinct about what makes a good Oxford story is very good. Oxford was a great canal city, the canal system came right through from the Mersey in the North to Oxford, then it came out onto the Thames. Oxford was a hub city for the whole canal system. And there's a great canal basin in the site which is now Nuffield College. It was filled in. The canal basin was actually opposite the prison where the gallows were. So there is this wonderful dramatic space in the middle of Oxford. There was a community of boat people who lived (in the basin) in an area called Fisher Row. And they used to fight the undergraduates of the University. A kind of eternal war went on which was called the Town and Gown. This war was actually affected by the real court case of Christina Collins. The boatmen were seen as the lowest of the low. They were seen as heathens. Because they had to work seven days a week, they couldn't go to church. And they couldn't go to school either. As a result of the real case, the university students began to evangelise on the river. They built floating chapels to Christianise the boatmen. This is an important part of Oxford history.

Q: Did you have any contact with Colin Dexter while you were writing the adaptation?

A: I met him a couple of times...The golden rule with these things is that the writer has to have a free hand and Colin didn't interfere in any way. I love the book. It was obviously difficult to adapt and Colin knew that himself.

Q: Were you a fan of the Morse books and shows before being asked to do this adaptation?

A: I've read the Morse books from the early days because I see Colin as in that great tradition of the academic crime writer which goes back to Dorothy Sayers. I started reading them because I read their predecessors. I thought they were brilliant re-interpretations and that this generation of crime writers is deeply indebted to Colin. Morse the show is an extraordinary piece of television development. Everything about it; the quality of the filming, the two hour story that lets you build character. The fact that the locations are real. There's not too much studio, so you actually get the magic of Oxford into the show. By now it's world classic stuff.

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A PEEK INSIDE THE MORSE CODA - By Robert N. Jenkins, St. Petersburg Times, Febuary 18, 2001 - (The Mystery! episode airing this month, based upon the most recent Inspector Morse novel, furthers our insight into the character's personality but lacks the finessing touch of his creator.) Inspector Morse is the second most successful series of detective stories, following only the redoubtable Sherlock Holmes. So what's wrong with these pictures, all 33 of them?

Our protagonist is notable because he is bombastic, irascible, harsh to his loyal assistant -- and frequently 180 degrees off the mark when pontificating solutions to problems. Yet he is so popular that an estimated 1-billion people have watched his 33 television episodes. How can this be? How can we want to watch, or read about, such an arrogant person?

Because all these traits prove that Chief Inspector Morse is human. Matching his genius at mysteries and at the London Times crosswords -- he ultimately does solve every case, and he times himself completing the puzzles -- Morse's frailties and failings are so large as to be life-defining in the real world.

The stories themselves are more than entertaining. Says Rebecca Eaton, executive producer for PBS's Mystery series: The episodes "have the ingredients of classic detective stories. The plots are satisfyingly complicated -- not just murder jigsaw puzzles -- there is fabulously rich countryside." Morse himself, she says in a documentary about the series, "is a loner, brilliant, intuitive . . . He is not just a car-chase detective."

Then, too, the series' popularity is largely due to the performances of the actor who is Morse, John Thaw. Having lived inside the man's brain and body for 14 years, Thaw offers this view: "He is a poor policeman but a good detective: He would never be able to follow the rules . . . He's fallible as both a policeman and a human being," Thaw says in the documentary. "He is saddened, disturbed and upset by the fact that a fellow human being can do this (commit murder), but he is interested that someone can do this -- he wants to know why . . .

"Morse is rather pompous, well-educated, intellectual. Yet he envies (his assistant) Sgt. Lewis, envies Lewis' certainties of life (such as) going home to his wife and two children. Morse has no friends, partly because of his arrogance -- he can't help but show his superiority . . . He falls in love -- he's a romantic -- but he's too self-centered: He can't give the last ounce ... "I feel sorry for him."

Thaw has been bringing this humanity to author Colin Dexter's creation since the first Inspector Morse TV show, broadcast in January 1987. Thaw and his partner in the entire series, Kevin Whately as Lewis, filmed their final episode last September all about Oxford, England. There are scenes in the city's bus station, railway station, landfill, boat ramp, a college's chapel and its quadrangle, in pubs given fictitious names and in the Randolph Hotel, which portrays itself.

This final appearance of Morse results in a very dark and foreboding story that needed to be reflected in the way the film was shot. A lot of the story takes place at night with many hospital scenes. "We were trying to get a particular effect in the film of not being totally naturalistic," says director Jack Gold. "As this was the last one, I was trying to get a harder edge, more of a backlit effect."

This farewell episode is titled The Remorseful Day, based on Dexter's 1999 novel. Most fans of Morse will have read the book by now and thus know they have a reason to hesitate viewing the show. (I won't give away the ending here.) But what those fans do not know is that the producers drained much of the emotional and dramatic impact by failing to follow faithfully the 379-page novel. The poignant ending -- in the book, so well entwined with the revelation explaining Morse's mysterious actions -- is clumsily foreshadowed and ultimately seems an afterthought in the television show.

The problem appears to be that Dexter no longer is the chief scriptwriter. Too bad. Still, viewers who are not overly familiar with Morse may be swept up in the intricate plot, in which Morse pursues his familiar misjudgments even as more murders occur. And everyone watching will get an unusual view of the interaction between Morse and Sgt. Lewis, the too literal realization of the word "sidekick."

Lewis understands that when Morse is doing his best work, Lewis can learn from him. They do trade ideas, though Lewis' comments are often derided. But at odd moments, Morse will call Lewis "old friend," and Morse insists that Lewis be his assistant on all cases. Their relationship is never more central than in The Remorseful Day, which makes TV's rewriting, at Morse's expense, more startling.

Still, the issue is whether this is two hours of your time well-spent. A Dutch TV executive, commenting in the documentary, explains why she bought the Morse series for her viewers: "The actors, the plots and characters are all multidimensional. After a night watching Morse, you don't have this empty feeling that you often have after watching TV." That's true, even for The Remorseful Day.

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FIRST RECITAL OF NEW CHRISTMAS CAROL FROM MORSE COMPOSER - from Daventry Today (Dec.12, 2002) - A new Christmas carol written by the Inspector Morse composer and based on a Northamptonshire poem enjoyed a successful debut. More than 200 people gathered at a Holy Cross Church service in Daventry on Sunday evening to hear The Clare Carol which was written by Barrington Pherloung, the composer of the music for the television series Inspector Morse, with words based on a poem by John Clare. Owner of Braunston Marina, Tim Coghlan came up with the idea for the project and suggested it to Mr Pherloung when he met him at John Thaw’s memorial service. The service, conducted by the Rev Owen Page was well-attended and Mr Coghlan hopes over the next few years the carol will become better known. He said: “It was fantastic, brilliant, it was an enormous turn-out, a beautiful service and we had an encore. “It is always terrifying when you do something like this, it is like entering your baby in to a baby competition, it is very personal.” All the royalties will be given to Macmillan Cancer Relief in memory of John Thaw who died of cancer. Mr Coghlan, whose first wife died of cancer, hopes the charity will profit if the carol becomes successful.

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CASE CLOSED - (The following article by Hilary de Vries comes from TV Guide Magazine, February 17, 2001) - Inspector Morse, the cranky, wounded romantic who became Britain's favorite detective, solves his final mystery - Dour, misanthropic and on the far side of 40, Britain's Inspector Morse couldn't have looked less like a prime-time hero when he first hit the beat 13 years ago. And when John Thaw was initially asked to play the prickly Oxford detective, he turned the role down. "I'd already played a cockney policeman in a popular series called The Sweeney , and I wasn't too keen on doing another policeman", says the 59-year old actor from his home in London. "But then Inspector Morse turned out to be one of the most popular British TV programs ever made."

Did it ever. Based on the best-selling crime novels by Colin Dexter, Inspector Morse has been a staple on tellys in Britain, where it made Thaw a star. The series also became an international hit since its premiere in 1988. "Morse was so much deeper and more psychological than our previous mysteries," says Rebecca Eaton, executive producer of PBS's Mystery! "The stories were not just puzzles, and Morse had a beautiful melancholy that was really attractive. It very quickly became one of our most popular series."

But now Morse is coming to an end with The Remorseful Day. In the two-hour movie, based on Dexter's novel of the same name, an ailing Morse suffers a fatal heart attack while solving one final murder investigation. In addition to the film, PBS will also air The Last Morse, a special about the series that includes interviews with Thaw and costar Kevin Whately, who plays Morse's long-suffering sidekick, Sergeant Lewis.

"It's a mixture of sadness and joy, really," says Thaw of the show's end. "I've enjoyed doing it, but at the same time it's been like a stone 'round my neck because I've been doing it for such a long time and I've become very associated with it." Indeed, although he had been well known in his native Britain for playing Jack Regan in The Sweeney and has been seen by American audiences in such miniseries as A Year In Provence, Thaw found the role of his career in Morse.

The character's complexity - the university-educated Morse took refuge from his job's grim realities in books and opera - appealed to Thaw. "If you go back to Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie, their protagonists were principally there to act as problem solvers," he says. "But Morse is somebody you can relate to. You're there with him when he's feeling unhappy about people and how low they can sink. The detective part comes second."

Inspector Morse broke new ground in the well-plowed detective field, paving the way for other modern British investigators, including Helen Mirren's Jane Tennison on Prime Suspect. "Morse is a misanthropic figure who likes beer and music and can't relate to women - not the easiest thing to make a popular TV figure," says executive producer Ted Childs. "But I had a lot of admiration for John's craftsmanship, and I thought he could bring a lot to it."

Unlike Morse, Thaw is unfond of beer, never attended university and is happily married (to actress Sheila Hancock; the couple has three grown daughters). Still, Morse has become so identified with Thaw that Dexter began to write his novels with the actor and series in mind. "Oh, Colin admits that now," Thaw says with a laugh. "He didn't for some time, but he can't go on writing that Morse gets into his Lancia when everyone sees him with his Jaguar."

Nevertheless, 70-year-old Dexter chose to bring the curtain down on his beloved protagonist when he decided to retire himself. And though Morse's demise is confined to the show's final moments, shooting the last episodes brought its own unique challenges, not the least of which was a balky camera that eerily refused to work during the filming of Morse's collapse. "It sounds like an actor's story," says Thaw, "but it simply would not film that final bit."

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THAW BOOSTS TV EXPORTS - Actor John Thaw's legacy is still being felt by the UK's television industry as he remains one of the country's biggest exports (BBC News - March 20, 2003) - The Inspector Morse series and the adaptation of Goodnight Mr Toms have been sold to more than 200 countries in the past five years. Thaw, who died of cancer in February 2002, was one of Britain's best-loved stars. The only programme to have had a bigger impact was the one-off special Mole's Christmas, which was bought by more than 213 countries.

Statistics released by the British Television Distributors Association (BTDA) show that revenue from TV exports rose 6.6% to $666m (£425m) despite difficult trading conditions. The US is the most voracious buyer of UK products, buying up $232m (£148m) worth of programmes, an increase of 16.4% on 2001. The biggest seller of 2002 was a wildlife documentary called Bug World. The Granada programme was sold to 72 countries. Other popular exports from last year included the Worst Witch, Taggart and ITV1 drama Bob and Rose. The BBC's Natural World series was exported to 44 countries.


The rural goings-on in Yorkshire soap Emmerdale have proved a surprise export success, becoming a ratings winner in Norway where it even has its own fan club. Heartbeat, another distinctly British drama, is Norway's top-rated show. The French proved they did have a sense of humour when it bought the comedy Carry on Don't Lose Your Head - a parody of the Scarlet Pimpernel. Despite an overall increase in the export sales figures there was decline in the number of ready-made programmes sold. The drop has been blamed on the number of co-production deals where networks buy up a concept but adapt it for their own market. The BTDA represents more than 30 of the UK's distributors including BBC Worldwide, Granada and Carlton.

Articles & Interviews (Pt.2)