List of Endeavour episodes
Endeavour is a British television detective drama series created by Russell Lewis and co-produced by Mammoth Screen and Masterpiece in association with ITV Studios. It was first broadcast on ITV in the United Kingdom on 2 January 2012 and on PBS in the United States on 1 July 2012, as part of the Masterpiece Mystery! anthology. Seven series have been broadcast, with the eighth scheduled for 2021.[1]
Series overview
Series | Episodes | Originally aired | Average UK viewers (millions) inc. ITV HD and ITV+1 | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
First aired | Last aired | |||||
Pilot | 2 January 2012 | 8.21 | ||||
1 | 4 | 14 April 2013 | 5 May 2013 | 7.04 | ||
2 | 4 | 30 March 2014 | 20 April 2014 | 6.78 | ||
3 | 4 | 3 January 2016 | 24 January 2016 | 6.82 | ||
4 | 4 | 8 January 2017 | 29 January 2017 | 7.07 | ||
5 | 6 | 4 February 2018 | 11 March 2018 | 6.67 | ||
6 | 4 | 10 February 2019 | 3 March 2019 | 7.16 | ||
7 | 3 | 9 February 2020 | 23 February 2020 | 6.80 | ||
8 | 3[1] | 2021 | 2021 | TBA |
Episode guide
Pilot (2012)
No. overall | No. in series | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | UK viewers (millions)[2] includes ITV HD and ITV +1 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | "Endeavour" | Colm McCarthy | Russell Lewis | 2 January 2012 | 8.21 | |
The murder of a 15-year-old schoolgirl and the apparent suicide of her boyfriend lead an investigation by the Oxford City Police to the discovery of sex parties where under-age girls are procured for politicians, businessmen, Oxford dons, and policemen, which in particular make the sifting of evidence very difficult. Endeavour's superior, Detective Inspector Fred Thursday, recognising the young constable is a detective he can trust, takes him under his wing and is determined to break the case and, with Morse's help, bring it to a successful conclusion. |
Series 1 (2013)
No. overall | No. in series | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | UK viewers (millions)[2] includes ITV HD and ITV +1 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2 | 1 | "Girl" | Edward Bazalgette | Russell Lewis | 14 April 2013 | 7.43 | |
The sudden death of a secretarial student (Margaret Bell) and the shooting of a doctor appear unconnected despite Morse's theories. Chief Superintendent Bright, the new commanding officer of the Oxford City Police, unimpressed with Morse's zeal, protests to Thursday that the bagman's position is a Detective Sergeant's job and the young constable is too inexperienced. Following the shooting of a vicar, Morse is reduced to general duties for dismissing a beautiful, but mentally unstable girl as a suspect and must continue his investigations alone despite warnings of possible dismissal from his superiors. | |||||||
3 | 2 | "Fugue" | Tom Vaughan | Russell Lewis | 21 April 2013 | 7.00 | |
An unknown menace stalks Oxford, appearing at first to be just another deranged lunatic, killing at random. But Detective Constable Endeavour Morse uncovers an underlying method to the madness; the elaborate staging of the crimes suggests that the killer shares Endeavour's passion for opera. While Oxford city police scramble to find the next potential victim, it seems that Endeavour has finally met his intellectual match. As the body count increases, letters containing cryptic clues, goading the police for their failures, are sent to the Oxford Mail. Only a detective of Endeavour's intellect can break them. | |||||||
4 | 3 | "Rocket" | Craig Viveiros | Russell Lewis | 28 April 2013 | 7.11 | |
The prospect of a visit to Oxford by Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret, who is to unveil the British Imperial Electric Company's new "Standfast" Mark Two missile, has Chief Superintendent Bright, slated to provide security, on red alert. But when an unpopular worker is found murdered in a secluded area of the shop floor, Endeavour must pursue the truth -- and then justice -- from the sidelines…and in the intoxicating presence of Alice Vexin, an old acquaintance from his days at Oxford. | |||||||
5 | 4 | "Home" | Colm McCarthy | Russell Lewis | 5 May 2013 | 6.62 | |
December 1965. Morse, still on general duties and studying for his forthcoming sergeant's exam, investigates an apparent hit-and-run accident that has claimed the life of an Oxford don. The victim had been at odds with his peers over the sale of a piece of college-owned land to a development company in conjunction with the town council. The case is complicated by the appearance in Oxford of an East London gangster named Vic Kasper, an enemy from DI Thursday's past, which reignites a personal feud as Thursday thinks Kasper is somehow involved with the case. In the meantime, Morse makes a trip back home to Lincolnshire to visit his dying father. |
Series 2 (2014)
No. overall | No. in series | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | UK viewers (millions)[2] includes ITV HD and ITV +1 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
6 | 1 | "Trove" | Kristoffer Nyholm | Russell Lewis | 30 March 2014 | 7.01 | |
In May 1966, after returning from sick leave for several months at County (Oxfordshire) Police's Witney Station under D.I. Church, Morse investigates a suspicious suicide during an Oxford parade, a missing girl from Oxfordshire, and the theft of historical artefacts from a college. A beauty pageant and local by-election draw Morse into disagreement with Inspector Thursday and Superintendent Bright when he believes they are connected to the crimes, despite the evidence. A missing notebook and a Masonic lodge hamper the investigation. | |||||||
7 | 2 | "Nocturne" | Giuseppe Capotondi | Russell Lewis | 6 April 2014 | 6.89 | |
In July 1966 at the Museum of Natural History, almost empty, save for some schoolgirls, Adrian Weiss, a specialist in heraldry and genealogy, is murdered. The similar murder of a 12-year-old girl at her boarding school leads Morse to delve into a 100-year-old murder mystery involving a wealthy family with connections to India and an inheritance. The girls staying for the summer, as they cannot reach home for the vacation, play pranks based on the book about the murdered family 100 years earlier, but do not own up until afterwards. The fifth generation descendant of the owner of the large family home, now the school for girls, thinks he might finally inherit with a change in laws for a bastard child. He murders those in his way, worked out by Morse by reading Weiss's detailed files. A masonic ring connected to the case goes missing. | |||||||
8 | 3 | "Sway" | Andy Wilson | Russell Lewis | 13 April 2014 | 6.58 | |
In the period before Remembrance Sunday in November 1966, a housewife found strangled with a silk stocking in her own home becomes the third such death in Oxford in a month. All the women are married, alone and their wedding rings missing. Tracing the stockings to the sole supplier, Burridges Department Store, a number of suspects surface, and for Inspector Thursday, a face from the past he thought long dead leading to complications in his family life and with Morse. | |||||||
9 | 4 | "Neverland" | Geoffrey Sax | Russell Lewis | 20 April 2014 | 6.63 | |
In December 1966, a boy with a brutal father is reported missing from his home. The body of a journalist is found on a railway line and within days an escaped convict, with only a month of his sentence remaining, is found dead. The two men have connections with Blenheim Vale, a disused correctional facility for boys in Kidlington, soon to be redeveloped as a new police headquarters in a reorganisation of the local forces to form the Thames Valley Police. Thursday's and Morse's investigation leads to a property developer and corruption in high places including missing police evidence in Morse's last three investigations. Morse is in jail and Thursday lies shot as the episode closes. |
Series 3 (2016)
No. overall | No. in series | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | UK viewers (millions)[2][3] includes ITV HD and ITV+1 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
10 | 1 | "Ride" | Sandra Goldbacher | Russell Lewis | 3 January 2016 | 6.84 | |
March 1967. Morse is disillusioned after spending time in prison following his last case, and even though he is exonerated, ponders his future with the police. Having relocated to an isolated lake front cottage, Morse is befriended by an unhappy millionaire and his friends. At a funfair on Cowley Green a young girl, Jeannie Hearne, is spirited away into the night, seemingly without explanation. When her body is found the next morning, Inspector Thursday investigates and discovers that Morse's new friends are involved. When Morse's millionaire friend is killed, but then appears the next day, Morse realises his future is as a detective and the solution lies at the funfair where Hearne went missing. | |||||||
11 | 2 | "Arcadia" | Bryn Higgins | Russell Lewis | 10 January 2016 | 7.16 | |
April 1967. The death of an artist in a horrendous house fire leaves Oxford City Police baffled as to the cause of the blaze. A housewife dies of a ‘tummy bug’ that has seen half of Chief Superintendent Bright’s men go on sick leave. Tainted food sold at a local supermarket, Richardson's, and the blackmail of the wealthy owners who refuse to pay culminates in the kidnap of their daughter with a ransom demand from the dead artist. Morse strives to connect these elements to solve the deaths and kidnapping. WPC Trewlove joins the station and DS Jakes departs. | |||||||
12 | 3 | "Prey" | Lawrence Gough | Russell Lewis | 17 January 2016 | 6.89 | |
Early June 1967. The missing persons case of Danish au pair Ingrid Hjort proves far from routine, pulling Endeavour into the duelling worlds of Oxford scientific academia, the city's vast parks, as well as an urban legend said to haunt the untamed wilderness of the Oxfordshire countryside. | |||||||
13 | 4 | "Coda" | Oliver Blackburn | Russell Lewis | 24 January 2016 | 6.38 | |
Mid June 1967. Gangland loyalties are tested when criminals vie to replace their dead boss Harry Rose. Police loyalties are tested when Fred Thursday is suspended for hitting an informant. Bank staff loyalties are tested where Joan Thursday works when armed robbers trap them along with Morse, who is there investigating a killing and payroll robbery. As hostages are taken, he and Joan try to conceal their identities. Morse realises he is part of someone else's plan to conceal another crime. |
Series 4 (2017)
No. overall | No. in series | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | UK viewers (millions) [2][3] | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
14 | 1 | "Game" | Ashley Pearce | Russell Lewis | 8 January 2017 | 7.56 | |
July 1967. The body of a scientist, who disappeared over a month previously, is found floating in a local river. The initial suspected cause of death is accidental drowning, but Morse is unconvinced. When a second victim is found drowned at the local swimming baths, Morse begins to recognise a pattern. He connects the victims to a university science group who are undertaking work on one of the first working computer systems. The death of a third victim sways Morse to convince a skeptical Thursday to use the computer technology to identify a possible list of suspects, connected in particular to the second victim. The discovery of another body at a farmhouse owned by one of the possible suspects leads Morse right into the path of the killer. Meanwhile, Morse is shocked by the news that his sergeant's exam papers have gone astray. Worse to the fact, after confronting Bright, he discovers that his paper was the only one to have mysteriously disappeared. | |||||||
15 | 2 | "Canticle" | Michael Lennox | Russell Lewis | 15 January 2017 | 7.18 | |
Labourer Barry Finch is found dead in the garage of a local public house, and initial reports suggest the cause of death is strangulation. Meanwhile, Morse is asked to act as bodyguard to busybody Joy Pettybon, a moral crusader who since coming to Oxford to appear on a nightly television show, 'The Almanac', has received threats to her life. Her fellow guests on the show, pop group The Wildwood, whose record Pettybon has tried to have banned from the airwaves, are prime suspects for sending the threats - and when one of Pettybon's closest allies, Reverend Golightly, is poisoned shortly after her appearance on the show, suspicions on the tearaway group begin to grow. When one of the group's founding members disappears during a writing session, Morse and Thursday are thrust out into the dark cold Oxford night to try and find him. When he finally reappears, they discover he too has been given a concoction of mysterious poison. When further tests are carried out on Barry Finch's corpse, traces of the poison are once again discovered, and Morse finds himself on the trail of a possible triple murderer. | |||||||
16 | 3 | "Lazaretto" | Börkur Sigþórsson | Russell Lewis | 22 January 2017 | 6.77 | |
Morse is called to deal with the death of an elderly Oxford resident, Mrs Zacharides, who appears to have died of natural causes. Meanwhile, the star witness in the case against the Matthews gang, Terence Bakewell, is admitted to hospital from remand, and Morse is assigned to act as bodyguard. While on the ward, he meets a regular patient, Mr. Talbot, who tells him that Bed 10 has become infamous for unexplained deaths. Back at the station, Thursday finds Bright collapsed in his office, having seemingly suffered from a perforated ulcer. Back on the ward, Morse catches an armed intruder who is trying to get to Bakewell, and gives pursuit. Following the breach of security, Bakewell is moved to the uninhabited Bed 10. The next morning, as the ward staff arrive on shift, they discover that Bakewell, who appeared to have been in recovery, has died. As Morse starts trawling back through the victims of Bed 10, he discovers that Mr. Zacharides was. Suspecting that the two cases are linked, Morse tries to unravel the clues to identify the killer. Back from surgery, Bright is told that he is to be moved into the uninhabited Bed 10. | |||||||
17 | 4 | "Harvest" | Jim Loach | Russell Lewis | 29 January 2017 | 6.76 | |
September 1967. The discovery of a body on an archaeological dig sends Morse to the village of Bramford, where botanist Matthew Laxman disappeared five years earlier and where pagan customs are practised for the forthcoming Autumn equinox. All the locals, including reclusive clairvoyant Dowsabelle Chattox, deny seeing Laxman until Selina Berger, whose brother is a doctor, recalls seeing the missing man's car in the vicinity of the nuclear power plant nearby. While its director Elliot Blake assures Morse that it poses no danger, it is not a welcome presence in the village, the proposed site of a new reservoir. Morse believes the locals are lying when Laxman's jacket is found on a scarecrow and Dowsabelle and others admit that he came to Bramford and to the power station. As the celebrations begin Morse and Thursday rush to the station to prevent an aggrieved avenger destroying the whole area before unmasking Laxman's killer. |
Series 5 (2018)
No. overall | No. in series | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | UK viewers (millions)[2][3] includes ITV HD and ITV+1 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
18 | 1 | "Muse" | Brady Hood | Russell Lewis | 4 February 2018 | 7.42 | |
April 1968. Ex-boxer Joey Sikes is killed on the night of a failed theft of the last Fabergé egg from the Oxford college where it is to be auctioned. Next day lecturer Robin Grey is also murdered and the link is prostitute and artists' model Eve Thorne, who was seen with both men. When the egg is stolen, suspicion falls on another of Eve's clients, latest victim Simon Lake. Morse, now a detective sergeant, discovers that Lake and Grey belonged to an elite club and were involved in a scam regarding the egg. In establishing whether the murders were linked to the club or the egg Morse must cope with a lazy new constable and the reappearance of Joan Thursday. As the episode closes, radio news announces the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. in the US. | |||||||
19 | 2 | "Cartouche" | Andy Wilson | Russell Lewis | 11 February 2018 | 6.61 | |
May 1968. Ex-policeman and museum attendant Ronald Beavis is murdered after watching a re-run of 'The Pharaoh's Curse' at the Roxy cinema. Of its staff only organist Leslie Garnier can recall him having a secret conversation. Morse takes Carol, daughter of Fred Thursday's flash brother Charlie, to a glossy remake of the film, witnessing museum curator, Egyptian Dr Shoutry, protest that it cheapens his culture and carries a curse. Shortly afterwards Leslie is poisoned and the film's star, Emil Valdemar is given a sinister token, stolen from the museum. Morse believes Valdemar to have been the intended victim and rushes to save him in a cinema now in flames to prevent its sale. At the same time racist attacks on properties owned by a local racketeer would appear to have links with the Roxy and its employees. (Shaun Evans plays a dual role as Morse and the explorer on the cinema screen). | |||||||
20 | 3 | "Passenger" | Jim Field Smith | Russell Lewis | 18 February 2018 | 6.73 | |
June 1968. Morse suspects a connection between a woman's disappearance and the unsolved murder of a teenager ten years earlier. The discovery of another body and some unusual crime-scene details, however, suggest another possibility. Thursday investigates a lorry hijack which he believes could be the work of a local gangster and Fancy takes on an informant in the case. | |||||||
21 | 4 | "Colours" | Robert Quinn | Russell Lewis | 25 February 2018 | 6.61 | |
Oxford seethes as a protest at a hair salon exposes rising racial tensions in the city. Meanwhile, Thursday's son discovers a murder at his Army base, and Morse must uncover long-held secrets within the regiment to solve the case. | |||||||
22 | 5 | "Quartet" | Geoffrey Sax | Russell Lewis | 4 March 2018 | 6.42 | |
Morse investigates the assassination of a competitor at an international It's a Knockout event and a spectator, a small boy, is hit by a stray bullet. Special Branch quickly take over the case but Morse delves deeper and is drawn into a web of espionage, big business and dark secrecy. Thursday faces a dilemma as he tries to protect a woman from her violent husband in his local newsagency. | |||||||
23 | 6 | "Icarus" | Gordon Anderson | Russell Lewis | 11 March 2018 | 6.25 | |
Morse investigates the disappearance of a teacher from a public school and begins to question whom he can trust when a body is discovered. Thursday grapples with the imminent closure of Cowley Station as he tries to connect Eddie Nero to a series of unsolved murders and he assigns Fancy to track down the man who may be the key to cracking the case. |
Series 6 (2019)
No. overall | No. in series | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | UK viewers (millions)[2][3] includes ITV HD and ITV+1 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
24 | 1 | "Pylon" | Johnny Kenton | Russell Lewis | 10 February 2019 | 7.53 | |
Early July 1969. Morse finds himself policing a lonely country patch and back in uniform, but when he discovers the dead body of a missing schoolgirl, it opens the quiet backwater to the roar of Castle Gate CID, now staffed by Thursday and an old adversary. With the former's hands tied, Morse resolves to prove an accused teenager's innocence, and to uncover the truth behind the young girl's death. | |||||||
25 | 2 | "Apollo" | Shaun Evans | Russell Lewis | 17 February 2019 | 7.09 | |
Late July 1969. As the highly-anticipated Apollo 11 moon landing draws near, Morse finds himself investigating the death of a promising young astrophysicist and his girlfriend. On first inspection, their deaths seem to be a result of a tragic car accident, but various clues point to foul play, and Morse enlists the help of an injured Thursday to uncover the truth. | |||||||
26 | 3 | "Confection" | Leanne Welham | Russell Lewis | 24 February 2019 | 7.14 | |
Mid-September 1969. The murder of a chocolate factory owner during a local hunt leads Morse to the sleepy village of Chigton Green. When he learns of a vicious campaign of gossip and rumour, it seems likely that two murders are connected. One of the targets, a beautiful, single mother, captures Morse's attention, giving him food for thought about the future. | |||||||
27 | 4 | "Degüello" | Jamie Donoughue | Russell Lewis | 3 March 2019 | 6.87 | |
Mid-October 1969. When a librarian is gruesomely murdered at the Bodleian, Morse and Thursday have little to go on besides a set of muddy boot prints. With the two main suspects having their own motives for killing the librarian, Morse digs deeper into their backgrounds, tracking a trail of corruption and conspiracy that appears to connect to their seemingly innocent college bequest, finally cracking a case that has haunted the Cowley boys for so long. |
Series 7 (2020)
Series 7 took place in 1970, with Russell Lewis writing the episodes. In the USA, Series 7 aired on Sundays 9, 16, and 23 August 2020 (9:00 pm) on PBS as Masterpiece Theater.
No. overall | No. in series | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date | UK viewers (millions)[2][3] includes ITV HD and ITV+1 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
28 | 1 | "Oracle" | Shaun Evans | Russell Lewis | 9 February 2020 | 7.25 | |
January 1970. Morse, on holiday in Venice, strikes up a sexual relationship with Violetta Talenti. During Morse's two-week absence, Thursday investigates the murder of Molly Andrews on a towpath and suspects her boyfriend, Carl Sturgis, but he has an alibi. Come April, Morse is asked by Chief Superintendent Bright to take a second look at the case, and he is led to scientists researching "latent brain activity" (ESP) using volunteers, one of whom was Andrews. Soon, one of the researchers, Dr. Benford, is found dead; Benford had a highly gifted volunteer, Jenny Tate, who saw the murder in her mind. Morse is pickpocketed for his wallet in the street and an old Oxford classmate, Ludo, comes to his aid; Ludo later turns out to be Violetta's husband. | |||||||
29 | 2 | "Raga" | Zam Salim | Russell Lewis | 16 February 2020 | 6.73 | |
June 1970. A man is killed on the same towpath as Molly Andrews. Thursday, unwilling to close the case after a suspect confessed to Benford's murder but was also charged with Andrews's murder, patrols the towpath at night. An Indian takeaway driver is lured to his death at a flat of a TV cooking-show personality, Oberon Prince, who has gone missing. Racial tensions in Oxford rise during the run-up to the general election when an Anglo-Indian youth is fatally stabbed by a young supporter of far-right candidate Martin Gorman, whose daughter lives in the same block of flats as Prince. Morse discovers Prince was a gambler in card games run by Gorman and had recently won a lot of money. Ludo Talenti tells Morse his wife is away and invites Morse to his home but Violetta is there. She later secretly meets Morse to rekindle their affair but he rebuffs her. Violetta undeterred arrives at Morse's home and he succumbs to her advances. | |||||||
30 | 3 | "Zenana" | Kate Saxon | Russell Lewis | 23 February 2020 | 6.42 | |
Another woman is found murdered on the towpath suffering from bite marks, and Thursday arrests Carl Sturgis despite the lack of evidence. When yet another woman, Petra Cornwell, a student at the all-female college Lady Matilda, is found dead on the towpath. Morse and Thursday have a public fall out in front of pathologist Max DeBryn and Strange, making his working as Thursday's 'bagman' untenable. Morse returns to Jenny Tate, the gifted ESP student, who is haunted by her childhood past and blamed for a fire that killed her family. Ludo seeks Morse's advice concerning his belief that his wife is seeing another man and arranges a meeting of all three at a restaurant. The teachers and students of Lady Matilda lay a trap to catch the towpath killer. A fatal accident at Lady Matilda's is added by Morse to a number of fatal accidents brought to his attention by presswoman Dorothea Frazil. Chief Superintendent Bright's wife is fatally electrocuted in a freak accident and Morse's claim that an insurance fraud of buying up life policies (viaticals) and then killing off the insured is behind the accidents is dismissed by Thursday and Bright. Strange assists Morse with his theory and both end up at the house occupied by Carl Sturgis, where they discover that Jenny Tate is being held prisoner. Following his insurance theory, Morse heads back to Venice and the opera house where he first met Violetta Talenti exactly a year ago to discover he was a puppet in a plan of her husband. (The life insurance scheme would not be permitted under British law in 1970. It was not until the mid 1990s that viatical settlements were permitted in the United Kingdom.) |
Series 8 (2021)
Series 8 is scheduled to be broadcast in 2021 and will take place in 1971.[1]
References
- "Endeavour confirms eighth series". Radio Times. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
- "Weekly top 10 programmes". BARB.co.uk. Archived from the original on 18 July 2014. Retrieved 2016-11-25.
- based on 28 day data from BARB for ITV and ITV+1 and 7 day data for ITV HD