User Reviews

Another one that deserves better than its 7.5 average, but the fact that this rating looks low compared to the other episodes shows the consistency and enduring quality of Morse. I guess it's been punished a bit for its deviations from formula: attending a convention on criminal justice history, Morse suddenly collapses and is hospitalized. He spends most of the episode in bed, attempting to solve a murder committed in 1859 for which believes several men were wrongly executed.

Did I mention Lewis is absent? Instead, Morse's boss Chief Supt. Strange (James Grout in amusing recurrent role) assigns a new constable to check in on the recovering Morse and cater to his whims. Strange probably just wants to keep P.C. Kershaw (Matthew Finney) from getting under his feet. Prior to this, Strange was apparently using Kershaw as a glorified errand boy ("Buy a bunch of grapes and a paperback novel!" he orders as he prepares to visit Morse's sickbed), so there must not have been enough to do around the office despite Strange's complaints of being shorthanded with Morse and Lewis off duty.

It's a contrivance, but the episode otherwise succeeds on its own merits. The departure(s) from formula are bold and intrinsic to the story. Indeed, Colin Dexter's original novel, "The Wench is Dead", was published almost a decade prior to the adaptation, at a time when the show had entered production only a few years prior. The series developers covered almost all the other Morse novels, and then devised something on the order of 20 original stories, before touching this one.

The initial decision to leave this story aside ultimately paid off. Although it would probably have been too great a gamble when the series was still building its following, the idea fits nicely with the theme later installments had been developing about Morse's deteriorating health. Besides which, period drama fans will appreciate the extensive and well-developed flashback sequences depicting the events and consequences of the historical murder. For these scenes in particular, design is impeccable and Barrington Pheloung contributes a beautiful new score to support the visuals. (Unfortunately, the incidental music for this and other later episodes doesn't seem to be covered on any of the several excellent soundtrack recordings I've found.)

Lewis is featured in the novel, and his absence here is an unhappy accident brought about by Kevin Whately being unavailable at the time. However, Finney's Kershaw is an affable and able one-time fill-in. Also appearing is Judy Loe as Adele, Morse's new lady friend established in a previous episode (at last, a stable relationship for Morse in his twilight years). Owing to the story's revised context within the TV series, screenwriter Malcolm Bradbury (in his only Morse script) takes somewhat of a free hand with the original plot. The murder mystery remains the same, however, and in fairness, Bradbury seems at times to labor in preserving various elements of the novel despite the changes.

Ably directed by Robert Knights (as with Bradbury, his only episode of Morse), "The Wench is Dead" engages via its fresh and very clever story and engrossing period production. It's not necessarily a good starting point for series newcomers, though, in that it strays so far from formula and relies heavily on audience investment in the character of Morse and his associates to frame the mystery plot.

Would it have worked better with Lewis in place? Quite possibly, but I'm really not sure it hurts the final product as much as you'd think. Certainly, any longer term absence of the character would have had a deleterious affect on the series, but this installment manages to find its feet admirably in spite the Kevin Whately-shaped hole. The irony is that its original DVD cover, which is the title image shown on IMDb, was one of the few (if not the only) to feature Lewis! An oopsie by the DVD producers, no doubt, but no more than a goofy footnote to this remarkably successful departure from the series formula.

In a more than usually entertaining tale, Morse collapses at a reception after being introduced to Lisa Eichorn, a visiting scholar from American. In the hospital they discover he suffers from a peptic ulcer brought on by too much drink. I didn't care for that etiology. His drinking hardly exceeds my own, but let it go.

At any rate, Eichorn is an historian who has written a book on "The Canal Murder" of 1859, in which a woman was apparently raped, then thrown overboard and drowned in one of the many canals that served as transportation routes during the Victorian era. She visits Morse in the hospital and brings him a copy. When he reads it, he develops his own model of the crime and it contradicts hers. On his release he sets about trying to discover what actually happened. All the evidence supports his interpretation but the past is a blank wall and Morse is stymied.

There are multiple flashbacks to the Dickensian circumstances surrounding travel by barge, the cheapest way to go. The scenes must have added to the budget but it's hard to see how the episode could have been filmed without them. What a life they led. The often-referred-to "mist" was actually industrial smoke. The work week was seven days long, which prevented workers from attending church, which further devalued their status. A boy born in Coventry could expect to live less than 60 years. Some of this information more or less seeps out around the edges of the canal scenes but this isn't about the mudlarks of "Our Mutual Friend". Anyone interested in true crimes of this period should probably check out the superior "The Life And Crimes Of William Palmer," available on DVD.

Sergeant Lewis is away taking a course in Inspectorhood or something and his replacement, Kershaw, is something of a cutie pie. He's a graduate of Oxford and, like Morse, isn't afraid to show off. There's a nifty scene when he and Morse's girl friend, Judy Loe, are wheeling Morse out of the hospital. Morse comes up with a lengthy quote about how necessary it is for some people to learn social skills in the hospital. He asks Loe if she knows the quote. "I have no idea." Morse smiles with satisfaction. But then Kershaw announces that the quote is from Elizabeth Barret Browning and Morse's features assume their usual expressionless contours. Kershaw is okay but I do hope they bring Lewis back. Lewis has a neater face, and his defiant innocence is appealing. We have enough wise guys walking around.

Another grace note. Eichorn is bidding Morse good-bye at the railway station as Loe is approaching. Eichorn gives Morse a little smack on the cheek and steps aboard the train. Morse and Loe watch the cars depart and Morse, a little self conscious, mutters, "She's leaving, um, for America." "Good," says Loe with a sweet smile.

I'm beginning to like Morse's old Jaguar, a muted scarlet with a black top.

Morse and Strange attend a historical lecture about the Oxfordshire Constabulary, no sooner is it completed Morse is suddenly taken ill.

Strange is worried enough to follow Morse into the Bog, where he finds him collapsed on the floor.

Morse is rushed into hospital where he receives the dire prognosis, that he has spent a lifetime abusing his body with alcohol.

Lewis is finally and at long last on his much belated police, Detective Inspectors promotional Course.

Morse gets a hospital visitor from a visiting American history professor Dr Van Buren, who gave the police history lecture that he and Strange had attended.

She gives Morse one of her books for his consideration about the old Oxford murder, he ended up deliberating on it.

What he comes to consider as a "Gross Miscarriage of Justice", in the historic old murder case.

Strange visits Morse in hospital trying to get him to "see sense and take early retirement, because of the drink".

After collapsing at a party after suffering a stomach ulcer due to drinking way to many pints Morse gets admitted to hospital their Morse starts working on the Joanna Frank's 1859 murder cold case we're two men were hanged