Endeavour: Roger Allam - DI Fred Thursday is Morse's surrogate father | Radio Times Twitter Endeavour: Roger Allam - DI Fred Thursday is Morse's surrogate father As the Inspector Morse prequel returns for a full series, we speak to the man charged with keeping the young detective in line Comments David Brown 12:01 AM, 14 April 2013 Being the boss of Endeavour Morse isn’t an easy task and can even involve a fair amount of stuntwork. Here, actor Roger Allam talks crime, police partnerships…and rooftop fistfights: So what is DI Fred Thursday’s working relationship like with Endeavour in this new series? Thursday is his tutor, his friend and surrogate father. He wants Endeavour to get on in the police force – he thinks he’s a great presence to have in the police station because he’s not like anyone else. But Endeavour suffers a setback in the first episode, which means that he can’t remain Thursday's bagman. So there’s an ongoing story about how Thursday tries to get him back, while also still trying to give him a good grounding in solid police work. Is Endeavour destined to remain an outsider, though? Very much so.

He was an outsider at university because he came from a working class background and he’s now an outsider in the police because he seems to be more intellectual than those around him. It’s the key to his character, really. And will be seeing more sides to Thursday’s character in these new episodes? We see more of Thursday’s family – his wife Win and his two children Joan and Sam. What Thursday has is the warmth of human love and affection that Morse lacks. You also see how Thursday tries to leave all the nastiness and police work at the threshold of the front door, but at one point that family life does come under threat. Yes, we get to see Thursday himself in jeopardy during episode two – can you tell us what that was like to film? Yes, there’s a rooftop fight! I loved all that. There was a stunt double for a fall, but most of it was me, I have to say. It was fun to do – gruelling because it was pretty cold and we were up there for two days getting the scene, but it’s a really good moment. What do you think works so well about the police partnership of Thursday and Endeavour? It’s the classic set-up – two men, one older and one younger.

One a tutor and a father to the other, but also learning from the younger man. I think crime dramas in general are so successful because they allow us to look at many of the terrible things that people do to each other for often quite surprising reasons. So there’s a vicarious pleasure that comes with that, but also in seeing the efforts of the detectives who attempt to solve the crime. It’s important that we witness people trying to make things better. And if we have a detective who’s also troubled, sensitive and has his own cross to bear, then it makes the whole thing more complex and interesting. How important is the period setting to the series? Well, with the 1960s, there was this sense of a new beginning thanks to Wilson’s “white heat of technology” speech and the getting rid of the old Conservative aristocracy. But you also had the past being kept alive by the arguments of what people fought for in the Second World War. So you’ve got quite a complex make-up there, which we’re trying to represent in the series. It’s certainly not misty-eyed about that decade.

You get a hint of the “Swinging Sixties” through what we see of student life, but the stories do have this slightly edgy, downbeat feel. And is there the possibility of further series of Endeavour following this one? Yes, there is an option for another series and I’d be extremely open to do it. I think the plan would be to film in the autumn if it were to go ahead. Endeavour: Roger Allam is the seasoned old copper who takes Morse under his wing | Daily Mail Online comments He bedded The X-Files star Gillian Anderson six nights a week in one West End play and he famously used a beard-trimmer as a body-strimmer to prepare for a drag role in another. Yes, Roger Allam’s commitment to his art is emphatically not in doubt. And after an extraordinarily versatile career, this award-winning actor is finally about to reach the mass audience his talents deserve in ITV1’s new Endeavour series. Roger plays the worldly-wise, middle-aged Detective Inspector Fred Thursday, mentor to the young Detective Constable Endeavour Morse in the 1960s-set prequel to Morse.

After the ratings success of 8.2 million viewers for last year’s pilot about the early career of the Oxford-based detective in the painstaking pre-forensics days, a series of four feature-length films by Morse writer Russell Lewis starts this week. Roger Allam plays the worldly-wise, middle-aged Detective Inspector Fred Thursday, mentor to the young Detective Constable Endeavour Morse in the 1960s-set prequel to Morse With the local police station still recovering from corruption scandals that have led to its takeover by a zealous new chief superintendent, Fred Thursday is one of the few trustworthy older coppers in the place when new recruit Endeavour Morse becomes his ‘bagman’, or assistant. And Roger, a dapper 59, points out that DI Thursday’s pairing with Endeavour, played by 33-year old Shaun Evans, makes perfect sense as a way of winning over the original Morse audiences. ‘They were used to experience as well as deductive powers in their hero when John Thaw played Morse, so Thursday supplies the gravitas the brilliant young Endeavour hasn’t yet acquired – which makes them a great team,’ he explains.

Roger wears his Thursday trilby tilted at a jaunty, Bogart-style angle as one of several touches that provide light relief amid the murder mayhem. RELATED ARTICLES Share this article Share Thursday also turns out to be responsible for introducing Endeavour to what became Morse’s trademark ale habit in order to steady the young detective’s nerves after he’s seen his first body in the morgue. ‘I’m the one who’s seen it all before and has to square the jaw,’ says Roger, who explains that Thursday, like a lot of detectives back in the 1960s, had been toughened up by war service in the 1940s. ‘He’s seen the worst of human behaviour. He fought at the notorious battle of Monte Cassino, where conditions were absolutely horrendous.’ Thursday is just the latest of many coppers Roger has played, most notably Inspector Javert, the implacable enemy of fugitive hero Jean Valjean in the original cast of the stage musical Les Misérables when it premiered 28 years ago.

Married to actress Rebecca Saire, 49, with two young sons, Roger likes to get back before their bedtimes after a day on set ‘I invented this wonderful death scene for Javert of going down on my knees and then leaning back like a limbo dancer to make it look as if I was falling off a bridge. I did it eight times a week for nearly a year and I’ve had trouble with my knees ever since – they don’t even allow me to jog these days,’ he laughs. Don’t expect too many chase scenes from Roger in Endeavour. As for how joining a show about one of TV’s best-loved detectives will change his own life, the unassuming Roger, a vicar’s son from London’s East End, claims he hasn’t thought about it. Having spent the first decade of his career in the theatre he was something of a late starter on screen back in 1989. Yet so successful a scene-stealer has he become – famously as grouchy government minister Peter Mannion in BBC2’s The Thick Of It – that he’s shaping up to be the new Bill Nighy.

‘We’ll have to see how I cope with the recognition – I do like to go round the supermarket and do the shopping,’ he smiles. Married to actress Rebecca Saire, 49, with two young sons, Roger likes to get back before their bedtimes after a day on set. ‘It’s nice to have the creature comforts of home.’ He has said he felt ‘grounded’ by late fatherhood. He was 47 when William came along in 2000, followed by Thomas, now seven. Today he’s sporting a beard to play Prospero in The Tempest at the Globe Theatre this summer opposite Merlin star Colin Morgan. But the only sign of flamboyance is a pair of designer brogues – bought, he explains, to treat his feet after he got fallen arches from ‘ill-fitting First World War boots’ playing a pompous general in BBC2’s Parade’s End. This month he’ll also be seen in BBC2’s The Politician’s Husband, Paula Milne’s follow-up to her 1995 Channel 4 hit The Politician’s Wife. So life couldn’t be better, it seems, for Roger Allam – even with dodgy knees and fallen arches.

Endeavour begins tomorrow at 8pm on ITV. Roger Allam - TV Celebrities - ShareTV [Complete List] BIOGRAPHY: Roger Allam (born October 26, 1953)is an English actor, known primarily for his stage career, although he has performed in film, television and radio. He played Inspector Javert in the original London production of the stage musical Les Miserables. He is currently starring in the prequel to Inspector Morse, Endeavour, as Detective Inspector Fred Thursday. TRIVIA: His son William (with his partner Rebecca Saire) was born Summer 2000. He was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 2000 (1999 season) for Best Actor for his performance in Summerfolk production at the Royal National Theatre, Olivier Stage. He was nominated for a 2004 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actor of 2003 for his performance in Democracy at the Royal National Theatre: Cottesloe and Lyttelton Stages.

He was awarded the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 2000 (1999 season) for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Money at the Royal National Theatre, Olivier Stage. He was awarded the 2002 Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actor of 2001 for his performance in Privates on Parade at the Donmar Warehouse in London. Related sites for this celeb TV | Official Website of Roger Allam For full cast & crew, please visit IMDb Roger Allam said: “It’s curious that apart from the baroque ranting, Sarah & Duck is very similar to The Thick Of It – great characters, excellent writing and lots of humour!” ( source ) Awards and nominations Sarah & Duck won the BAFTA for best Best Pre-School Animation in 2014. The presentation can be watched on YouTube here . Fun Fact In the 2015 Christmas special Duck Flies, there is another familiar face: the snowman Sarah and Duck build together wears DI Fred Thursday’s hat and tie. As they walk off screen, the narrator says: “What a handsome fellow.

I do like that hat!” Brian Pern: A Life in Rock (2014) Summary Brian Pern: A Life in Rock, also known as Rock Ratatouille and now in its second series, is a spoof documentary following ageing rock star Brian Pern – an affectionate parody of singer Peter Gabriel. Pern is the former frontman of the fictional 1970s progressive rock group Thotch. In this episode (the series finale), Pern attempts to record a charity Christmas record in aid of bi-polar polar bears while he faces a crisis or two of his own. Famous real and fictional names from the music world come to his aid, including Ken LeGrange, a sound effects expert (specialising in tills…) Cast Bad Education: The Exam (2014) Summary Bad Education is written by and stars Jack Whitehall. He plays Alfie, the worst teacher ever to grace the British education system and is a bigger kid than the kids he teaches. The teacher your kids would love but parents would hate! In ‘The Exam’ (Series 3, Episode 5) it’s a trip back to school for Alfie wen it’s revealed that he never passed GCSE Biology.

Needing to make the grade to keep his job (and regain the affections of fellow teacher, Miss Gulliver) he is is forced to sit the exam at the same time as his students. Fortunately, Alfie has many tricks up his sleeve and is confident that he and his class have everything under control. They’ll be cheating. Unfortunately, things don’t go quite to plan as the exam has to be sat under the all-seeing eye of hard-nosed invigilator, Marcus Hewston. Cast The Politician's Husband (2013) Summary Aiden Hoynes is a senior cabinet minister who has always put his career before family, with the support of Freya, his devoted wife and mother to their two young children. However, he is ill-prepared when Freya’s political career takes off and threatens to overshadow his own. The catalyst for this sudden tumultuous turn of events is the failure of Hoynes’s planned leadership bid. He is thwarted by his friend- the equally ambitious Bruce Babbish- who managed to secure the support of Chief Whip Marcus Brock whose position gives him the power to influence party votes.

Cast The Thick Of It (2007 - 2012) Summary The Thick of It is a British comedy series that satirises the inner workings of modern British government. The series revolves around the fictional ‘Department of Social Affairs and Citizenship’ (DoSAC), the vague remit of which is allows many different themes to be dealt with. This vagueness in itself is satirical, coming about as it does through one of the Prime Minister’s many (and oft flawed) plans for modernisation at its inception. From series one to three the focus is on the government (presumed to be Labour, but never named as such), headed first by Hugh Abbot and then by Nicola Murray- though everyone is aware that the feared ‘director of communications,’ Malcolm Tucker, is really in control. We are also introduced to the opposition, first in a couple of special episodes and then to a greater extent in the third series which leads up to the General Election. In the fourth series, however, the government and opposition switch places following the election.

Peter Mannion is now the Secretary of State for Social Affairs and Citizenship, though, thanks to his party’s failure to gain a majority in the election, he is forced to contend with a junior partner, Fergus Williams. Mannion has also inherited his predecessors’ staff- Glenn Cullen and the openly infatuated Terri Coverley- much to his dismay. Cast Nation's Best Am Dram (2012) Summary A talent contest to find the best amateur dramatics company from among the UK’s 3,500 plus groups, Nation’s Best Am Dram gave the winning troupe the chance to perform at the Lyric Theatre in London’s West End. After heated and even “bad-tempered” exchanges, the judges chose the eight best troupes. Each received one day of professional mentoring before performing an extended scene from either Chekhov or Ibsen, after which four groups were eliminated. Next was the King Lear round, after which two more companies were sent home, and the remaining two finalists did battle for the prize with performances from Joe Orton’s obscure comedy The Erpingham Camp.

Mentors Simon Schama's Shakespeare: Episode 1, 'This England' (2012) Summary Simon Schama argues that it is impossible to understand how Shakespeare came to belong ‘to all time’ without understanding just how much he was of his time. Schama explores how, in his history plays, Shakespeare created a vision of England that still rings true today. Against the backdrop of the Reformation, Shakespeare began to dramatize English history and the English character in a new and unprecedented way. From his first blockbuster, Henry VI, he made sure that his England was not just a place where King and Queens strutted and preened, but where ordinary Englishmen and women took centre stage. It was inclusive vision that Shakespeare expanded upon in his masterpiece – Henry IV – a play which presents England in glorious technicolour: kings and pickpockets, country squires and common prostitutes, corrupt knights and ragged soldiers. And at the centre of it all is the outsized figure of Sir John Falstaff – a character that transfixed Elizabethan audiences and still moves us today.

Falstaff is Shakespeare’s most stupendous creation; an outsized dream of Englishness who embodies more purely the essence of English irreverence, generosity and wit that any of the characters with whom he shares the stage. As well as this, an extraordinary cast of actors deliver some of Shakespeare’s most moving and profound soliloquies. Cast Words of the Titanic (2012) Summary Readings and dramatisations of the diaries, accounts and letters from Titanic’s passengers and crew tell the story of the ship, which sank in April 1912. An informative and poignant account of this famous tragedy. The fine cast of actors bring the words of the survivors alive and readings from relatives provide moving reminders of the disaster’s legacy.

“The pleasure and comfort which all of us enjoyed upon this floating palace,” wrote Colonel Archibald Gracie, a first-class passenger, “with its extraordinary provisions for such purposes, seemed an ominous feature to many of us, including myself, who felt it almost too good to last without some terrible retribution inflicted by the hand of an angry omnipotence.” Gracie survived the disaster despite having spent a fair time in (and at one point under) the icy water of the Atlantic Ocean after the ship went down, almost taking him with it. Fortunately, he was able to free himself from the ship’s undertow and cling to the slick keel of an upturned collapsible lifeboat until help eventually came. Cast Parade's End (2012) Summary In the dying days of the Edwardian Empire, Christopher Tietjens enters into a destructive marriage with the beautiful but cruel socialite Sylvia. Based on Ford Maddox Ford’s novel of the same name, Parade’s End is a somewhat atypical example of a period drama set in and around the First World War. In the series, as in the novel, the war is not the focus but rather one of many layers of the protagonist’s troubled existence.

As Robie Macauley wrote of the novel “the Tietjens story…is less about the incident of a single war than about a whole era” and its destruction. “Ford took as the scheme for his allegory the life of one man, Christopher Tietjens, a member of an extinct species, which, as he says, ‘died out sometime in the Eighteenth century.’ Representing in himself the order and stability of another age, he must experience the disruptive present.” General Campion- Tietjens’s godfather- is also a remnant of a dying breed, a stereotypically old-school army officer who is continually baffled: by modern society, by the new methods of warfare and by the way his godson is conducting his private life. Cast The Jury II (2011) Summary A man sentenced for the murder of three women, each of whom he had met on an internet dating site, is being retried just at the point when the system of ‘trial by jury’ is facing its harshest criticism. This series focuses not just on the trial itself and the possible crimes of the accused, but also on the lives and motivations of each of the jury members tasked with determining his guilt.

We are given glimpses of their backgrounds- their work lives, families and the very different existences they lead in the ‘real world,’ far removed from the legal world they have been suddenly called to be a part of. Although we do not get to ‘follow the barristers home’ in the same way as we do the jurors, we are however given tantalising glimpses of their personalities in their interactions with each other outside the court. Beneath the wigs, these figures are very human too, and this humanity is at the forefront of the series. Cast Coming Up: Food (2011) Summary In the near future, a failure in global harvests has led to a catastrophic food crisis, the collapse of British society and the rise of extremism. An official from the ailing government goes on an odyssey to find the leader of the dominant far-right party, intent on ending the madness and inhumanity. Alistair is the leader of the underground but popular extreme right-wing group the BBA (‘Better Britain Alliance’), whose policy recommends deporting all non-British citizens.

The official’s intention is to fulfill his mission by poisoning Alistair and his quarrelling henchmen, but the plan goes awry, giving Alistair an autonomy which is the very opposite of what the government had wanted. Cast Ashes to Ashes (2009) Summary Ashes to Ashes is a crime drama series continuing the premise established in Life On Mars, in which a police officer, wounded in the line of duty, finds himself transported back to another era, facing a fight to survive and find his way back. This time, it is DI Alex Drake who is seemingly transported back in time from 2008 to 1981, finding herself in the world of DCI Gene Hunt after having been shot. Now, she must find a way to get back to her own time and her daughter, Molly. In the second series, Alex – by now more attuned to her new surroundings and colleagues – finds herself up against a rising tide of backhanders and masonic handshakes as she continues her struggle to return home.

Police corruption is the name of the game as she and DCI Hunt endeavour to expel corrupt officers from the force headed by new Superintendent Charlie “Supermac” Mackintosh – a gruff and worldly-wise superior who seems to inspire respect and trust in those around him. But all is not as it seems, and the corruption runs deeper than any of them realise. Cast The Old Guys (2009) Summary The Old Guys is a British comedy series that revolves around two aging housemates: Tom Finnan (Roger Lloyd-Pack) and Roy Bowden (Clive Swift). In episode S01E02, ‘The Therapist’, a depressed Roy goes to see a therapist and tells him about his frustrating unrequited love for Sally. Unfortunately the therapist, Ned, and Sally actually meet and are attracted to each other. To make matters worse, Roy has been acting as Sally’s campaign manager in her bid to save the local post office from closing and at the celebratory party who should turn up to take Sally’s attention from him but Ned? Cast Spooks (2006) Summary Spooks is a BBC drama series about the different challenges faced by the British Security Service as they work against the clock to safeguard the nation.

In the first two episodes of series 5, the country is suffering from fuel and energy shortages as a result of terrorist activity, putting the government in a vulnerable position. The tension escalates around London when three people die from a chronic cough, which could be evidence of biological warfare. This is no time for any mistakes, and agent Harry Pearce goes straight to one of the most influential men in the country, media mogul Paul Millington, to beg for him to tone down the rhetoric of his news outlets. Millington agrees (reluctantly). However, when the Special Policy Advisor to the PM issues a report insisting that the public remain calm, Millington incenses MI5 further by burying the story on page 5. This will certainly not be the last of their dealings with this scheming man and his equally powerful friends, intent on having the country run as they see fit. Cast The Inspector Lynley Mysteries (2005) Summary Aristocratic Detective Inspector Lynley is joined by working class sergeant Havers as they work to solve a series of murders in the screen adaptations of the books by Elizabeth George. In ‘A Seed of Cunning’, the duo is called in to investigate when a body is found in the Thames.

The victim is later revealed to be that of a doorkeeper of the House of Lords- forcing Lynley to take a reluctant trip back through his upper-class roots in his hunt for the killer. Wading his way through the murky waters of modern politics, Lynley is re-acquainted with an old acquaintance from his student days. Simon Featherstonehaugh (pronounced ‘Fanshaw’) is now the Deputy Chairman of a potentially far-reaching committee which seems to be in some way implicated. However, this group is tight lipped and powerful, making the detectives’ job even more difficult. Their pursuit is soon complicated further when a second victim is found, the body bearing the same hallmarks as the first. Cast Manchild (2003) Summary A BBC sitcom about four friends who remain close as they grow older. In the third episode of the second series, an old (and probably best-forgotten) schoolmate, ‘Dirty’ Dixon, returns to London. It quickly becomes clear, however, that despite his money, power, success, influence, contacts (and huge penis), ‘Dirty’ is really not a figure for Terry and the others to be envious of.

The gang embark on a series of elegant, though not-so-favourable, expeditions and are at times buoyed and at others dismayed by the attitude and escapades of their erstwhile ‘friend.’ Sadly, the initial joy of the reunion does not last long for the group when they discover that the obnoxious and arrogant Dixon is entirely shameless and without restraint. As fun-loving (and at times childish) as the friends are, enough is enough… Cast Foyle's War (2002) Summary As World War II rages, police inspector Foyle fights his own battles against crime on the home-front. In series 1, episode 4 (‘Eagle Day’), Foyle investigates the case of a man found stabbed to death in a bombed out building. Meanwhile, Foyle’s son Andrew has been tasked with assisting with an important (and top-secret) radar program. Though he proves to be a very effective test-pilot he is soon troubled by what he learns from a young woman he befriends at the base- might the suicide of a WAAF somehow be linked to his father’s latest case?

Whatever the case, it seems that RAF Group Captain Alistair Graeme- First World War hero and tactical genius though he may be- is certainly at the centre of this whole affair. It just remains to be seen how the RAF would be willing to go to maintain their cover-up. Cast Waking the Dead (2002) Summary Waking the Dead is a police drama series where a group of experts seek to solve cold cases. In this series two double bill, ‘Thin Air’, the team tries to discover the truth behind the disappearance of an eighteen year old girl from Hampstead Heath in 1989. Thirteen years have passed since Joanna Gold was filmed running off in the direction of an ice cream van, never to be seen again. It’s been many years since there were any leads, but when the girl’s dress is found the case opens wide once again. Using the latest investigative techniques, Detective Superintendent Boyd and his team can finally make some headway. Central to this case is the missing girl’s family. Understandably distraught, Mrs Gold formed a charity after their daughter’s disappearance which aims to help families like theirs to reunite with their loved ones.

Though supportive of his wife’s efforts, husband Benjamin informs Boyd that he never really shared his wife’s hopes that Joanna was alive. Her loss has made him extremely protective of their other daughter, Clara- he guards her fiercely, as he does his own secrets. Cast Chambers (2001) Summary Initially a three series Radio 4 comedy broadcast from 1996 to 1999, Chambers’ move to television recycled and adapted many of the old scripts, though not all in the same order. Written by barrister Clive Coleman, the series stars John Bird in the role of John Fuller-Carp, a monstrously egotistical and avaricious barrister heading Forecourt Chambers. In series 2, episode 6, ‘A Case with a View’, Fuller-Carp’s life is turned into disarray when his 15 year-old nephew, Leo, comes to stay with him. Matters come to a head when he is forced to attempt some legal trickery to get the boy off a burglary charge. We are also introduced in this episode to Quentin Fuller-Carp, John’s brother and the troublesome Leo’s father.

Cast The Creatives (1998 - 2000) Summary The Creatives is a BBC comedy series following the lives of the staff working in a Scottish advertising agency. At the agency’s head is the misogynistic, alcoholic and yet strangely endearing Charlie Baxter, whose past successes have since dwindled. Now he seems to live in the office, working and drinking until the sun comes up and he staggers out in yesterday’s clothes. He is helped and hindered in his quest to create award-winning adverts by his staff which includes his second-in-command- the more practical Lauren who has a fondness for men in costumes. She is involved in a covert relationship with ad exec Robbie (which began when he was dressed as Batman) who works alongside friend and confidante Ben (a wannabe writer). Ben is, in turn, married to Charlie’s feisty and extremely jealous Spanish PA Tanya. The comedy for the first series is sparked by the recruitment and yet unexpected arrival of new employee Rhona who the men seek to acquaint themselves with and the women seek to tolerate. At the same time they must all strive to produce the advertisements they are actually being paid to make.

Cast Inspector Morse (1997) Summary Chief Inspector (‘Endeavour’) Morse and his Sergeant Robert Lewis investigate crimes in and around the plainly deadly city of Oxford. In ‘Death is Now My Neighbour’- the third of five special episodes- Morse investigates the murder of a young woman who was shot through a window in her home by a gunman standing outside and seeing her silhouette through the curtain. When the victim’s next-door neighbour, a controversial journalist, is also killed, Morse suspects that there might have been a case of mistaken identity and seeks to establish just how it might link in with the hotly-contested forthcoming election for the position of Master at his old college, Lonsdale. Put on the trail by a cryptic message found at the murder scene, Morse begins to suspect the key might lie with the candidates- Dr Julian Storrs (whose wife appears keener on him getting the position than he does) and recently married Denis Cornford- or even with the incumbent Master himself, Sir Clixby Bream. One of the victims’ neighbours, Adele Cecil, has also caught Morse’s attention, though in a way that his sergeant fears might have clouded his judgement.

She, in turn, has taken on a case of her own: to learn the Inspector’s first name. Cast The Bill (1997) Summary The Bill is a modern police drama focusing on the day-to-day lives and careers of the cops and crooks of London’s fictional Sun Hill police station. In series 13, episode 88, ‘Hitting the Nerve’, Detective Inspector Chris Deakin and his sergeant, Alistair Greig, are on the tail of the seemingly untouchable criminal, Richard Parks. With one of the witnesses concerned in Parks’s impending trial missing and the other in a coma, the pressure is on the police to prevent their suspect slipping through the net and evading justice yet again. However, in order to do this they must also negotiate the slippery dealings of Parks’s eminent lawyer and cohort, Ralph Marchbank. Cast A Landing on the Sun (1994) Summary Producer Kenith Trodd was part of a 1984 team brought together to study how the BBC should respond to Channel Four’s pioneering efforts in making films for both television and theatrical release.

The result was a transition from the earlier concept of studio-made plays, such as ‘Play for Today’ and the introduction of the new BBC anthology film series, ‘Screen One’ and ‘Screen Two.’ In series 10 episode 15 of Screen Two, ‘A Landing on the Sun’ (based on Michael Frayn’s novel of the same name), a television company’s investigation into the death of civil servant Stephen Summerchild twenty years earlier prompts the Cabinet Office to begin its own reassessment of the case. It is particularly pressing that they get to the bottom of it first, as it is rumoured that the events might have had a connection to a secret defence project. Brian Jessel is the civil servant tasked with the investigation. At the time of his death, Jessel learns, Summerchild was working on a Cabinet project, under the Oxford philosophy don Elizabeth Serafin, to find the “quality of life” in Britain. He also comes across a box of audio tapes from the project containing all of their discussions up to the time Summerchild fell from the Admiralty Building.

Cast Roger Allam: Lear in waiting | The Independent Profiles Roger Allam: Lear in waiting 'The Thick of It' star is keen to take on the Bard's toughest role. But just now he's trying to recall talking balls – literally – as he prepares to play Prospero at the Globe. Susie Mesure meets Roger Allam Saturday 6 April 2013 23:00 BST Click to follow The Independent Online In the round: Roger Allam at Shakespeare's Globe theatre. 'Half the audience have to stand, but they have the best view, and it only costs them a fiver' Jason Alden Roger Allam has promised to get back to me about his testicles. Yes, really. This is not some dubious chat-up line from a man famed for playing "louche bastards", as he puts it. He is, quite literally, talking balls in response to a question about one of his early roles: talking testicles. Or he would be if he weren't handily claiming amnesia. He breaks into a reverie, his wondrous voice enjoying the alliteration almost in spite of himself. "My talking testicles? Doesn't. Ring. A. Bell.

I'll have to track that down. I'll get back to you. On my testicles." Cue that rich, plummy belly laugh that Allam fans know so well. To hear Allam talk, about anything, is to be instantly cast back into the thick of the show that turned the actor into the cult figure of Peter Mannion, the hapless Tory minister in Armando Iannucci's political satire, The Thick of It. Lines from the last series keep popping into my head, most incongruous given our setting: Shakespeare's Globe theatre, where we're supposed to be talking the Bard, in honour of Allam's next stage role, Prospero. I'm half fearing that Allam, thinking little of my questioning, will suddenly stand up and push back his chair, declaring as Mannion did in one memorable moment: "I'm bored of this. I'm going for a Twix." (Which would be preferable to Mannion on the press: "Run those fuckers over. Fifty pounds for every one you maim.") Playing Mannion, he concedes, did rather change the game for the 59-year-old Allam, who now merits stopped-in-the-street status.

He gets lines quoted back at him, both by Thick of It obsessives and fans of his radio show, Cabin Pressure, who have either binged on box sets or watched something "again and again and again and again", which has the curious upshot of fans "knowing the text of [episodes] far better than me. I've forgotten it," he adds, perhaps playing up his absent-mindedness to stop me quizzing him about his private parts again. To dwell on his current popularity is not to gloss over his lengthy – and distinguished – pedigree, which ranges from playing Inspector Javert when Les Miserables first opened to a comic turn in Tamara Drewe, which won him a Peter Sellers comedy award and convinced him that this, finally, might be his Big Breakthrough Moment in film. "I thought, 'Here we are.' But nothing. Or nothing you could call a substantial role." Mannion aside, Allam could yet be on the verge of his defining role for a totally new audience, for he is about to play his first TV detective. At last. "I've been saying for about 20 years, 'When am I going to get my cop show?'" he grins.

The part, of Detective Inspector Fred Thursday is in ITV's Endeavour, a new drama about the young Morse, which starts next Sunday. The series follows a widely successful pilot, and Allam is very excited, not least because Morse has National Treasure status when it comes to detective shows, so to be bringing it back is a Big Deal. The young Endeavour Morse reports to DI Thursday, who "becomes like a surrogate father, teacher, friend. He sees in Endeavour an imagination and an individuality and a different kind of intelligence that would be a very good thing to have in a police station." Cop shows, Allam thinks, are "our version of a Western. Where you can be someone striving to try to do the right thing. You can look at terrible things that people do to each other, which is always interesting, and try to solve it. It's the trying that's the important thing. Lots of those detective characters are interesting for that reason." Morse devotees might remember a younger Allam from the original series. He popped up in an episode in the 1990s. As? "Oh, I can't remember. I think I got killed. I can't quite remember.

I can't really remember the story." Again, that amnesia. He does, however, recall the last time he played the Globe: his turn as Falstaff won him an Olivier best actor award. "The only way is down," he deadpans about his prospects as Prospero. Falstaff was also his first role at the Globe, essentially because he shunned the theatre when it re-opened in 1997. "I was always rather against the Globe really," he confesses, blaming his affinity with the RSC, which collectively saw the South Bank upstart as a pretender to the Bard's great crown. "The words 'thatched-cottage Shakespeare' were bandied around," he admits sheepishly. Or as sheepishly as you can get with a voice like his, one that sings of authority and wisdom and never, ever being wrong. A voice I imagine Allam – who spent his early years playing on bombsites in London's blitzed East End – to have affected way back when and clung on to.

Not so, he counters, insisting: "I'm not conscious of having changed my accent." That said, his parents, who were from "poor, respectable, working class backgrounds – my mother's father was a stonemason, but my father's father was very poor – were of that generation, who believed in being well-spoken. That that was a way out of class, I suppose," he adds. "They were, in modern parlance," cue theatrical emphasis, "strivers." It took watching a play about Thomas Paine, the American revolutionary, four years ago to change his mind about the Globe. "It was wonderful. And also packed with 1,500 people. I was incredibly impressed because I thought if you put that kind of play on in the Olivier you'd probably empty the place." The Globe's magic lies in its £5 seats, which aren't seats at all. "Half the audience have to stand – but one: they have the best view. And two: it only costs them a fiver. Which completely transforms the audience and its attitude to the event." Contrast that with the West End, where the best seats in something like The Book of Mormon go for £125.

Even a seat costing half that has Allam asking: "I don't know who can constantly afford to go and see things. A play, which has five people in it and one set and it cost you 60 quid? And you're in a theatre that really hasn't had a great deal of money spent on it in the last 50 or 60 years? It's kind of weird." Despite being married to a fellow luvvie, Rebecca Saire, not catching the latest show isn't something that bothers Allam. He's far too busy – for which, read tired – most of the time with his two sons, who, at 12 and seven, take their toll on someone who came pretty late to fatherhood. He says of the role: "It's a complete and utter radical shock to one's life. And I suppose especially so if you're a bit older, because you've got used to doing whatever you feel like." And that, these days, boils down to some vegetable growing. He comes over a bit Tom Good as he tells me how he's dug up his front garden "because it faces south and it's quite small," adding: "It always looks a complete mess.

I'm not meticulous but it's tremendously pleasing to go out and cut some beans, or kale; mine has been going all winter, it's brilliant." Meeting Allam today is an odd mix of intensity and detachment. His replies are full and friendly but I half feel like he's just humouring me. I blame the setting, which couldn't be less inspiring: a clinical meeting room in the heart of the Globe's back offices. Oh, to be nursing a glass of Scotch in a private members' club somewhere in Soho. But it's week one of his rehearsals for The Tempest and I'm being squeezed in, so I have to take what I can get. I console myself with the hope of a return chat when he gets cast, as he inevitably will, in the role he's hoped to make his ever since he was a stage-struck schoolboy back in the day: Lear. "You'd have to really, wouldn't you?" he says about playing the ultimate Shakespearean role. "It's really, really hard though. I've never seen it on stage to my satisfaction." And who knows? Perhaps if I bide my time for long enough, he'll have had a revelation about what those testicles were wittering on about.

Curriculum vitae 26 October 1953 Born in Bow, east London, to William and Kathleen Allam. He was born in a rectory – his father was a vicar. 1964 Starts boarding at Christ's Hospital School, Sussex. Takes part in school productions. 1972 Studies drama at Manchester University. 1975 Founder member of theatre troupe The Monstrous Regiment. Also played guitar and keyboard during performances. 1981 Joins the Royal Shakespeare Company after time in repertory. 1985 Cast as Inspector Javert in the original West End Les Misérables. 1993 Nominated for an Olivier Award for role in the musical City of Angels. 1996 Plays the title character in Macbeth at Stratford-upon-Avon. 2000 His wife, actress Rebecca Saire, gives birth to son William. Wins first of three Olivier awards (in Money); plays Hitler at the National. 2005 A second son, Thomas, is born. Features in films V for Vendetta and A Cock and Bull Story. Then, a year later, appears in The Queen and The Wind that Shakes the Barley.

2007 Stars as Peter Mannion MP in The Thick of It. 2013 Plays alongside Merlin star Colin Morgan in a production of The Tempest at Shakespeare's Globe theatre in London (from 23 April). Tom Warren Actor Shaun Evans on the new series of Endeavour | Life | Life & Style | Daily Express LIFE Actor Shaun Evans on the new series of Endeavour YOUNG detective Morse finds himself at a crossroads in the new series of Endeavour, as actor Shaun Evans explains. PUBLISHED: 00:01, Sat, Jan 2, 2016 PH Shaun Evans’ Morse dances with Jemima West, who plays Kay Buchan The TV series Inspector Morse ended more than a decade ago and Lewis came to a close this year with the retirement of Inspector Robbie Lewis (Kevin Whately). That leaves just one Inspector Morse spin-off left to carry the baton of ITV’s iconic franchise based on the books by Colin Dexter.

Morse was suspended from the force pending an investigation and has taken a look at what he’s going to do with his life Shaun Evans Shaun Evans plays the youngest Morse of them all in hit series Endeavour, which returns this week for a third run of four two-hour films. Luckily, this 1960s-set show is as dedicated to showcasing the brilliant-but-troubled detective as the original series that starred John Thaw. The last we saw of Morse he’d been jailed, having been framed for a crime he didn’t commit, and the life of his beloved mentor, DI Fred Thursday, played by Roger Allam, hung in the balance when he was shot by the same cop who set Endeavour up after the pair uncovered shocking goings-on within the force. ITV Roger Allam as DI Fred Thursday with Hilton McRae as The Great Zambezi The good news though, is that it’s now 1967 and both men are back, although the melancholic Morse is not in a happy place.

“He was suspended from the force pending an investigation and has taken a look at what he’s going to do with his life,” says Shaun, 35, who in contrast to the taciturn Morse, is animated, friendly and speaks with a strong Liverpudlian accent. “He’s moved out of the flat, moved away from the girl he was with and is living a very Walden-esque life in this little cabin by a lake,” he adds, referring to Henry David Thoreau’s 1854 book, Walden, on pursuing the simple life. As Morse considers reinventing himself, he runs into some posh former schoolmates and joins their exalted circle. “He gets swept up in this world of great wealth and he’s thinking, ‘Yeah, you know, maybe this could be the new me,’” Shaun says. “But fate intervenes and on the way to a big party he comes across the body of a dead girl and it’s like, ‘You can’t get away from this.’” ITV Endeavour, Sunday, 8pm, ITV The incident that pulls him back in is linked to a funfair in Cowley.

Young bus conductor Jeannie Hearne disappears during a ghost-train ride and her brutalised corpse is found in woodland the next day, sparking a murder investigation. When Morse stumbles on the scene, one man is already there – DI Thursday, who has survived his gunshot wound – but only just – and is back in action. “He goes back to work a bit too soon,” Roger, 62, says of his character. “He just doesn’t like kicking around at home.” Thursday has also become aware of his own mortality. “There’s some shrapnel from the bullet lodged in his lung,” says Roger, “and he’s been told that at any time it could shift and get him. He could die. So that’s what makes him come back to work, to get on and ignore it as much as possible.” 60 years of ITV Tue, September 22, 2015 A flash back of some of the most memorable and loved moments from 60 years of ITV!

ITV/REX Shutterstock 1 of 76 Chris Tarrant, Sally James Bob Carolgees and John Gorman in Childrens Saturday morning programme - Tiswas [ITV/REX Shutterstock] At this point he and Morse are estranged, which forces Thursday to try to mend fences. “It feels as if it’s all broken apart and Thursday wants to go find Morse, because he’s been treated badly,” says Roger. “Then there’s a sense that their relationship has become slightly reversed and we see Morse looking after Thursday, trying to calm him down and standing up to him when he’s wrong.” Along with the return of their colleagues, Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright (Anton Lesser), PC Jim Strange (Sean Rigby) and DS Peter Jakes (Jack Laskey), a new face joins the line-up. From episode two, 21-year-old Skins actress Dakota Blue Richards plays WPC Shirley Trewlove, whom Dakota describes as feisty and proactive. Dakota says she was unable to do much research for the role as there were very few female cops in the mid-60s and those who did exist tended to be assigned to sensitive cases involving bereavements, children and sex assaults.

But in Endeavour, Trewlove – perhaps anachronistically – is embraced by both Morse and Thursday and set to work on some tough cases. “She and Morse take an immediate interest in each other because they see in each other that same spark that drives them,” says Dakota. “Thursday is, I believe, a really warm-hearted man and is compelled to take Trewlove under his wing. He’s also pragmatic and can see that she’s going to be an asset.” Later episodes portray a changing Britain and wider world. The growth of supermarkets, the disappearance of an au pair and a catastrophic bank hold-up involving a member of the police force are all set against some of the big events of 1967, including Donald Campbell’s fatal attempt to set a new water-speed record, and the Arab-Israeli Six Day War. And in the middle of it all, the enigmatic Morse remains as compelling as ever. While he starts off questioning his future as a cop, Morse soon realises there is no resisting destiny – he is fated to become the dour, cerebral, opera and real-ale loving, unlucky-in-love detective we know so well. “That’s what’s quite satisfying about this series,” says Shaun.

“By the end of it, Morse is sitting his sergeant’s exam, having made the decision, ‘This is your life, for better or worse, and you’re just going to have to do the best you can. Get on with it.’” Endeavour, Sunday, 8pm, ITV Endeavour (TV Series 2012– ) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error Set in the 1960s, the show follows Endeavour Morse in his early years as a police constable. Working alongside his senior partner DI Fred Thursday, Morse engages in a number of investigations around Oxford. Stars: As Endeavour and Thursday deal with the heartbreak of Joan's departure, a death at East Cowley Slipper Baths hurls the pair into another dark adventure. 9.1 As Endeavour Morse takes his sergeant's exam, a garment factory owner is shot dead outside a bank during a wage snatch.

9.0 When a petty criminal absconds from an open prison, it sets off a chain reaction of troubling events, threatening to expose unspeakable horrors of the past. 8.9 a list of 37 titles created 16 Jul 2011 a list of 24 titles created 23 Jan 2012 a list of 48 titles created 14 Apr 2013 a list of 32 titles created 01 Oct 2015 a list of 23 titles created 4 months ago Search for " Endeavour " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Inspector Robert Lewis and Sergeant James Hathaway solve the tough cases that the learned inhabitants of Oxford throw at them. Stars: Kevin Whately, Laurence Fox, Clare Holman A Cambridgeshire clergyman finds himself investigating a series of mysterious wrongdoings in his small village of Grantchester. Stars: James Norton, Robson Green, Morven Christie Inspector Morse has an ear for music, a taste for beer and a nose for crime.

He sets out with Sergeant Lewis to solve each intriguing case. Stars: John Thaw, Kevin Whately, James Grout Inspector George Gently (TV Series 2007) Crime | Drama | Mystery With the help of DS John Bacchus, Inspector George Gently spends his days bringing to justice members of the criminal underworld who are unfortunate enough to have the intrepid investigator assigned to their cases. Stars: Martin Shaw, Lee Ingleby, Simon Hubbard With her caustic wit and singular charm, DCI Vera Stanhope and her trusted right-hand man DS Joe Ashworth face a series of captivating murder mysteries set against the breathtaking Northumberland landscape. Stars: Brenda Blethyn, Jon Morrison, David Leon 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.4/10 X As WW2 rages around the world, DCS Foyle fights his own war on the home-front as he investigates crimes on the south coast of England. Later series sees the retired detective working as an MI5 agent operating in the aftermath of the war.

Stars: Michael Kitchen, Honeysuckle Weeks, Anthony Howell Father Brown (TV Series 2013) Crime | Drama | Mystery Series inspired by the stories of GK Chesterton; a Catholic priest has a knack for solving mysteries in his English village. Stars: Mark Williams, Sorcha Cusack, Nancy Carroll Midsomer Murders (TV Series 1997) Crime | Drama | Mystery A veteran DCI and his young sergeant investigate murders around the regional community of Midsomer County. Stars: John Nettles, Jane Wymark, Barry Jackson DCI Banks (TV Series 2010) Crime | Drama | Mystery The tenacious and stubborn DCI Banks unravels disturbing murder mysteries aided by his young assistants, DS Annie Cabbot and DI Helen Morton. Stars: Stephen Tompkinson, Jack Deam, Andrea Lowe DI Jimmy Perez and his team investigate crimes within the close knit island community of Shetland.

Stars: Douglas Henshall, Steven Robertson, Alison O'Donnell Scott & Bailey (TV Series 2011) Crime | Drama Two female detectives, one motherly, the other emotionally immature, have varying levels of success applying their eccentric outlooks on life to their police cases and private lives. Stars: Suranne Jones, Lesley Sharp, Tony Mooney DI Jack Frost is an unconventional policeman with sympathy for the underdog and an instinct for moral justice. Sloppy, disorganized and disrespectful, he attracts trouble like a magnet. Stars: David Jason, Bruce Alexander, John Lyons Edit Storyline Series 1 follows the early police career of young Endeavour Morse, who upon leaving his Oxford College without a degree, spending time in the Royal Signal Corps., and eventually joining the Oxfordshire Police, is transferred to CID, attaining the rank of Detective Constable. Originally starting out his career at Carshall-Newtown Police, Morse transfers to the Oxford City Police in 1965 following a murder investigation during the pilot episode. While with the Oxford City Police, Morse is taken under the wing of veteran Detective Inspector Fred Thursday.

Inspector Thursday names Morse his designated "bag man" and shows him the ropes as Morse begins to solve a string of complex murders, much to the envy and annoyance of some of his superiors, particularly Detective Sergeant Jakes and Chief Superintendent Bright. Thursday and Morse's fellow officer, Police Constable Strange, try to steer the young Endeavour into taking his Sergeant's exam, so that he may be relieved of "General Duties" ... Written by harrycallahan18 1 July 2012 (USA) See more » Also Known As: Les enquêtes de Morse See more » Company Credits Did You Know? Trivia Endeavor was not the first time Roger Allam and Shaun Evans play police colleagues. Allam was Det. Supt. Mackintosh and Evans played P.C. Kevin Hales in season 2 premiere of Ashes to Ashes (2009).

See more » Connections A more than worthy, and almost as good, prequel series to Inspector Morse 13 August 2015 | by TheLittleSongbird (United Kingdom) – See all my reviews Not just a more than worthy prequel series to one of my favourite detective dramas of all time and goes very well with it, but it is a great series on its own as well, one that got off to a good start, though some of the pilot and the first episode had a still-finding-its-feet-feel (understandably), and just keeps getting stronger. It maintains everything that makes Inspector Morse so good, while also containing enough to make it its own. Endeavour looks great, the series throughout is exquisitely photographed and there is something very nostalgic and charming about the atmospherically evoked 1960s period detail. It was also a genius move to keep Barrington Pheloung on board, with his hauntingly beautiful scoring and immortal Inspector Morse theme, while the classical music and operatic excerpts are delightful to hear and fit perfectly (a notable example would be in the Fugue episode, the music having a beautiful and frightfully ominous effect).

The series is also every bit as intelligently written as Inspector Morse, it's every bit as entertaining and also every bit as tense. Not all the story lines are very original, but they are always incredibly gripping with the mysteries not being too complicated or the identities being too improbable or obvious, Morse and Thursday's father/son relationship has a lot of warmth, is so well written within the stories and is a large part of the series' appeal and there is some good suspense (chilling in fact in the case of Fugue). Pacing is restrained, but that allows the atmosphere to come through, and pretty much all the same it excels in that aspect. The characters are interesting, and are evolving more and more with every episode, Morse's familiar characteristics are becoming more obvious as the writing develops and Morse and Thursday's relationship more entertaining and heartfelt. Shaun Evans does some powerful, charismatic work as younger Morse, and is getting more and more confident with every episode, showing enough loyalty to John Thaw's iconic Morse while making the character his own too.

Roger Allam is also superb, his rapport with Evans always compels and entertains but Thursday is quite a sympathetic character, as well as loyal and firm, and Allam does a lot special with a role that could have been less interesting possibly in lesser hands. All the acting is very good, as is the controlled direction, but it's the performances of Evans and Allam that will always be remembered most vividly. All in all, a more than worthy (if not quite as good, only because I love Inspector Morse with a passion) prequel series and also a great series on its own that keeps getting stronger. 9/10 Bethany Cox 8 of 9 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes January 18 at 5:35pm Hello from the recently broken Endeavour virgin. I was so sure that ...I'd hate this show. After being a lifelong Professionals fan and fan fiction writer, I was so pleased to start watching Lewis with all his modern cars and mobile phones and such, which prompted me to re-watch a lot of older Kevin Whately material as he's such a fine actor.

Which prompted me to start re-watching Morse (as though it's aged a bit) was such a well crafted series. So I thought what can Endeavour offer when it's only 'based' on the characters by Colin Dexter? How wrong was I? No British TV company can ever touch ITV when it comes to drama. To have merged Inspector Morse, Lewis and now Endeavour so beautifully and still keep us guessing is little more than remarkable. See More DI Fred Thursday - Endeavour (UK) Characters - ShareTV DI Fred Thursday Roger Allam (born October 26, 1953)is an English actor, known primarily for his stage career, although ... Character Bio Detective Inspector Fred Thursday is the direct superior to Detective Constable Endeavour Morse. Operating in a station over-run with corrupt officers,Thursday sees in Morse an unblemished detective he can trust and thus, takes him under his wing. Episode Screenshots Verification code (check your email for the verification code) Verification code has been sent to the following email address: sstmilan@gmail.com If you didn't receive the verification code: 1. Check your bulk/spam folder. 2.

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Question: Roger Allam plays Detective Inspector Thursday in which TV series?
Answer: ENDEAVOUR