Inspector Morse

Thirteen novels, one detective, and three television series that run backwards and forwards from him across thirty six years.

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Where to start with Inspector Morse

Watch it in the order it was made, which here is also the order it was written to be understood in. The prequel is last on purpose: Endeavour was made for an audience that already knew Morse, and its ending is built to land on people who have seen the 1987 opener. Watch it first and you spend nine series waiting for a payoff you have no way to feel.

  1. 1
    Inspector Morse, from series one Inspector Morse

    The Dead of Jericho, January 1987. Nothing before it is needed. The films are self contained cases, so you can stop anywhere, but Morse himself changes across the thirteen years and the last one only works if you were there for the rest.

  2. 2
    Lewis, starting with the 2006 pilot Lewis: Reputation

    Reputation opens with Lewis coming back to Oxford after Morse's death, and it assumes you felt that death. Go straight on from The Remorseful Day and the whole thing reads as a sequel rather than a spin-off.

  3. 3
    Endeavour, last, beginning with the 2012 pilot Endeavour: Pilot

    A prequel about a young constable in 1965, and almost every reward in it is a reward for recognition: the car, the crossword, the beer, the people who will not be there later. The final episode closes on the moment the 1987 series opens.

  4. 4
    The novels, at any point you like Last Bus to Woodstock

    They are their own thing and nothing on screen depends on them. Publication order is also story order, so Last Bus to Woodstock is a real beginning rather than a technicality, which is not true of most long crime series.

Then what? The chronological alternative, Endeavour then Morse then Lewis, is a legitimate way to watch and some people prefer it, because the timeline runs 1965 to 2015 without a jump. What it costs is every piece of foreshadowing in Endeavour, which is most of what Endeavour is doing. If you are set on it, at least watch The Dead of Jericho straight after the Endeavour finale rather than sitting on the handover. On the books, the two directions of adaptation are worth knowing before you start: the television series took thirteen novels and loosened several of them a long way, while The Jewel That Was Ours went the other way and was written up from a screenplay. Reading a novel just after its episode is the best way to see how far apart they are. Morse's Greatest Mystery is a short story collection, is optional, and is not all Morse.

A suggested way in, not an official one. The full list is below: tick anything off in either place.

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The novels

  • Last Bus to Woodstock 1975
  • Last Seen Wearing 1976
  • The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn 1977
  • Service of All the Dead 1979
  • The Dead of Jericho 1981
  • The Riddle of the Third Mile 1983
  • The Secret of Annexe 3 1986
  • The Wench is Dead 1989
  • The Jewel That Was Ours 1991
  • The Way Through the Woods 1992
  • The Daughters of Cain 1994
  • Death Is Now My Neighbour 1996
  • The Remorseful Day 1999
  • Morse's Greatest Mystery and Other Stories 1993

Inspector Morse

  • Inspector Morse 1987, 8 seasons, 33 episodes

Lewis

  • Lewis: Reputation 2006
  • Lewis 2007, 9 seasons, 32 episodes

Endeavour

  • Endeavour: Pilot 2012
  • Endeavour 2013, 9 seasons, 35 episodes

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