User Reviews

I've watched all the episodes on IMDb, but didn't begin watching Morse until I'd already watched every episode of Lewis. It was a wonderful experience to watch the Morse/Lewis dynamic unfold. I suppose I'll have to begin watching Lewis all over again now.

This episode hit so many right notes for me, that it would have been a great finale for the show. Morse solves the case, reveals his first name, and at long last, gets the girl. Walk off into the sunset, fade to black. That would have been great.

Interesting side notes: after watching all the previous episodes filmed in old standard-def 4:3 format, it was stunning to see an HD 16:9 episode. Also, nice to see Roger Allam when he was young, and it's great that he's now the senior partner in Endeavour.

Death is Now My Neighbour is an excellent episode, featuring a wonderful performance from John Thaw, who never messed up anything he was in. Kevin Whately is perfect as Lewis, as is James Grout as Strange. I liked the performances of Judy Loe-Kate Beckinsale's mother-, John Schrapnel, Roger Allam, Holley Chant and Maggie Steed. But Richard Briers, with black dyed hair threatens to steal the show as the manipulative and truly nasty college master Sir Clixby Bream, who sleeps with Dennis's wife to get back at him for ruining his marriage. He doesn't quite, save one (Day of the Devil) Thaw's performance is every episode's main merit. The plot is complicated, and flawlessly told through an intelligent script. For me, the highlight was finding out Morse's first name, I loved Lewis's reaction, "you poor sod!" All in all, above all other things, watch for John Thaw and Richard Briers having fun. 10/10 Bethany Cox.

There's a lot about this episode which is excellent, first and foremost its cast. The late and so great John Shrapnel, Maggie Steed and Roger Allam are among my favourite actors. Richard Briers really showcases his versatility by proving he can do dramatic villainy as convincingly as the likeable comedy he was far more associated with.

The story is also much better paced than many in the Morse canon. It literally starts with a bang and as it means to go on, holding the viewer's attention with every scene.

While there are plenty of plot threads and twists, things never get too complicated. There's also time for well rounded characterisation and wonderful comic relief through Laura's dry, dark humour.

However, I do think excessive airtime was given to the college master election. This has the effect of miring the episode in a bit too much sleaze around Clixby's sexual blackmail of Shelly. An even worse taste was left in my mouth around her death.

Clixby was undisputedly vile but not responsible for Denis seeing fit to threaten his wife with violence. When it was fleeing Denis that caused the fatal staircase fall, surely he would have faced manslaughter charges in real life? Certainly he would not have been seen as the other innocent victim in a tragic accident.

It's hard to believe as well that Clixby and Denis could have worked together all those years with no resentment or revenge rearing its ugly head. Logic wasn't a strong point around the character of Angela, either.

She surely would have had to produce her first husband's death certificate in order to marry Julian. The name would then have got alarm bells ringing and research going. Images of Angela and Diane must have accompanied newspaper or TV coverage, quickly giving the game away.

As a diabetic Angela would not have been able to drink so much alcohol without a hypoglycaemic episode. I'd have liked a better insight into the reasons for her addiction and distance from Julian, too. Did they result from her frustration with him or guilt and bad memories around Kenneth's death?

Diane complained about having been bullied by Angela but no real evidence of how was depicted. This left me feeling her character or rather lack of it seemed a real wasted opportunity. What a shame the tunnel vision of Denis spread too much to his screen creator.

In this penultimate edition(proper Morse) of Morse, we witness the dire consequences of greed, status dissatisfaction and a lust for power.

Some people are never happy with what they've got. They always want more than what they have. Especially when they want to show off at somebody else's expense.

I do like this episode of Morse. The story comes together beautifully.

If the people in this story weren't self obsessed and equated success with the acquisition of wealth and power then this episode wouldn't exist.

I rather liked this one, partly because I was able to follow the story, clotted though it was. A young woman is shot to death while having breakfast alone at home, for no apparent reason. Later her neighbor, a reporter, is shot and killed with the same pistol at about the same time of day.

Morse and Lewis determine that the second victim has been gathering material that allows him to blackmail just about anyone he wants. He's been concentrating on two rivals for promotion at Oxford. The murderer is nailed down properly but the true villain is the smiling dude with dyed hair who is in charge of the promotions at the college. That would be Richard Briers as Sir Clixby Bream (a name to conjure with). Boy, is he a rude lump of moral deformity or what? He hounds the wife of one of the ambitious candidates for promotion into servicing him, then cackles and tells her he's not going to give her husband the post anyway. He revels in his evil. The wife is Holly Chant, who has a nice figure, a queer face, and a soft, seductive, and somehow reassuring American voice. She could be on late-night FM radio announcing that the next selection will be the Academic Festival Overture. I was sorry to see her get it.

I was glad that the other candidate -- the one who isn't her husband -- wasn't guilty of anything more than a bit of musical beds because he's an anthropologist whose specialty is the Pacific Islands, the same as I are. I do think they could have made him a little more attractive though.

Morse's father was obsessed with an explorer of the Pacific Islands. In fact, Morse's first name is revealed and it has to do with Captain Cook, the British explorer who discovered Hawaii, at that time called the Sandwich Islands. It's ironic in view of Cook's later becoming a kind of unwilling human repast himself.

Snobby Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse tells a woman he just met that he has spent two years trying to teach is sidekick the difference between using "whom and who". What a prick. This character is deliberately a self indulging, boring, pretentious academic wannabe, continuously barking at anyone within hearing distance, an essentially functioning alcoholic who can't think without a couple of beers (also a beer snob) and drives a vintage Jaguar with opera blaring. He also declares to the same woman that he is a Wagner man, well, so was Hitler. I like this series a lot, but only for the plots, great writing (not many, but some holes), locale and the ever suffering Lewis.

Actually Lewis' own series, later on, after Morse has died, is much better; more intense use of the university, and his sidekick, Hathaway is really an interesting part of the whole series and it's excellent production, writing and acting and musical scoring as well. So, in conclusion, I watch it

The Morse series were finely-produced television, often exquisitely subtle and well-judged. What a shame therefore that this horrible episode was made. The screenplay is a self-conscious hash of Morse clichés, repeated mercilessly as if to a half-wit. It's like an extended overture to 'This Is Your Life' for Morse.

Here are just some of the many irritants:

# 'I never think, Sir. Didn't get a degree' is a pale shadow of 'I wouldn't presume to *think* in an Oxford college. I *imagine*..' which had suggested all of the contradictions of Morse's position - his time at Oxford, his choice of career, his lack of ambition, being nourished by the job itself, his talents being applied in a way that Academe would scarcely appreciate.. But in this episode, it is replaced with a chip on his shoulder, perhaps even an appeal to class envy.

# Ingratiating himself to Adele Cecil, Morse denounces Verdi's work as being only good enough for cheering one up (perfectly reasonable); but the set designer should have paid attention - Morse's office later has a Verdi poster on the wall. Or, even more clumsy, was this intentional?

# Shelly Cornford's dubbed unbroken screaming as she rolls down the college staircase (not to mention Lewis' inept CPR - open her airway, man!)

# Far too much personal background info about Morse in one episode, with all the subtlety of a 'Popular Classics' compilation CD. Too many references to his parents; and then of course the first name 'reveal' travesty, signposted with the Quaker mother (clang!) and Captain Cook-obsessed father (clang!) hints.

# Indeed, there is too much repetition in general e.g. there are at least half a dozen gags about Morse not having any money and Lewis having to pay for the round of drinks, newspaper etc. Mildly amusing the first time, unbearably ham-fisted by the fifth or sixth.

The queasiness is somewhat abated by my sympathy for the actors and crew, who manage to get through it so well, especially Richard Briers.

The usual fine casting and production values do not change the fact that all the main characters in this episode behave in ways that make no sense in any way shape of form.

Who the hell would make it too obvious that they want the top job in any organisation? It's obvious that people will head off such ambitions on general principles. Why would anyone trust a vile old creep like the character played by Richard Briers?