tony-pierno Reviews

Inspector Morse (1987–2000)

Morse isn't grouchy--he's prickly--and witty--and brilliantly portrayed

[4 February 2005]

One of the things that has sustained my wife and I through half a century is our mutual love of mysteries. Our appetite for that fare has never been sated, but perhaps it came closest during a trip to England when fortunate circumstance led to our spending an afternoon at lunching and then strolling through Oxford in the company of Colin Dexter. The gracious nature and prickly wit of Morse seems a reflection of the author, whose tastes in the arts are expressed irreverently and inevitably through Morse. The intellect of the author is spelled out in the character, and though the books aren't autobiographical in plot,they seem to be in terms of the characterization of the central figure. Mr. Dexter uses his scholarship and his intellect in life in much the way Morse does--his wry comments on Oxford and its denizens during our visit seemed akin to Morse's views of them. John Thaw, Colin Dexter and Inspector Morse are to me the holy trinity of the mystery genre. Audiences have rarely been so fortunate in the bringing together of an author, a central character and a portrayer each of whom so brilliantly fulfilled his destiny in the same series of performances.