Endeavour - Episode Guide

Marking the 25th anniversary of the very first episode of Inspector Morse, Shaun Evans steps in to John Thaw's shoes to play the younger version of Colin Dexter's iconic character. 

Set in 1965, the story follows the hunt for a missing schoolgirl which draws Endeavour Morse back to the place which will ultimately shape and define his destiny – Oxford. Deep in a full-blown murder investigation and led by Detective Inspector Fred Thursday, Endeavour finds himself side-lined, discredited and at a dead end. Will he risk it all in the hunt for a truth that could haunt him for the rest of his days?

When a young secretarial student dies suddenly at home, Endeavour senses that there is more to the case than the initial verdict of heart attack.

A new kind of killer haunts the Oxford twilight - he appears to strike at random, but Endeavour uncovers an underlying method to the staging of the crimes.

When a worker at a missile factory is murdered, Bright wants the case resolved, but Endeavour remains unconvinced that the crime is such an open-and-shut case.

As the shadow of East End villainy falls on Oxford, a hit-and-run accident claims the life of a professor. Endeavour and Thursday must each face their pasts.

A baffling suicide, an anguished father searching for his missing daughter and the robbery of medieval treasures strain the talents of DC Endeavour Morse.

A murder investigation sends Endeavour and DI Thursday to a girls' school which is haunted by memories of an atrocity committed a hundred years earlier.

As a multiple murderer haunts the city strangling married women with a silk stocking, Endeavour and DI Thursday's emotional lives are turned upside down.

As 1966 draws to a close, the body of a disreputable journalist found in mysterious circumstances threatens to expose past horrors. As the investigation deepens, Endeavour and Thursday face corruption in Oxford's corridors of power.

Jeannie Hearne is spirited away in the middle of the night with no explanation. Her body is found the next day in the countryside, alerting the attention of the Oxford City Police. Endeavour may be suspended, but with the case been so close to his home, he begins a investigation of his own.

An artist dies in a house fire, leaving the Police of Oxford baffled. Endeavour is soon drawn into the world of a Quaker-owned supermarket which only deepens the mystery.

A missing persons case soon takes on a troubling dimension as Morse finds himself slung into a untamed wilderness in the Oxfordshire countryside.

Felix Lorimer hires Endeavour to look into how safe his estranged young wife Nina is. This leads to Endeavour contemplating his future prospects with the Police and having to contend with unexpected strife in his personal life. Gangland grudges are dredged up when a manager of a fashion line, Cedric Clissold is murdered.

Throwing himself into his work to mask the heartache of Joan leaving, Endeavour is quickly consumed by his duties when a research scientist is found drowned.

When moral crusader Joy Pettybon receives a death threat, Endeavour must protect her at all costs. Then he is dragged into a war of social attitudes.

Whispers that Cowley General contains a cursed ward - and a seemingly innocuous death - set off a chain of events that lead Endeavour to investigate the dark depths of the hospital. While there, he is forced to confront his own ghosts as he discovers a chilling secret.

Endeavour becomes embroiled in a case with pagan overtones. When a body is discovered on boggy Bramford Mere, it reveals a new lead in the old missing persons case. Almost five years to the day since that disappearance, Endeavour and DI Thursday pick up where the investigation left off.

Endeavour learns he'll have to take on a young new apprentice, but the pair barely get time to say their hellos before being thrust into an investigation as a number of sadistic murders accompany the auction of a Faberge egg at an Oxford college.

Hollywood glamour comes to Oxford as the stars of a new horror movie sequel begin filming in the city. Meanwhile, the unexplained poisoning of a former detective sergeant leads Endeavour and Thursday to a local cinema, which is playing host the film's stars in a special event.

The railway takes centre stage as Endeavour investigates the disappearance of a local woman - with initial fears linking it to the unsolved murder of a teenager, killed several years earlier. Endeavour puts the missing woman's last known movements under scrutiny, while Thursday is absorbed in the investigation of a lorry hijack which he suspects is linked to local gangster Eddie Nero.

A photoshoot on an army base turns sinister when one of the models is found dead, and the investigation is complicated when Sam Thursday is revealed to be involved. With Thursday side-lined by protocol, Endeavour and Strange take the lead on the investigation for the first time without their mentor. Tensions rise, and the pair clash as their differing opinions push their friendship to breaking point.

An assassination attempt at an international sporting event opens a new case for Endeavour and Thursday, but their investigation is quickly brought to an unexpected end. While Thursday wants to step away, Endeavour is determined to find out more, and secretly undertakes to discover the truth. He soon finds himself embroiled in the dark dealings of espionage, big business and a long-held secret that goes to the very heart of the Oxford community. While Endeavour chases down the real story behind the assassination, Thursday works closer to home, attempting to protect a battered wife from her violent husband. When tragedy strikes, Thursday has to make a tough moral decision about how to administer justice.

After the mysterious disappearance of a teacher, Endeavour finds himself undercover, investigating the dark and secret world of a public school. When a body is unexpectedly discovered, Endeavour has to question who he can trust - and uncover the truth about the crimes before more people are hurt.

Meanwhile, with news that Cowley Station is due to close, Thursday is determined to solve the ongoing unsolved murders linked to Eddie Nero, and charges Fancy with tracking down the elusive Cromwell Ames. But when the investigation ends in disaster, Cowley CID find a surprising link to Endeavour's investigation at the public school. In the shadow of the tragedy, Endeavour and Thursday find some unexpected answers to their cases.

With the Cowley team scattered across Oxfordshire, Endeavour finds himself policing a lonely country patch, and back in uniform. His day job is a monotonous investigation of missing livestock and stolen tractors. But when he discovers the dead body of a missing schoolgirl, it opens this quiet backwater to the roar of Castle Gate CID – now staffed by Thursday and an old adversary, the newly promoted DCI Ronnie Box, alongside sidekick DS Alan Jago.

As the highly-anticipated moon landings of Apollo 11 draw near, Endeavour, now at Castle Gate CID, finds himself investigating the death of promising young astrophysicist Adam Drake and girlfriend Christine. Their deaths seeming to be a result of a tragic car accident on first inspection, but when the clues start to point towards foul play, Endeavour enlists the help of an injured Thursday to uncover the truth.

The murder of renowned chocolate factory owner Greville Creswell during a local hunt leads Endeavour to the sleepy village of Chigton Green. The chocolate box cottages and idyllic surroundings might seem perfect, but not all is as it first appears.

When librarian Osbert Page is gruesomely murdered at the Bodleian, Endeavour and Thursday have little to go on besides a set of muddy boot prints. With the two main suspects – professors Nicholson and Burrowes - have their own motives for killing the librarian, Endeavour digs deeper into their backgrounds, tracking a trail that appears to connect to seemingly innocent college bequest.

As Endeavour sees in the new year – 1970 – at an opera house in Venice, a murder on an Oxford towpath speaks to Thursday's intuition, and convinced he has the man responsible, he vows to bring him to justice. Returning home, Endeavour makes a new acquaintance, and old friendships show signs of strain.

Later, when an exciting new educational television programme appeals for Academic presenters, a contentious college project develops into a fatal battle of the sexes. On investigating, Endeavour and Thursday discover a potential link between the department and a young woman's troubling premonitions.

As campaigning for the 1970 general election gets underway in Oxford, racial tensions escalate in the city and a clash between two young rival gangs results in tragedy. Initial investigations lead Endeavour and Thursday to the door of a familiar face, where they discover the influence of the British Movement, a right wing organisation hoping to win an Oxford seat.

Elsewhere in the city, tragedy strikes a second time, this time an Indian restaurant, where a customer's mysterious disappearance and a shocking murder put even the strongest family loyalties to the test.

When Endeavour is called to investigate what at first appears to be a freak accident at Lady Matilda's College, he uncovers a potential link between a series of peculiar incidents across Oxford, and despite Thursday's scepticism, becomes convinced the accidents are the result of foul play. Lady Matilda's meanwhile, is in the midst of a referendum campaign which will decide whether or not the college should become co-educational, and when one of their own is attacked while walking alone on the towpath, the female students become more determined than ever to keep the wolf without the citadel.

It's the start of 1971 - though wearied from the events of the past year, there's no chance of 'light duties' at the CID. Crestfallen and rarely without a scotch in hand, Endeavour finds himself right back in the thick of it when an explosive murder at an Oxford college has potentially far-reaching political ramifications. Meanwhile, the IRA have made a threat against the life of the Oxford Wanderers' star striker, and Endeavour is tasked with the duty of acting bodyguard.

May 1971, and a cab driver is found dead in his taxi, owing a large debt to a colleague. 

Investigations into his death leads Endeavour and the team first to a nudist colony, where guests are making the most of the spring sunshine, and later to the heart of a blue movie outfit in London's Soho.

Meanwhile at home, Endeavour receives a guest who reminds him of a past he'd sooner forget. As the investigation into the cab driver's murder unfolds, Endeavour starts to retreat from those close to him and appears set on a course of willful self-destruction.

In the midst of the 1971's cruel winter, the foundations of Endeavour and Thursday's relationship are profoundly shaken when Thursday unwittingly discovers the extent of Endeavour's problems are greater than anybody could have suspected.

Meanwhile things at home become quite tense for Thursday and Win when they receive disturbing news from abroad.

When a snowstorm splits CID, and they independently work to solve the murder of a college don, Thursday enlists the help of Dorothea, while Endeavour finds himself stranded at an abandoned hotel, a pawn in a game of gruesome revenge.

It's spring 1972 and Endeavour's return to Castle Gate coincides with another homecoming, that of the celebrated Oxford Concert Orchestra, led by illustrious composer Sir Alexander Lermontov. A gruesome discovery in a College garden leads Endeavour and Thursday to the orchestra's door, and when a second tragedy hits, they uncover a web of secrets.

Meanwhile, grisly London business turns up in Oxford and a criminal from the Smoke is brutally murdered in a derelict warehouse. As the mystery unfolds, Endeavour and Thursday realise there are some unsettling ties to a case the pair had hoped was long since behind them. 

Endeavour suspects a connection between a woman's disappearance and her past employer but another missing persons case demands his attention. This time, it's a notable artist, whose work adorns the covers of a series of paperback mysteries.

Meanwhile, reports flood in of stolen cars and wanton criminal damage, as a debauched group of university undergraduates wreak havoc. A murder of a uniformed copper sees Bright command all hands on deck, while, much to Endeavour and Thursday's chagrin the cast of television detective series, Jolly For Short, are in town filming the final series.

Endeavour's investigation into a number of untimely death notices in the Oxford Mail, each with a cryptic message, takes him to a series of funerals, then behind the curtain at a funeral directors', before forcing him to confront his own mortality.

Thursday is facing more than one confrontation of his own, as his past closes in on him. There's trouble in the present to deal with first, and he resorts to desperate measures to protect those he loves most.

At CID, as Strange looks set to transfer to Kidlington, and Bright eyes retirement; where will this leave Endeavour and Thursday?

From the original Inspector Morse (1987-2000), through to the spin off ‘Lewis' in (2006-2015) and after ten years, the series ‘Endeavour', which explores the detective's back story in 1960s Britain, the story of Inspector Morse is finally coming to an end. Featuring interviews with all the main cast members, the documentary explores the huge global appeal of this Oxford universe of crime. We go behind the scenes during the filming of the last series of ‘Endeavour' as they tie together over six decades of interconnecting plots.