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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CELEBRATE THE 25th ANNIVERSARY OF THE UK PREMIERE OF INSPECTOR MORSE
WITH TWO NEW RELATED MASTERPIECE MYSTERY! PROGRAMS
"ENDEAVOUR"
and
"INSPECTOR LEWIS 5"
"Endeavour" is the Prequel to the "Inspector Morse" Series
"Inspector Lewis" Focuses on Morse's Former Sidekick Robert Lewis
Both Programs will be Available on DVD and Blu-ray from PBS Distribution July 24th
Arlington, Va. - PBS Distribution has announced it is releasing two new
MASTERPIECE MYSTERY! programs in July. The first is the prequel to the
"Inspector Morse" series -
"MASTERPIECE MYSTERY!: ENDEAVOUR." The second is the fifth season of the
"Inspector Lewis" series -
"MASTERPIECE MYSTERY!: INSPECTOR LEWIS 5." Both programs will be available on DVD and Blu-ray on July 24, 2012. The run time of
"ENDEAVOUR" is 90 minutes. The DVD SRP is $24.99 and the Blu-ray SRP is $29.99. The run time of
"INSPECTOR LEWIS 5" is 360 minutes and it comes on two discs. The DVD SRP is $34.99 and the Blu-ray SRP is $39.99.
ENDEAVOUR
Before
"Inspector Morse," there was the rookie Constable Morse, fed up with police work and ready to nip his career in the bud by handing in his resignation. That is, until a murder turned up that only he could solve. Shaun Evans (
"The Take," "The Virgin Queen") stars as the young Endeavour Morse, before his signature red Jaguar but with his deductive powers already running in high gear.
Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the UK premiere of
"Inspector Morse" in 1987,
"ENDEAVOUR" turns back the clock to 1965 to tell the story of the making of the legendary detective, who was played by John Thaw in 33 episodes of
"Inspector Morse" that aired on
MYSTERY! from 1988 to 2001. Thaw died in 2002. His daughter Abigail Thaw (
"Vanity Fair") makes a very special appearance in
"ENDEAVOUR."
Novelist Colin Dexter authored the Morse plots and characters, including the thrilling back-story to
"ENDEAVOUR," which is scripted by Russell Lewis. Lewis also created the spinoff series
"INSPECTOR LEWIS," featuring the exploits of Morse's sergeant.
Evoking the conflict between tradition and the new youth culture of the '60s,
"ENDEAVOUR" answers a lot of questions about the young Morse, who happens to prefer Puccini to the Beatles. Just how did this working-class, opera-loving, crossword-addicted, Oxford University dropout land on the Oxford police, develop a thirst for fine ale, fall into a problematic relationship with women, and manage to slip behind the wheel of a classic car as part of his low-paying job? Oh, and how did he solve his first big case?
It all starts when a fifteen-year-old girl goes missing. Morse and colleagues are called in from a neighboring town to help with the investigation, which is being led by Inspector Thursday. Seeing that Morse is not the usual by-the-numbers cop, Thursday lets him follow some unusual hunches that take the case into English Romantic poetry, cryptic crosswords, clever disguises, and other clues that seem daft to the rest of the police. Anyone familiar with
"Inspector Morse" recognizes the pattern.
The difference is that in 1965 Morse is the low man on the force with no track record, and his future on the line. How impressive then to watch him piece together a murder, a suicide, an underage love nest, a shocking academic experiment, and follow the trail straight to the lair of an obsessed killer and high-level corruption - all on the way to learning his craft.
"ENDEAVOUR" co-stars Roger Allam (
"The Queen") as Inspector Thursday, Morse's mentor on the Oxfordshire Constabulary; Richard Lintern (
"Page Eight") as Professor Rowan Stromming, an Oxford don shocked to see the inside of a murder inquiry; Charlie Creed-Miles (
"White Teeth") as used Jaguar dealer Teddy Samuels; Patrick Malahide (
"Middlemarch") as a high-handed government minister; and James Bradshaw (
"Brideshead Revisited") as police pathologist Dr. Max DeBryn, perhaps the first to notice Morse's queasiness in the face of death.
INSPECTOR LEWIS 5
Kevin Whately returns for a fifth season as Inspector Lewis. He and his young partner DS Hathaway (Laurence Fox) continue to solve cases in the seemingly perfect academic haven of Oxford. Descriptions of the four new whodunits in
"INSPECTOR LEWIS 5" are below:
- The Soul of Genius - When botanist Liv Nash accidentally digs up the body of the recently buried Murray Hawes, Lewis and Hathaway embark upon a seemingly impossible quest. Murray was a man possessed, fixated upon "solving" an impossible riddle by Lewis Carroll. But could his obsession have been dangerous enough to get him killed?
- Generation of Vipers - Lewis believes a subversive media blog holds the clues to a violent murder - despite Dr. Hobson's opinion that the victim's death was a suicide. Did lonely Miranda Thornton really kill herself when her online dating profile was leaked to TheBarker.biz, or was her death actually part of an intricate revenge plot?
- Fearful Symmetry - When babysitter Jessica Lake is discovered dead, Lewis and Hathaway are drawn into diverse new worlds beyond their usual Oxford College haunts - squats and swinging suburbia, monkey labs and fetish photography. But which of these new realms led to Jessica's murder?
- The Indelible Stain - When controversial American academic Paul Yelland is invited to speak at Oxford's Department of Criminology, it stirs up latent emotions campus-wide. And when he is found strangled in his room later that night, Lewis and Hathaway have plenty of suspects - but was his murder motivated by politics, ambition, or vengeance?
"ENDEAVOUR" is a co-production of Mammoth Screen Ltd for ITV and
MASTERPIECE. The director is Colm McCarthy. The writer is Russell Lewis. The executive producer for
MASTERPIECE is Rebecca Eaton.
"LEWIS" is a coproduction of ITV Studios and
MASTERPIECE.
About
MASTERPIECE
MASTERPIECE is presented on PBS by WGBH Boston. Rebecca Eaton is Executive Producer. Funding for the series is provided by Viking River Cruises, with additional support from public television viewers and contributors to The MASTERPIECE Trust, created to help ensure the series' future.
About PBS Distribution
PBS Distribution is the leading media distributor for the public television community, both domestically and internationally. Jointly owned by PBS (Arlington, VA) and WGBH (Boston, MA), PBS Distribution extends the reach of public television programs beyond broadcast while generating revenue for the public television system and our production partners.
PBS Distribution offers a diverse range of programming to our customers, including Ken Burns's films (Prohibition, The National Parks, The War, Baseball, Jazz), documentaries from award-winning series NOVA (The Elegant Universe, Origins), FRONTLINE (God in America, Bush's War, Growing Up Online), and American Experience (Freedom Riders, We Shall Remain), dramas from Masterpiece (Downton Abbey, Jane Eyre, Inspector Lewis), films from independent producers (Easy Yoga for Arthritis, The Buddha, The Story of India, Carrier, Journey into Buddhism, I.O.U.S.A.), and popular children's programming from Dinosaur Train, Super Why!, WordGirl, Cyberchase, Martha Speaks, and Arthur. As a multi-channel distributor, PBS Distribution pursues wholesale/retail sales, consumer and educational sales through PBS- branded catalogs and online shops, and international broadcast and video sales. PBS distribution is also a leader in offering programming through digital platforms including the internet, mobile, and web-connected television.
MASTERPEICE MYSTERY!: ENDEAVOUR
Street Date: July 24, 2012
Genre: Mystery
Run Time: 90 Minutes
DVD SRP: $24.99, Blu-ray SRP: $29.99
MASTERPEICE MYSTERY!: INSPECTOR LEWIS 5
Street Date: July 24, 2012
Genre: Mystery
Run Time: 360 Minutes on 2 Discs
DVD SRP: $34.99, Blu-ray SRP: $39.99
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