Lewis and Morse's last stand

We are sitting in John Thaw's impressive trailer, on location in Oxford for the shooting of The Remorseful Day, the last-ever tale of the silver-haired sleuth and his long-suffering sidekick.

Unless you have been living in a coal-bunker in Carlisle since last Autumn, you will be aware that in this final episode adapted from 69-year-old Dexter's final book, the good Inspector finally succumbs to the regime of neglect he's imposed on himself.

The years of poor diet and strong drink - much of it scrounged from the kindly Lewis - at last take their toll and at the end, Morse shuffles off to a better place, where the soundtrack is by Wagner and the beer is freely on tap.

At 58, John Thaw is without doubt among the top five bankable TV stars in the country. So, come to that, is Whately - the others being David Jason, Robson Green, and, at a pinch, Nick Berry. If there was ever such a thing as the couch potato olympics, watching Inspector Morse would surely qualify as the gold medal event.

"Do you know," says Thaw, "that by the time we finish shooting this, there will be 66 hours of Morse in existence - which is an amazing amount. If you were to sit down and watch it all at once, you'd be in front of the telly for two and a half days!"

"Morse has been a major thing for both our careers - it's a big part of the success we've both had."

"I just enjoy playing him," he adds. "Morse is like an old friend and the way we've ended up doing it - once a year - has meant that I've looked forward to it. So now, after this, professionally I'll miss that looking forward thing."

Whately agrees. "Making Morse is like an island of sanity," he smiles.

"But because people will always associate John and myself as Morse and Lewis, we can never be teamed up in anything else again." "You've had 15 years of my life already!" Thaw laughs.

In truth, the two actors hit it off from the word go. It was a partnership which worked like a Swiss watch, with the characters' glaring differences only adding to the viewers' enjoyment and the sense of fun of it all, in among the dark deeds and the murders and mayhem.

Lewis and his occasionally dodgy grammar - Morse and his reverence for language bordering on pedantry.

The sergeant and his egg and chips - the inspector and his mainly liquid, alcoholic diet. Lewis the family man - Morse the social hermit. The younger man's instinctive generosity - the older man's inherent miserly ways. It all helped to make Morse what it was - a televisual triumph.

Mind you, the choice of location was always a winner, too. "I'll miss Oxford," Thaw admits. "We've always enjoyed coming here and getting to know so many local people." "Yes," agrees Whately, "Oxford has been a huge ingredient in the show's success. Coming here is a great treat for an actor."

And just as Morse has benefited from Oxford, so the city itself has reasons to be glad of Morse. There's the Morse Tourist Trail for a start, taking in places like the Randolph Hotel, the Sheldonian, the Ashmolean, the Trout Inn at Wolvercote - people come from afar, just to walk in the detective's footsteps.

Whenever filming is actually taking place in Oxford, the crowds gather with their autograph books and their Instamatics and their enthusiasm.

And now that's it. After today, when the cast and crew pack up and leave Oxford, the familiar sight of Thaw and Whately strolling through college quads and along the city streets will be a thing of the past. Without giving away too many details, it's fairly common knowledge that Morse's actual demise is down to natural causes - but would Thaw have preferred to go out with a bang, machine-gunned to death by a madman on the steps of Kidlington cop-shop, perhaps?

"No, we're always respectful of Colin Dexter's wishes and Morse's death is much more believable like this, it is much more likely. He doesn't look after himself and he drinks too much. In the films, though, he doesn't have diabetes, he has ulcers," he points out.

"But if we get the death scene right," promises Whately, "there won't be a dry eye in the house."

"Although you know what's coming, it still takes you by surprise. I'm quite moved by it."

"But," interjects Thaw, "there are no great speeches involved. It's all very real."

Although Colin Dexter has said publicly that's he's tired and doesn't want to write any further Morse novels, there has been talk that Carlton, the TV company responsible for the show, might be able to make more shows, by setting them in the past and producing them as original screenplays. But would Thaw be interested, in any case?

"That's a big question, George," he says seriously. "And the answer is - I honestly don't know."

But perhaps today, when the last piece of equipment is packed away and the production rolls out of Oxford for the last time, perhaps then would really be the time to call it a day - albeit a Remorseful one.

As they say in the business, that's a wrap.

Story date: Thursday 23 March

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.