Product: Inspector Morse [VHS] (1988)
Rating: 5.0
Selling the Silver: Morse Would Understand
The opening shot shows the family silver, lovingly and lusciously photographed. . . the camera pans out to see the rest of the Great House and its more tawdry doings.The sandwich of the story is intricate, multi-layered, and shows the shifting powers of Morse and Lewis as Morse declines physically but continues to mentor Lewis up to the last possible moment. The series has always focused on the character of Morse and the relationship between the two detectives, but this episode brings both these strands home beautifully.Then, at the end, Lewis speaks to the daughter who had to sell the family silver we saw in the opening shot (to pay off a blackmailer). It's an upper class shame that she doesn't feel Lewis fully appreciates. "Morse would understand," she says. And he would have.Morse understood everything with such subtlty. That is what great books and literature and a lifetime of melacholy can train you for. . . being open to the clues of the world. May we all take heart from the life of this fictional character.--Janet Grace Riehl, author Sightlines: A Poet's Diary