Endeavour: The key Inspector Morse locations across Oxford

The ninth series of the Morse prequel starring Shaun Evans and Roger Allam finishes on Sunday.

Mr Mair, who organised a Morse festival on Saturday at St Barnabas Church in Jericho, wants the city council to create a series of Morse plaques around the city associated with filming locations.

READ AGAIN: Morse fans meet Endeavour stars at festival 

And he has come up with 10 suggested Morse 'stops' which will spark memories of the TV dramas.

First stop:

Walk along the Oxford Canal from the rail or bus station to Jericho. Now Oxford’s trendiest area, and the setting for the very first ITV film in 1987 ‘The Dead of Jericho’. The main location  ‘Canal Reach’/Combe road (OX 2 6BL) is still there leading to College Cruisers’ yard. In the film, Morse meets a potential amour – a recurring trope for him-Anne Staveley who lives there. Sadly it is unrequited love,especially once she is murdered. Morse is left to solve it but not until after his first film pint in the Bookbinders Arms across the road. Lewis pays, as ever. The pub is still there but transformed to a gastro pub.

Walk along Canal Street to Nelson street. Number 31 was blown up in 2008 for an episode of  Lewis ’ Life Born of fire’.

Second stop:

Somerville College is in the Morse episode s‘Last bus to Woodstock’ (1988) and The ‘Sins of the Fathers’(1990).

There are other significant Morse Jericho locations such the Jericho Tavern and the Phoenix Picture house.

Third stop: 

The Randolph Hotel in Beaumont Street. Take a snifter in the Morse bar and enjoys the pictures of the actors on the walls.

Colin Dexter, Morse’s creator, was a regular at the Randolph.

Cross over St Giles to the Martyrs Memorial.(OX1 3AE).An Oxford landmark that  features prominently in all three series.

It is in Morse  ‘The Wolvercote tongue’(1987),in Lewis  ‘Expiation’ (2007) and in ‘Fugue’ (2013)in Endeavour.

Fourth stop:.

Broad Street  and Trinity College. Trinity College with ornate gardens front and back features in Morse ‘Twilight of the Gods’(1993).

Gladys Probert, an opera singer, is shot in the street outside the Sheldonian Theatre across ‘The Broad’. Despite the kerfuffle and Morse’s investigation needs, the dignitaries at the ceremony there still retreat to lunch in Trinity. The college also features in Lewis  ‘The gift of promise’(2011)and Endeavour‘Fugue’(2013)

The White Horse in Broad Street is proud of its Morse connection and advertises it outside. The pub features in Morse The Dead of Jericho’.(1987).

Fifth stop: 

Cross over to Catte Street and the Bridge of Sighs linking one part of Hertford College to another.

The bridge features in Morse ‘Service of all the dead’ (1987). Morse’s wondering eye alights on Ruth Rawlinson there. Sadly she is also a suspect  in the case Morse is meant to be solving. The Turl also  features also in Lewis ‘And the  moonbeams kiss the sea’ (2008) and the Bridge of Sighs makes an appearance in Endeavour ‘deguello ‘ (2019).

Sixth stop:

Over the road past the Sheldonian Theatre to the Divinity School and Duke Humphrey’s, the old Bodleian library.

In Lewis’ Whom the gods would destroy’ (2008).The film-makers also use the old Bodleian library in Endeavour ‘ Canticle’(2017)we see Thursday and Endeavour cross the Radcliffe quadrangle. In  ‘The settling of the sun’ (1988) Morse dines at the high table at Brasenose College where he spots  a Japanese student leaving. She is murdered. 

Seventh stop:

The Radcliffe Camera and square feature prominently in all three series.

It is in Morse ‘Death is now my neighbour’(1997), and it  also features in Lewis ‘Entry Wounds’(2014). In Endeavour ‘Canticle’ (2017) there is another Radcliffe Square demo.

Brasenose College features once more in Morse ‘The way through the woods’ (1995) and St Mary the Virgin, the university church, is in Lewis ‘Old school ties’(2007).

Eighth stop:

If you have the time, then take a detour to St Aldates police station where the CID honoured Inspector Morse.

They used a Morse carboard cut-out at their annual dinners and in the window of their first floor windows for the open top tourist buses to see.

Ninth stop: Brasenose Lane and  Turl  Street

In Lewis ‘The dead of winter’ (2010) a scene  took place in the Oxfam bookshop in Turl Street and Endeavour ‘Coda’ (2016) filmed in the Fellows garden of Exeter College.

Tenth stop:

Morse started on television in Canal Reach Jericho in 1987, and he died of a heart attack in Exeter College Quad in 2000.

The final episode of Endeavour is being shown on ITV1 on Sunday at 8pm.

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This story was written by Andy Ffrench, he joined the team more than 20 years ago and now covers community news across Oxfordshire.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Andy.ffrench@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter @OxMailAndyF