Quotes
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[Copley-Barnes is describing the priceless Saxon exhibits which have been stolen from his college, and belittles DS Jakes who doesn't know what he is talking about]
Dr. Matthew Copley-Barnes : [patronisingly] Strangely enough, I can't imagine that a working knowledge of the Historia Ecclesiastica looms large in the Hendon curriculum.
DC Endeavour Morse : I can't imagine it would do us very much good if it did.
Dr. Matthew Copley-Barnes : I beg your pardon.
DC Endeavour Morse : The Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, to give it its full title, appeared 335 years before the events with which this exhibition is concerned took place. Venerable the Bede may have been, but not clairvoyant.
[Copley-Barnes looks first gobsmacked and then annoyed that he has met someone who knows even more than himself]
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Dr. Matthew Copley-Barnes : One of your uniformed colleagues mentioned in passing that you were an Oxford man. Is that right?
DC Endeavour Morse : I've always rather despised that phrase.
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Dr. Malcolm Speight : [describing the stolen items] The quality of the objects, together with certain runic inscriptions, suggest they may have belonged to a thane or a high-ranking house-carl in the retinue of King Harold Godwinson.
PC Jim Strange : King Harold that got it in the eye?
Dr. Matthew Copley-Barnes : [heavy sarcasm] And people decry the merits of the Secondary Modern! Yes, constable, even he.
