For those who like quality TV drama I wondered what you thought of the latest Morse spin-off, Endeavour?
Personally I simply loved Inspector Morse and to me it is right up there with the best of British TV. I still watch the repeats now and again and even if I remember the story I find them worth watching anyway simply because of the wonderful acting, scripts, locations and the excellent co-stars like John Gielgud, Robert Hardy, Barry Foster, Geoffrey Palmer and many more.
Also the relationships between Morse and Sgt Lewis and Morse and his boss CS Strange were most entertaining.
When Lewis began I was hopeful for more of the same but I found the plots weak and as the series progressed it seemed to me to focus more and more on Lewis' sargent, Hathaway. I didn't like this character nor Laurence Fox's portrail of him either. His mumbling plumy voice was most irritating and constant references to his past become boring for me.
When I heard about the Morse prequel Endeavour I was a little sceptical, was it just going to another Rock 'n Chips/Heartbeat/George Gently? I'd had it on my planner for a while and watched the other evening. It took me a while to get into it but I'm glad I persevered. The story was excellent and there were some fine performances, notably from Roger Allam as Insp.Thursday. Shaun Evans, who had the almost impossible task of playing a part made legendary by the late John Thaw, did a good job.
I hope they make some more of similar quality.
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Comments
I agree with you in regard to Lewis, I actually like George Gently, but then Martin Shaw is an actor that you either love or dislike.
I am never to sure about prequels, but this did work, and was well acted. Like the Sweeney it was the interplay beetween the characters that was the magic. I alway' s remember the line from CS strange to Morse " it's all a bit of a shambles really isn't it Morse". John Thaw had presence on the small screen, the docummentary on him recently was quite revealing.
Jack Regan is my all time favourite character from the world of fiction, so much so I named my son after him.
The Sweeney is without doubt the best TV drama ever in my opinion. If you can dismiss the obvious dated fashion, cars, equipment etc it still stands up today. The stories are superb as is the acting and the realtionship between Regan and Carter is one of the all time great double acts.
As for the films I think they get a bit of a poor press. The first one was farily good but concentrated more on political conspiricy whereas Sweeney 2 was good old cops and robbers. In fact Sweeney 2 is an excellent stand alone film. Great action and some brilliant humour, especially the scenes surrounding the bomb scare at the hotel and Regans new driver.
"What's your name son?"
"Robert sir"
" Ok Bob,...."
"No it's Robert Sir"
"Ok ROBERT!...."
Brilliant!
I'd say to anyone who likes good British drama to give Sweeny 2 a go, a massively underated film. You can pick them both up on a double disc from Amazon very cheaply.
As for the new Sweeney film (Nick Love directs FFS) I will treat it the same as I did the remakes of three of my favourite films, namely Get Carter, The Italian Job and Alfie. I'll avoid it like the plague!
I really enjoyed it and hope it comes back as a series