Having put it off for over a week, I finally got on with the end of my Morse jag and watched “The Wench Is Dead,” the penultimate episode, last night. I’d delayed because it’s unusual in several ways at once. It was the first episode that I got to know well — meaning, among many other things, that I had no idea who Adele (Judy Loe) was (the first female interest to reappear in a second episode, that’s who). Written by Malcolm Bradbury, of all people, it’s unlike all the other Morses in involving a very cold case — a murder occurring in 1859. “The Oxford Canal Murder,” it’s called — nothing to do with the University. And there’s a big American part, played by Lisa Eichhorn. As it turns out, Lisa Eichhorn really is American (she was born in upstate New York), but half the time, on Morse, you have to wonder about those accents, which, although plausible, come from what the French call nulle part.

Seeing the show in order, knowing that Morse really was terminally ill, I bawled like a baby and could hardly eat my spaghetti alla carbonara. (Kathleen had a business date.) Lord knows how I’ll carry on during “The Remorseful Day,” the finale in more ways than one. (Not only does Morse actually die, but actor John Thaw himself died two years afterward.)

I thought I would share my Morse Questionnaire. I hope to have forms printed up the next time I go through the series. The database will be amusing.

1. University SOC. (Y/N)
2. Pathologist. (Name)
3. Outremer. (Only two shows leave the British Isles, but “The Wench Is Dead” goes to Ireland.)
4. Canal SOC.
5. Rich and Famous. (Y/N)
6. Tension with the police hierarchy. (1-10, with “Masonic Mysteries,” in which Morse is himself put under arrest, the sole 10.)
7. Lewis’s doubts. (Correlation, 0-1).
8. Crossword Puzzle Clues. (Y/N)
9. Drugs/Alcohol. (Correlation)
10. University off-use. (Summer schools and such)
11. Beaumont. Lonsdale. Gresham. This is actually item 1a.
12. Love Interest. (Name of character, actress; suspect? accomplice? murderer? Victim? All of the above?)
13. Music. (1-10, with “Twilight of the Gods” and “The Death of the Self” the two 10s.)
14. Does the chief superintendant insult Morse by calling him “matey.” (Y/N)

If you can think of anything to add to this questionnaire, please let me know! 

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 at 10:27 am.