Endeavour Ride (2012– ) Online

2012– Nick Sampson Anton Lesser David Oakes Sandra Goldbacher

Original Title :: Ride
Genre :: TV Episode / Crime / Drama / Mystery
Year :: 2012–
Directror :: Sandra Goldbacher
Cast :: Nick Sampson,Anton Lesser,David Oakes
Writer :: Colin Dexter,Russell Lewis
Type :: TV Episode
Time :: 1h 28min
Rating :: 8.1/10

Endeavour Ride (2012– ) Online

Morse is exonerated but still under suspension and goes to stay with his friend Tony Donn, meeting glamorous tennis player Elva Piper. Elva takes him to a party given by Joss Bixby, a reclusive millionaire who seems only too familiar with the wife of Bruce Belborough, another of Morse's friends. Meanwhile Thursday investigates the killing of bus conductress Jeannie Hearne, who vanished after a visit to a funfair and seeks Morse's help but in vain. However when Bixby is also murdered there appears to be a connexion with Jeannie and Thursday allows Morse to do a little sleuthing of his own. Together they discover a drug smuggling operation, a scenario redolent of 'The Great Gatsby', and a fairground magician, paving the way to solving the murders.

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
	Nick Sampson	-	Chief Constable
	Anton Lesser	-	Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright
	David Oakes	-	Joss Bixby
	Meghan Treadway	-	Jeannie Hearne
	Vincent Riotta	-	Harry Rose
	Lewis Rainer	-	Albert Potter
	Louis Maskell	-	Roddy Farthingale
	Hilton McRae	-	The Great Zambezi
	Crystal Leaity	-	Roselle Brawton
	Caroline O'Neill	-	Win Thursday
	Roger Allam	-	DI Fred Thursday
	Jack Bannon	-	Sam Thursday
	Jack Laskey	-	DS Peter Jakes
	Shaun Evans	-	DC Endeavour Morse
	Samuel Barnett	-	Anthony Donn

Numerous references to The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald.

The character Samuel Barnett plays in this episode, "Anthony Donn", also turned up in the "Inspector Morse" episode, "Deceived By Flight", set over twenty years later. In that episode, Donn was a murder victim, and was played by Daniel Massey.

When Bruce Belborough is asked whether he'd played golf, and replies "I side with those who think it's a good walk spoiled" he is (almost) quoting a witticism often attributed to Mark Twain. The exact phrase is "Golf is a good walk spoiled" and dates from 1903, although it is unlikely that Twain said it.

After Morse removes something from behind the picture frame and begins snooping in the wardrobe, the original "Morse" theme can be heard played by a French horn extremely slowly.

The events in this episode take place some time after 4 January 1967. In the opening title sequence, a character is shown watching a 16 mm film (as opposed to a live television report) of Donald Campbell's fatal power-boat crash which happened on this date while he was attempting to break the water speed record on Coniston Water.

The exterior shots of the Belborough house are filmed at Minley Manor, Minley, Hampshire. From 1934-2015 this was used by the British Army, latterly as an officer's mess and headquarters by the Royal Engineers. It was sold in 2015.

When Joss Bixby says "If you can make one heap of all your winnings and risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss" he is quoting two lines from Rudyard Kipling's poem "If".

The character who calls Morse "Pagan" all the time is Roland Marshall, who appears in an episode of Inspector Morse ("Deceived by Flight", series 3, episode 3). Morse's nickname was explained in that episode as resulting from his atheism, but here the young Morse claims it was because he never revealed his "Christian" name. In England, the term "Christian name" can refer to a name given at Baptism, but more often it is a colloquial (and now-antiquated) way to refer to any given name (religious or not)--what is now more likely to be called a "first name."

The clue in the final credits is "If", the poem by Rudyard Kipling, referenced in several scenes.

When Morse is looking at Joss Bixby's car collection he says that he best likes the red one, which looks like a smaller version of the famous Jaguar he will have later.

The trailer for Endeavour S3 uses "The Seeker" by The Who, the same song that introduced "Whom The Gods Would Destroy", the first episode of Lewis S1.

When the Great Zambezi demonstrates his "bullet catch" trick, he appears to cough up blood along with the bullet with which he has apparently been wounded. This looks forward to the last episode of the third season when Inspector Thursday does exactly the same thing - but for real.

The use of Sandy Shaw's popular recording of "Puppet On A String" places the story as taking place in the early spring of 1967. It was Britain's entry in that year's Eurovision Song Contest, held on April 4th, 1967.

The red car in Bixby's collection that Morse claims that he'd be more at home in is a 1967 Porsche 356. Also in the collection are a white 1960 Triumph TR3A; a silver 1964 Jaguar E-Type Coupe; and a black 1950's Triumph TR3. The car referred to by Bixby as "the new Klipspringer Continental" is a 1962 Austin Healy 3000 Mark II.

Kay, in the scene where Morse meets her, says that she has tried to marry off Elva Piper to someone called "Julius Hanbury", but that he has married someone else. Julius Hanbury - having become "Sir Julius" in the meantime - appears briefly in the "Inspector Morse" episode "Ghost In The Machine", set over twenty years later, where he is played by Michael Godley (with Patricia Hodge as his wife). It is the murder of Julius Hanbury which concerns Morse in this story.

There is a mention of a type of car, non-existent in reality, called a "Klipspringer Continental". Klipspringer is the name of a minor character in "The Great Gatsby", the Scott Fitzgerald novel referenced throughout this story.

The veteran gangster Harry Rose corresponds to the "Meyer Wolfsheim" character in "The Great Gatsby", a character inspired by the real-life Arnold Rothstein. However, the name "Harry Rose" further suggests a variation on "Harry Flowers", the name of the veteran London gang boss played by Johnny Shannon in the 1970 film "Performance".

At the end when Lady Belborough tells Morse they're leaving, she says they are going to stay with Guy Mortmain in Kenya. The Mortmain family figures prominently in episode 3.

User reviews

NI_Rak

"Endeavor" is back for season 3 after a long hiatus - so long, in fact, that we sat there for the part of the episode "Ride" trying to remember why Endeavor had been in prison, and what had happened the last time we saw him, which seemed like 25 years ago. Would it have killed PBS to take one or two minutes of its non-advertising ads to recap the end of Season 2?

Season 3 finds Endeavor out of prison after being set up by corrupt colleagues, living in a shack in the woods, and having some sort of involvement with a rich crowd nearby.

When a young woman is found dead, Morse, not back at work, becomes peripherally involved. He is humiliated about being imprisoned and states that he is through with actual police work. He also blames himself for DI Thursday (Roger Allam) being shot. But DI Thursday points out that the shooting wasn't his fault. That, and an apology from Chief Superintendent Bright (Anton Lesser) gets him back to his desk to work on a complex case that involves another murder.

Season 3's first story is a cross between "The Great Gatsby" and "Prestige," as others have pointed out.

I can't correlate the young Morse with the older one, so I watch this series as if it is a separate entity.

Shaun Evans is wonderful in the lead. I really don't see this person developing into the character played by John Thaw, but he's very effective and attractive. I enjoyed hearing a bit of "Rigoletto" as well while he was enjoying a drink. He and Roger Allam work well together, and Allam's character is a strong one. Here's hoping that nasty Bright is a little nicer to our Morse this season.

Very good, and I'm really glad this series is back.

Adaly

Shaun Evans and Roger Allam are always wonderful to watch. I love the relationship between Morse and Thursday. Bright is allowed to become more human, and Anton Lesser does a fine job with his hesitant efforts to welcome back Morse into the fold. The entire ensemble is so good that I barely even care about the plot, which is this case was quite derivative (as other reviewers have pointed out).

The plot here is so convoluted that I couldn't follow it all (and I've read The Great Gatsby). There are just too many moving elements, and the eventual solution pulls in facts that haven't even been hinted at. Morse appears almost psychic, although the verbal tic that gives away the killer is clever. Here's hoping the writing improves.

Xwnaydan

Set some time after the events of the last series DI Thursday has recovered from being shot and Morse has spent some time in prison after being framed by corrupt colleagues who have now been rooted out. Morse hasn't returned to work though; instead he is living in a ramshackle lakeside cabin that belongs to wealthy friends he knew when he was at university. Through them he meets the wealthy Joss 'Bix' Bixby; a self-made man whose past is a mystery. It isn't long before he is getting caught up in a mystery; the body of a young woman who disappeared from a nearby fun fair is found near where Morse is living. As the investigation continues several suspects emerge; both amongst Morse's wealthy friends and amongst the people working at the fair. The death toll also rises with a student overdosing in Oxford and Morse finding the body of a man who was shot on the face with a twelve bore.

This episode sees a welcome return for Oxford's favourite detective in a mystery that is clearly inspired by 'The Great Gatsby' with Bixby taking the Gatsby role. Personally I found this to be rather fun although I can understand how some may be irritated by it. If you are unaware of the connection is shouldn't affect your enjoyment of it. The mystery has plenty of twists and lots of suspects that should keep the viewer guessing the ending was rather fun but even people who enjoyed it are likely to admit was a little far-fetched as well as a bit cliché. The cast do a fine job; Shaun Evans is nicely understated as the young Morse and Roger Allam is great as DI Thursday it was a relief to learn that his character had survived the shooting in the previous episode. Overall an enjoyable episode that gets the new series off to a good start.

Garr

Having recently been, and just finished being, on a roll reviewing all the episodes of 'Lewis', which generally was very enjoyable before having some disappointments later on, it occurred to me to do the same for 'Inspector Morse's' (one of my favourites for over a decade, and all the episodes were also reviewed in my first year on IMDb eight years ago) prequel series 'Endeavour'.

As said in my review for the entire show two years ago, 'Endeavour' is not just a more than worthy prequel series to one of my favourite detective dramas of all time and goes very well with it, but it is a great series on its own as well. It maintains everything that makes 'Inspector Morse' so good, while also containing enough to make it its own, and in my mind 'Inspector Morse', 'Lewis' and 'Endeavour' go perfectly well together.

Was very impressed by the pilot episode, even with a very understandable slight finding-its-feet feel (that is true of a lot of shows, exceptions like 'Morse' itself, 'A Touch of Frost' and 'Midsomer Murders', which started off great and were remarkably well established, are fairly few. The first season was even better, with all the episodes being outstanding. Season 2 took a darker turn, but once again all the episodes were great (even with "Trove" having one of 'Endeavour's' most far-fetched and over-complicated endings, great episode otherwise), with the weakest one "Sway" still being very good.

Starting off Season 3, "Ride" is not on the same level as the absolutely exceptional "Neverland" (then again it is very hard to follow on from one of 'Endeavour's' best episodes), but a huge part of me couldn't help liking it a lot on the most part. Its biggest problem is the ending, which is even more far-fetched and over-complicated (to the point of incomprehensible convolution) than the ending for Season 2's "Trove" and the explanations did feel rather rushed through. Just for the record, following a story and understanding it fully is hardly ever a problem for me, there have been occasions like this and most even worse but usually my attention span is just fine.

Maybe there is a little too much filler at times too.

Conversely, as always, cannot fault the production values. It is exquisitely photographed and there is something very nostalgic and charming about the atmospherically evoked 1960s period detail. It was also a genius move to keep Barrington Pheloung on board, with his hauntingly beautiful scoring and immortal 'Inspector Morse' theme.

Writing, as has been said many times in my reviews for the previous 'Endeavour' episodes, is every bit as intelligent, entertaining and tense as the previous episodes and as the best of 'Morse'. The story is mostly very clever and engaging, and the 'Great Gatsby' and 'Prestige' influence and atmosphere was a great touch, a good deal happens and while suitably complicated it's rarely incoherent. What a relief too to see the shocking events at the end of "Neverland" resolved, really cannot imagine the show without Thursday or without the partnership between him and Morse or Morse in his situation he found himself in.

Morse and Thursday's father/son relationship, while even stronger later being more entertaining and heartfelt, has a lot of warmth, is so well written within the story and is a large part of the series' appeal. The pacing is restrained, but that allows the atmosphere to come through, and pretty much all the same it excels in that aspect. The characters are interesting, lead and supporting, with Morse displaying more recognisable character quirks with each episode and as aforementioned it is impossible not to love his relationship with Thursday.

Shaun Evans as ever does some powerful, charismatic work as younger Morse, showing enough loyalty to John Thaw's iconic Morse while making the character his own too. Roger Allam is also superb, his rapport with Evans always compels and entertains but Thursday is quite a sympathetic character, as well as loyal and firm, and Allam does a lot special with a role that could have been less interesting possibly in lesser hands. All the acting is very good.

All in all, engaging and clever though with a disappointing ending. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Dagdatus

After the events of Series 2's conclusion the Court close the case of Morse's shooting of Inspector Thursday. After the events Morse has escaped life and is living a reclusive life by the sea in a shack, attempts to draw him back to work fail, but the local death of a young red head at a fairground prompts Thursday to seek him out. Morse is hanging about with a group of idle rich, refusing Thursday's requests to return his natural curiosity takes him to the fair. One of Morse's new found friends is found dead, and a link between one and the dead girl is discovered.

Gorgeous filming, beautiful music, once again the Inspector Morse prequel feels beautifully in character to the Morse series, I firmly buy into him being Morse. It boasts wonderful production values as always, it really feels like it's been well put together.

I loved the whole 60's vibe they had going on with this episode, they totally nailed it.

This was a really clever, and very engaging mystery, if the remainder of the series is as good as this, then we're in for a treat. Shaun Evans and Roger Allam were as always brilliant. Enjoyed it very much 8/10

Olma

Is it possible for former child actor Russell Lewis to write anything which doesn't contain multiple references to the earlier works of other people? He's forever doing it, not just in "Endeavour", but in his "Lewis" episodes, too. This particular segment is so blatantly pinched from Scott Fitzgerald that even the illiterates at the "Radio Times" noticed it, but it also has a surprise twist at the end which could hardly be more clearly derived from Christopher Priest's "The Prestige" (or, more likely, its 2006 movie version), and here and there can be found stray references to other things, too - a sinister fairground out of 1967's "Torture Garden", dark doings aboard its "Ghost Train" attraction (remember "Brighton Rock"?) and Morse interrupting a performance like Hitchcock's Richard Hannay in "The 39 Steps". Oh, and he gets to quote a famous line from "Citizen Kane" as if he'd just thought of it. It wasn't unenjoyable, by any means - but shouldn't Russell Lewis be inventing his own stories?

Owomed

If Russell Lewis, who claimed a writer credit for this episode had an ounce of conscience to say nothing of decency he'd give the writing credit to F. Scott Fitzgerald for he has ripped off The Great Gatsby and flaunted it, sprinkling evidence like thousand island dressing on trifle. Consider: in Fitzgerald's novel, Jay Gatz, a nobody from nowhere reinvented himself as Jay Gatsby; in Ride a similar character reinvents himself as Joss Bixby; what was the reason? in both cases it was love of a woman in a higher social bracket. The narrator of the novel, Nick Carraway, lives in a shack at Great Neck, Long Island, next door to a mansion owned by the 'mysterious' millionaire Gatsby. In Ride, Endeavour Morse, on his release from prison, takes up residence in a shack by a lack and, like Carraway, is befriended by the millionaire neighbour, Gatsby/Bixby. In each case the girl in question is married to a brutal bully who keeps a working class mistress, in the novel she is the wife of a mechanic, in Ride she is a bus conductress; both women wind up dead, victims of car accidents. We even get the dialogue from the novel where Gatsby is incredulous when Nick says you can't turn back the clock and replies of course you can.Lewis should be drummed out of the Writers Guild assuming they'd have him in the first place.

Frei

This was the worst off all possible episodes - apologies to Leibniz.

It barely touched the surface as a followup to Neverland. In fact, it cheapened Neverland in explaining it away.

The story was convoluted, incomprehensible and had so much filler that it could have been cut in half and not lost anything.

The Bixby parallel to Gatsby was silly and contrived. It was laughable old man.

The ending was straight out of Poirot where we hear a long explanation which ties together facts that are not even hinted at in the story.

Hopefully, this is a one-off else, I will Endeavor to spend my time elsewhere.

Hirah

Relieved to see Thursday alive and Morse back in business. Great performances, good music, amazing locations - all as usual.

But the story is a ripoff, even the name 'Bixby' rhymes with 'Gatsby'. May be it was supposed to be a tribute, but something original would have been appreciated more. And if that were not enough, they also copied the already overly copied twist from 'The Prestige'.

Overall, an engaging episode with several plot twists. Liked the way in which Morse's inner battle is shown through out the episode. And how the external events eventually help him resolve his internal battle and find his true calling.

SoSok

I'm not one to throw stones, but for the first time, I didn't particularly enjoy an episode of this series. Morse has been released from prison and there are still bad guys out there, but.... He decides to hide out in a shack by a river, across from an enormous mansion, run by a Jay Gatsby kind of guy. Because of his connections to Oxford, he finds himself embraced by the masters of ennui! He goes to parties, invited by a former classmate, and wastes a lot of time. However, a young local woman has been run down. Thursday, who is experiencing respiratory problems after his shooting in the last episode, is on the case. Morse refuses to help at first because he feels so betrayed. I think, though, the plot is so convoluted, that I started needing a program to keep track of things. It also took so long to figure out who these people were. Of course, their snobby, self-centered being was a turnoff too. I'll be interested to see things going forward. It wasn't terrible, but the show has set a high standard.

Whatever

This episode did not seem logical or coherent to me. Other reviewers mentioned the 3 year imprisonment of Morse. I thought I saw the previous episodes, but I don't remember this. My wife thinks she remembers the last episode (season 2). I don't remember it. They should have had some sort of review.

I don't want to get into spoilers. Let's just say none of the plot made sense to me. There's a carnival involved. There's a rich guy involved. There are killings, but none of the stuff flowed. Let's just say the ending was pulled out of someone's (other) brain. In my opinion, a good who done-it would allow the viewer to make some informed guess as to the guilty party. I guess the authors had a different idea. There is absolutely no way that the plot flows from one event to another. It's just a bunch of drama that only Morse can solve, but there's really no way he could have figured it out. Maybe I will try to watch this again some time to see if I missed salient points because right now it seemed very, very disjointed to me.

Banal

I think The Great Gatsby is a really boring story, and one could almost say this episode of Endeavour is, not just inspired by, but based on the novel. I guess the episode was made with nothing but respect for Fitzgerald because it is almost as terrible as the original. The only good part of the episode was the mandatory murder mystery, but it is more like a small side story. It does however put a nice twist to the Gatsby plot. The storyline follows that of Gatsby a great deal, but there are small differences that makes it more bearable because they show up sometimes where you don't expect it.

I love watching Endeavour and other British crime shows, and this episode does not live up to my expectations of such. But I guess if you like the Gatsby/Fitzgerald world, you might think differently.

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Endeavour Ride (2012– ) Online

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