Gordon has kindly put this episode up even though it hasn’t yet been shown in America. It was broadcast in Britain on the 15th of November and, I believe, in Australia at around the same time.
If you haven’t seen this episode and haven’t heard all the hype about it, there are spoilers here, so don’t read on if you don’t want to know!
The very last episode ever, much heralded and advertised here in Britain ... and overall I found it rather disappointing. It seemed rather rushed, particularly at the end; I found the story to be somewhat corny in its number of ‘lucky coincidences’; and all in all it didn’t seem like a true Morse episode.
The good points first:
Kudos for the superb make-up used on John Thaw – Morse really did look ill throughout the episode (John Thaw commented in a recent interview that the make-up was so convincing that he actually felt ill all through filming).
John Thaw really knows how to do "heart attack" - I was convinced!
Most moving moment: even though we already knew, Lewis’ anguished cry of, “Chief Inspector Morse is DEAD!” made me fill up.
NANJAO: Did Colin Dexter make two appearances in this episode? I couldn’t remember what he looked like but there seemed to be a very obvious pan across to the guy sitting next to Morse in the hospital waiting room which made me wonder if that was him. If it wasn’t someone special, it was a clumsy piece of camera work. (Someone told me later that Dexter was [also] in the riverside scene – he was the guy in the wheelchair who was part of the tourist group.)
Now the things that, for me, didn’t make this a very convincing episode:
I thought it was a clumsy and unoriginal way of keeping Adele out of the way. I don’t know whether Judy Loe wasn’t available or whether Dexter didn’t want her character in this episode but the “I’ve decided to stay overseas” bit wasn’t very original! I’d have preferred it if they’d split up before Morse was taken ill, or even that she’d gone away because she couldn’t cope with his illness.
After all these many years of Lewis not showing the slightest interest in opera and classical music, it seemed a little too convenient that he should start liking it just before his boss’ death.
Considering how good the make-up was on John Thaw, why was the make-up on the senior surgeon so unconvincing? He looked as if he was slathered in foundation and mascara and, although his character was rather odd, I don’t think he was supposed to be wearing make-up.
As so often happens, the actor playing the senior surgeon didn’t mime well to the singing, especially on the really long phrases where he barely seemed to take a breath beforehand.
I had to look at the final credits to confirm that Barrington Pheloung had actually been involved in this episode. The background music seemed distinctly un-Barrington on occasion, and I think it was this most of all that made this episode not seem like a true Morse, if you see what I mean.
Major nit: there’s no way in real police life that Strange would burst into the room where Lewis was interviewing the young lad, just to tell him that Morse had had a heart attack. Admittedly we didn’t actually hear what Strange was saying but I couldn’t see any other reason why he rushed in like that.
Talking of Strange, is he really younger than Morse? If Morse was coming up to retirement, I’d have expected Strange to have been long gone.
It may well be that the Radcliffe Hospital had agreed to accept Morse’s body as he’d requested and so had full rights to do with his body as they saw fit, but nevertheless I found the end scene rather disturbing. To leave him lying on a trolley in the middle of the room with a sheet over him while knowing that people were coming to visit was rather distasteful, I felt. I’d have expected him to be in a bed, with the sheet tucked under his chin. Fair enough if Lewis had pulled the sheet over him after saying goodbye, but even a police officer might get the creeps at the thought of having to pull the sheet down before he could pay his respects!
RIP Chief Inspector.