CRYPTIC CLUES

An obsession with crosswords and an education in Classics inspired one of the smartest fictional detectives. Crime Scene looks back three decades to the arrival of Inspector Morse on screen...

AP

Coppers who rely on brains not brawn,” announced the TV Times when Inspector Morse arrived on a Tuesday night in January 1987. The three feature-length episodes in the first series quickly established the show – based on Colin Dexter’s novels – as a superior whodunit. Yet the casting of John Thaw as the cerebral detective was a surprise move at the time. The actor was best known for playing Jack Regan, the macho Flying Squad officer in The Sweeney. Morse was a more sensitive soul: a lover of poetry, a romantic and a loner. Opening episode “The Dead Of Jericho” is almost a deliberate rebuke to TV’s cursing coppers who administered slaps to villains. Anthony Minghella’s adaptation, directed by Alastair Reid, begins with a choral recital intercut with a scene…

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Crime Scene (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 7

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