Actor Shaun Evans on the trials and changes ahead as the Inspector Morse prequel returns to ITV...
It’s all change for young Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans) and the team as the new series of Endeavour returns to ITV.
The drama has reached 1969, and after the closure of Cowley police station last series, the detectives are scattered far and wide. While Endeavour has been sent to Woodstock, the newly demoted Fred Thursday is now at Castle Gate CID, DS Strange (Sean Rigby) is in Banbury and CS Bright (Anton Lesser) has been side-lined into traffic.
Here, Shaun Evans tells TV Times what to expect from the new series of Endeavour…
TV Times: Where do we find Endeavour?
Shaun Evans: “Things are moving forward and everyone’s disparate, which keeps things fresh. Endeavour’s in uniform and isolated at a country police station in Woodstock. You’d think he’d be happy with nobody bothering him. But he’s in charge of smaller, mundane cases. He doesn't feel stretched."
TVT: Will he reunite with his old colleagues?
SE: “Yes, I don't enjoy not being with Anton, Roger and Sean! In the first episode, a girl is found dead on Endeavour’s patch and that brings him back into contact with the Oxford police. The overarching story about who killed DC Fancy [Lewis Peek] last series also requires our joint brainpower.”
TVT: Thursday has a tough new boss in DCI Ronnie Box (Simon Harrison). Does that shake things up?
SE: “It was time to have new people who are alpha male and physical, which reflects men of the era. Simon and Richard Riddell, who plays Box's sidekick DS Alan Jago, are brilliant. It stops it being cosy and brings a new dynamic because they all rub each other up the wrong way and Endeavour still has attitude.”
TVT: How’s his love life?
SE: “Things are different with Joan [Thursday’s daughter played by Sara Vickers]. She wasn’t interested. Now he barely gives her the time of day because he’s hurt. But in one case, they need each other’s help to save two kids so they’re in and out of each other’s lives. There’s another interesting romance though. But he always goes towards a femme fatale…”
TVT: Endeavour has a moustache this series, how did you find that?
SE: “I don’t mind it, anything that takes you away from how you look yourself is good. It’s gone now though. I don't think my family were keen!”
Endeavour returns on Sunday 10 February at 8pm on ITV
