Morse on TV and in the Books

[timebug]

We used to have a great second hand bookshop locally, where every week I would be selecting the five or six books to read the following week, at dirt cheap prices.

One Saturday I discovered a book by an unknown (to me) author named Colin Dexter. It was titled 'The Dead of Jericho' and was a Morse novel. In fact, the fifth published Morse novel. I loved it and having been made aware of this writer, over the next few weeks I discovered (at the same great shop!) the first four Morse novels.

I eagerly awaited the next one coming out, and in the meantime, the TV series started. Funnily enough, the first story shown was 'The Dead of Jericho' which was my first book experience of Morse!

I felt a subdued note of disquiet straight away; whilst I found John Thaw an excellent actor, I simply didn't believe in him as Morse! And Lewis, in the forst book, is described as being 'several years older' than Morse, so I was not thrilled to see a young Kevin Whately playing him either. As the series continued, so the books periodically appeared. And (IMO) Colin Dexter started to morph the Morse I had known in the books, into a man more like the TV version.I quickly lost faith in the TV show and abandoned it after about six or seven episodes. The books, I stuck with, but was not so keen on them as Dexter continued to make Morse 'smarter than the average bear, BooBoo!' and show off his education with too many (for me) learned references and cryptic crossword clues.

After the Morse series ended, I gave 'Lewis' a go, the continuing adventures of Morses sidekick, ably assisted by another eridite smartarse in Sgt Hathaway. I eventually abandoned the series too.

Fast forward a few years. I was able to get almost any programme I wanted via a streaming service, and I gave 'Lewis' another go. This time around, I liked them and stuck with the entire run of shows. Again (like the Morse series) they were slightly drawn out as they continued, but watchable fluff if one had nothing else to do!

Then came 'Endeavour', and at last I found my 'perfect' TV version of Morse. Shaun Evans was spot on in my mind,as the young man whose turbulent life would eventually become the haunted past of the older Morse! In summary; Morse (books) top notch. Morse (TV series) not for me. Lewis (TV series) okay but not great.

Endeavour (TV Series) great stuff, and very watchable.

On a side note, I once owned my own second hand bookshop for a time, and at one stage I had the first eight Morse novels in stock, in paperback, and the newly published ninth one (The Jewel That Was Ours) in Hardback. A young fellow came in and bought them all, commenting' This will be a great start to a complete Morse collection!'.  I pointed out that what he had in his hands, was in fact (at that time) already a 'complete Morse collection'. He was astounded. 'But there have been a couple of dozen on the telly....!' he said. 'Ah yes, on the telly' I smiled 'but they were not all from the books you know? They often make up their own stories to extend the series....'  He looked as though he half believed me, and bore away his prized 'collection'.

Morse/Lewis/Endeavour... all charcters created by the late Colin Dexter; which versions of which characters you prefer, well it is all down to choice, isn't it?

 

Edited July 22, 2022 by timebug
typos!

[lunababymoonchild]

I bought the full collection of Morse novels for £5 from a charity shop and was delighted. I read the first one - Last Bus To Woodstock - and just could not bear to read any more of them. I donated them (all together) to a different charity shop and don't regret it at all. The original Mose TV series was obligatory in our house, my mother loved them, so perhaps that was the problem for me, I had a fixed idea of Morse from the TV series that bore no relation to the book. That said, I just couldn't bear Colin Dexter's writing, so have never pursued it.

[Madeleine]

I've read a couple of the Morse books and enjoyed them, I did read the last one before the final episode so I knew how it would end!  I did read that Colin Dexter did start to change the characters once the TV show took off, whether that was a good idea or not I don't know.

 

Another character who is very unlike the book's creation is Jimmy Perez in Ann Cleeves's Shetland novels - in the books he's dark and of Spanish descent (hence the surname) whereas in the shows he's played by redhead Douglas Henshall - a good actor who has now made the part his own but very different to the written character.  They did film some of the books but made lots of changes ,and have been creaing their own stories now, as Ann has stopped writing the series.

[timebug]

They always  change things. often for no good reason! I am always reminded of M.C.Beaton's comment on the TV series based on her 'Hamish Macbeth' books. She said (I am paraphrasing from memory) something like; ' My Hamish is a six foot, red haired highlander; what do they give us on TV? A five foot eight dark haired Glaswegian with a chip on his shoulder!'

Equally, the Jack Frost of TV is far from the man in the books. I prefer the book version of course, but can watch the telly show if I want to!

[poppy]

I haven't read any of Dexter's books so didn't have a picture òf Morse in my head. However, I didn't really like Morse as a character in the original TV series. I loved Endeavour and Lewis though.

The actor Robert Carlyle really annoys me so I couldn't get on with Hamish Macbeth. I enjoyed M.C Beaton's Agatha Raison though, both books and TV series.

I've read some of Ann Cleeves books and have seen the Shetland series, enjoyed both, didn't really notice the discrepancies in portrayal of Perez but that is probably more due to my poor memory than anything else 

 

[lunababymoonchild]

Spookily (or so it seemed to me) I pictured Ken Stott's face when I read Rebus and was somewhat startled when I then saw him in the TV series. I knew John Hannah just wasn't right - fabulous actor, Glaswegian - but too baby-faced and uncareworn to play Rebus. John Hannah just didn't look like he'd been smoking too many cigarettes and drinking too much for 20 - 30 years to be convincing, imho.

 

I enjoyed Morse TV series and the Lewis TV series but could not get into Shetland, and I love Douglas Henshall, but sought out the Vera books from the TV series and love both.  The Vera stories are different but I didn't notice any difference in the characters. 

[timebug]

Poppy, whilst I love the 'Hamish MacBeth' series, the 'Agatha Raisin' books give me more enjoyment/pleasure to read. But I never got on with the TV version. Firstly Agatha is dark haired, so why cast a blonde for her part? They also changed too many things about the supporting cast for my liking, and the whole thing came across (to me) as a quick 'lets cash in while we can' enterprise!