Endeavour’s ninth and final season

In theory, the Inspector Morse prequel Endeavour could run and run.

The first episode, which aired in 2012 to mark the 25th anniversary of the original series, was set in 1965. We’ve now reached series nine and we’re still only up to 1972, meaning there’s still a good 15 years left to fill in to explain how Shaun Evans, who plays the younger Morse, transforms into the older version portrayed by John Thaw.

However, it seems the team behind Endeavour never wanted to outstay their welcome. Speaking about the show’s future ahead of the eighth series in 2021, Evans hinted that it wasn’t a given that the drama would keep going indefinitely: “That’s a decision for the whole team. We need to take a look at this series, see if there’s still a story to tell and if we all still want to tell it.”

“I think we’ll know when the time has come to end Endeavour. You want to do it until the story is told.”

We now know that Evans, his co-star Roger Allam, who plays Morse’s mentor DCI Fred Thursday, producers Mammoth Screen and screenwriter Russell Lewis did come together and decide that, while there was definitely enough of a story for another series, the ninth run, which starts tonight, would be the last.

Executive Producer Damien Timmer said behalf of producers, Mammoth Screen: “Endeavour has been a real labour of love for all of us, and we salute Russell Lewis for his extraordinary achievement in chronicling Endeavour Morse’s coming of age across 72 hours of TV. Russell always knew where he wanted the series to end, and that Remorseful Day is nearly upon us!”

He added: “Russell has many surprises up his sleeve for the final three films, with the return of some familiar faces and new challenges for Endeavour and Thursday to face before the final goodbye.”

But just how final will that goodbye be? Of course, we know that Morse will continue being a copper, but there are some other questions hanging over the series, especially when it comes to Thursday and his daughter Joan.

Speaking to PBS Masterpiece, Evans suggested that we will get our answers. He said: “[We] know because of the unique prequel nature of this story, that neither Joan nor Thursday is ever mentioned in either the books or in the series with John Thaw. So, it’s our duty to make a decision about why that is, and what they do in our particular stories that ensure that they’re never mentioned again later on. And I feel like we’ve satisfied that…”

Luckily, Thursday and Morse are still working together in the first episode, as they deal with two unexplained deaths that seem to be linked to the Oxford Concert Orchestra. A body has also been discovered in a derelict warehouse, which leads to fears that ‘London business’, as the cops call it, has once again found its way to Oxford.

As they dig deeper, Thursday and Endeavour uncover some unsettling connections to cases they believed were firmly in the past.