Endeavour is a British television special devised by Russell Lewis as a prequel to the long-running adaptation of Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse novels which follows the eponymous police detective in his early career and set in 1965, in which a young Detective Constable Endeavour Morse investigates a case in Oxford.
Based on the strength of the pilot a full series was ordered by ITV. This special originally aired on ITV on 2 January, 2012, with the full series starting on 14 April, 2013. It is two hours long.
Endeavour aired in South Africa on DStv's BBC Entertainment channel on Sunday 22 December 2013, at 21h00, followed by the premiere of the full series on Friday 27 December 2013, at 20h30. See "Seasons" below for seasonal broadcast dates and times.
Synopsis
The Oxford detective legacy continues as young Morse's character becomes shaped by the cruel cases he must solve. First there was Inspector Morse, then Lewis, now Endeavour to carry on the tradition of critical acclaim.
Oxford in the mid 1960s is a world caught between the tradition and institutions of the past and the freedom and decadence of the new social revolution. Young Endeavour Morse has changed since his father's death and he returns to Oxford a damaged man with everything to prove.
It's 1965, and outside of a posh estate, a sinister man conducts surveillance, while within, black-tied gentlemen make high-stakes wagers. But as dawn breaks, it stirs a dissipated scene of older men and teenage girls, awakening entangled.
And the next day, fifteen-year-old Oxford schoolgirl Mary Tremlett is reported missing, presumed dead. Last seen waiting at a bus stop in the rain in the early hours of Sunday morning, she left behind few clues and many secrets.
Endeavour Morse, a rookie Detective Constable who only the day before was writing his letter of resignation from the force, now finds himself en route to Oxford to assist in the search for Mary.
He returns not as a student but as a rookie cop, to the very university he'd abruptly left just a few years earlier. And the welcome he receives from his contemptuous DS, Arthur Lott, emphasizes his position of utter subordination.
But Endeavour, a loner who listens to opera as his generation is swept up in rock 'n' roll and revolution, cannot help but apply his cerebral instincts to the case.
Where others see the clichéd teenage girl's romance with poetry in the stack of books by Mary's bed, Endeavour sees valuable first editions; in her barely-started crossword puzzles he sees a cryptic code; and in Detective Inspector Fred Thursday, he sees the possibly of an ally.
Deciphering the code provides a vital break, leading them to Mary's corpse, but the case deepens when a seemingly unconnected death sidetracks Endeavour and reveals unsavory dealings in the heart of the ivory tower.
The retired soprano Rosalind Stromming, wife of an Oxford don with a murky connection to the case, provides refuge to the troubled young man striving to find his place and banish his demons.
But only finding the identity of the crossword writer known as "Oz," and extracting the truth from a group of far too worldly teenage girls, will ensure him a chance at catching Mary's killer.
Discredited and at a dead-end, the solitary and cerebral Endeavour drives his first Jaguar, drinks his first pint and, to the sublime strains of opera, fights for the truth as he forges the identity that will someday become Inspector Morse.
Roger Allam stars as DI Fred Thursday and Abigail Thaw (Inspector Morse star John Thaw's daughter) makes a special cameo appearance in Endeavour.
Seasons
Endeavour (special)
Channel: BBC Entertainment | Broadcast: 22 December 2013 | Sunday, 21h00
Season 1 (4 episodes)
Channel: BBC Entertainment | Premiere: 27 Dec 2013 | Finale: 17 Jan 2014 | Fri, 20h30