The year is 1969. As a turbulent decade draws to a close, the crime rate is up. Shaun Evans is back on the job as the cerebral and solitary Inspector Endeavour Morse in the MASTERPIECE crime drama Endeavour, prequel to the long-running Inspector Morse series. The new season follows the evolving partnership—both working and personal—between Endeavour Morse and his senior partner Fred Thursday, played by Roger Allam.
As Season Six opens, the unsolved murder of rookie detective George Fancy still weighs heavily on the collective conscience of his police comrades who have been reassigned and scattered to different areas after the closure of Cowley Station. The bonds of friendship that existed now hang by a thread. Betrayal hangs heavy in the air.
Sporting a new, bushy moustache, Endeavour has reluctantly settled in as a uniformed officer in the Woodstock Police Department, an isolated Oxfordshire outpost, tracking down missing horses and following up on misdemeanors. Jim Strange (Sean Rigby) has taken on a new management role, and Reggie Bright (Anton Lesser) is relegated to Traffic. Now relocated in Oxford, Joan Thursday (Sara Vickers) trains to be a social worker under the guidance of new manager Viv Wall (Alison Newman).
Executive produced by Mammoth Screen’s Damien Timmer, alongside WGBH’s Rebecca Eaton, executive producer of MASTERPIECE, and series writer/creator Russell Lewis, the new Endeavour episodes allude to some of the key moments that took place in 1969. Evans also takes a turn in the director’s chair re-creating important bits of history from that era.
“Over the past few seasons, Endeavour has been working its way through the 1960s, referencing music, fashion and cultural trends, and historical events,” Eaton said. “The moon landing of July of 1969 was epic, and Shaun Evans had a lot of fun using that milestone to inform how he directed the Apollo episode and acted in it.”
Coming up in June, watch as the conflicted crime fighter struggles to put his baggage aside and take on some of his most baffling cases:
Pylon – Sunday, 6/16 at 9pm on WGBH 2 – Endeavour returns to Oxford to report on the death of a schoolgirl. While there, he runs into recently demoted detective Thursday and newly promoted adversary Ronnie Box (Simon Harrison). Endeavour and Thursday refuse to accept that the main suspect is guilty, but can they uncover the truth before it’s too late?
Apollo – Sunday, 6/23 at 9pm on WGBH 2 – As the highly anticipated Apollo 11 space mission draws near, Endeavour finds himself investigating the death of a promising scientist and his girlfriend when a car accident proves to be murder. The young detective learns there may be persons of interest in the Oxford astrophysics department. Is it possible that someone’s mischief missed its intended target?
Confection – Sunday, 6/30 at 9pm on WGBH 2 – The murder of a chocolate factory owner during a local hunt leads Endeavour to the sleepy village of Chigton Green. The quaint cottages and idyllic surroundings might seem perfect, but not all is as it appears. Two more deaths expose the secrets of a close-knit community in the grip of deadly rumors.
“When we first met Endeavour in 1965, he was a young man with a certain hopeful naiveté about him—nobody’s fool, but a little gauche,” Lewis said. Now the game has changed. “Whether old allegiances can survive this brave new world remains to be seen.”
Watch a preview below:
