On January 6, 1987, "The Dead Of Jericho", the first Inspector Morse mystery, debuted on British television and introduced the world to a new phenomenon. Morse was unlike anything John had played before, in fact the complete opposite of the rough-and-tumble Regan he had played in The Sweeney. Gone were the car chases and shoot-outs; instead was a more thoughtful, cerebral story that relied more on characterization and deduction than violent gunplay. It quickly gained a reputation as being perhaps "the most intelligent show on television today." Morse was a character with many human flaws: morose, brooding, melancholy, a devoted bachelor with a poor track record of successful relationships with women. Here was a detective who often ignored forensic science, and couldn't stand the sight of blood. He had a passion for opera and classical music, a love of classic cars (his 1959 red Jaguar Mark II became a Morse trademark), a talent for crossword puzzles, and a thirst for beer. Indeed, it became a common feature in each mystery for Morse to visit the local area pub to mull over the case he was currently working on over a pint (or two) of ale.

Never one to try and grab the spolight, Thaw shared the show's success with a wonderful cast of supporting characters, chief among these his partner Detective Sergeant Robert Lewis, brilliantly played by Kevin Whateley, and his long-suffering boss, Chief Superintendant Strange, played by the talented James Grout, and produced initially by another longtime colleague, Kenny McBain. Inspector Morse also broke new ground in that a regular series of any kind had never been tried before in a 2-hour format. Viewers were quickly drawn to the ever-changing and growing relationship between Morse and Lewis, evolving from that of superior to mentor to an almost father-son relationship. Indeed, Morse came to regard Lewis in many respects as the family he never had, and they came to rely on each other's strength and weaknesses to complement each other perfectly. No better duo had been seen since the days of Holmes & Watson.

As the series grew over the years, a number of interesting aspects were soon noticed. To begin with, for almost the series' entire run Colin Dexter never revealed his character's first name, and it was a preference for Inspector Morse simply to be known by his last name. It was rumored that the "morse code" heard in the background during the closing credit's haunting theme music revealed that name to sharp-minded viewers, but this was not the case as author Colin Dexter himself did not even make up his own mind what that name would be until the next-to-last episode: "Endeavour" (Morse's father, apparently, being a fan of Captain Cook's voyages of exploration). Dexter himself, the son of a taxi-driver father and mother who worked in a butcher shop in Stamford, Lincolnshire, took to making Hitchcock-like appearances in each and every episode, and it soon became a game among Morse fans to see if they could spot him. The original series music by composer Barrington Pheloung became highly popular and ultimately spawned four different soundtrack albums. The town of Oxford, known chiefly as a quiet, rural community mostly based around the famed university, with only one verified killing in 50 years, quickly became dubbed as "the murder capital of the world" as more and more victims piled up in each new mystery Dexter wrote for Morse to solve. Indeed, the series racked up an impressive body count of 94 victims during its long run. (For a look at Carlton-TV's official promotional brochure on Inspector Morse, CLICK HERE.)