Discuss Inspector Morse
Discuss → TV Shows → Inspector Morse → General
Did Morse try returning an overdue book to the Bodleian Library?
posted by wonder2wonderSTAFFMOD on July 12, 2019 at 8:11 AM
Morse loves cryptic crosswords. It's a wonderful way to spend the evening at home, listening to opera, enjoying a glass of his favourite 'Samuel Smith's Old Brewery Strong Pale Ale', and solving these crosswords.
He's also very good at making them himself.
When Adele Cecil, who's a neighbour of the murdered victim Rachel James in the episode "Death Is Now My Neighbour (S8E3, 1997)", asked him for his first name, he gave her an anagram to solve:
Morse: "How can I make it up to you?"
Adele: "Well, you could start by telling me your name."
Morse: "Morse. Everyone just calls me Morse. I do have a first name, of course, but I'd have to know you better."
Adele: "You won't know me better, if you don't tell me."
Morse: "Right. My whole life's effort has revolved around Eve. Nine letters. And that is the truth, the whole truth."
Adele: "Have another, while I work it out."
Morse: "I'd love to, but..."
Adele: "Better be off, then."
Adele solves it, although she isn't reallly sure if she's right:
Adele: "This anagram, 'around Eve', I've tried and tried, but all I can come up with is 'Endeavour'. And, no one's called Endeavour. Surely?"
Morse: "I, I told you my mother was a Quaker, and Quakers sometimes call their children names like Hope and Patience. My father was obsessed with Captain Cook. And his ship was called Endeavour. Why aren't you both laughing?"
Lewis: "You poor sod!"
Adele: "I'm not calling you Endeavour."
Lewis: "Call him sir. He likes that."
Adele: "Oh, no. No. I'll stick to Morse, like everyone else."
Morse: "Cheers!"
Side notes:
• Colin Dexter (author of the "Inspector Morse novels") , himself, was a crossword setter.
Dexter named Morse after Sir Christopher Jeremy Morse, former chairman of Lloyds bank, former chancellor of the University of Bristol and a fellow of All Souls, who had defeated him many times in the Observer's Ximenes and Azed clue-writing competitions.
Lewis was also named after another setter: "Mrs B. Lewis"; this was a pseudonym for Dorothy Taylor, compiler of the Observer's Everyman crossword.
• In this episode the actor Roger Allam played
Denis Cornford, who is a rival of Dr. Julian Storrs to replace Sir Clixby Bream as Master of Lonsdale College.
Allam later played DI Fred Thurday in the spin-off prequel "Endeavour (2013-)".
• Guess in which episode of "Endeavour (2013-)" there was also an anagram given with Morse's first name (hidden)?
Reply by genplant29
on July 12, 2019 at 3:31 PM
That's EXCELLENT information. Thanks so much for sharing it, wonder! So the given name Endeavour was revealed in the original series. Great to learn!
Sadly, though I watched all, or nearly all, of the Inspector Morse episodes back in the day, I no longer recall any of the stories (with the exceptions of the following three mentioned ones), anything that ever transpired or was said, and really only simply remember the main characters - Morse, Lewis, Strange - and eventually Hobson - what they looked like, and what they were like regarding personality and ways. The sole episodes I still remember anything, at all, about are the three I have the DVDs of (which I have in a boxed set of just those three): 1993's "Twilight of the Gods", 1995's "The Way Through the Woods", and 1996's "The Daughters of Cain".
Reply by wonder2wonder
on July 12, 2019 at 4:00 PM
Some episodes, like the one mentioned in the OP, can be found on websites, like YouTube. Sometimes I also find very old (e.g. silent, film noir) movies there.
Reply by merryapril
on July 12, 2019 at 7:01 PM
w2w, regarding the anagram, I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "hidden". Do you mean it's a word longer than 9 letters that includes E-N-D-E-A-V-O-U-R?
Reply by genplant29
on July 12, 2019 at 7:05 PM
I believe what wonder meant is that "around Eve" (which those two words total to 9 letters), if the alphabets are rearranged, can spell "endeavour". Clever puzzler that!
Reply by wonder2wonder
on July 12, 2019 at 8:20 PM
Correct. The first name - as an anagram - is hidden in the sentence.
If you ever (re)watch "Endeavour (2013-)", you'll also hear, in one of the episodes, a (different) sentence - with his first name as an anagram - spoken by the protagonist.