Endeavour: Passenger. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Shaun Evans, Roger Allam, Sean Rigby, Anton Lesser, Dakota Blue Richards, Lewis Peek, James Bradshaw, Abigail Thaw, Sara Vickers, Caroline O’ Neil,  Simon Scardifield, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Lydea Perkins, Judy Clifton, John Biggins, Edwin Thomas, Rosalie Craig, Simon Harrison, Thomas Coombes, Colin Mace, Hadley Fraser, Celeste Dodwell, Nicola Millbank, Justin Edwards, Jason Hall, Lizzy Watts, Mark Asante, Claire Ganaye, Leon Stewart.

Just because you buy a return ticket, it doesn’t always mean you will get to use it. Every situation has its perils and pitfalls; every line taken has a branch departure in which your ticket becomes invalid and collected by the man in the peak hat and the demeanour of the grave attached to their no nonsense, grim faced, attitude. The ticket costs, sometimes more than you can afford and yet we all greet the ticket inspector with the same off hand manner, always sure it is not our time to be stamped.

It is in the perils of Oxford life that such turns of events involve the man with the notebook and the keen astute mind, for in Endeavour Morse, the criminals keep finding their way blocked, the murderers caught and the citizens safe to travel in which ever class of carriage they like. It is to be a Passenger in the dreaming spires of the city which leads many to believe that Oxford is not a place in which trouble can be found, but as this particular episode was too point out, the Oxford of the very late 60s and early 70s was not the same as it is now, even with the intrepid television detective unnervingly connecting the dots between two brutal murders and the rise of a vicious gang muscling in on the city’s good standing.

Passenger sees the reflection of violence that was abundant in programmes such as The Sweeny come back with a topical vengeance, the rise of the Flying Squad and the focus of the increase in aggressive, ferocious crime country wide, marked the end of policing in many ways that had served diligently for decades. This is now the era of machismo, one in which decent policemen such as Morse, Thursday and Strange were to pit their own wits against and in which their superior would find hard to comprehend.

Passenger may be on the surface to be seen dealing with the callousness of murder and violence, but it is about in reality change, the 1970s were calling, the supposed good times of the 1960s were seen to be nothing more than a failed dream and in the gangland culture there could be seen the place to exploit this. It is a demand that the British Police Force have never truly managed to suppress and the evidence is before our eyes as more and more laws are put into place and the carrying of guns by those we place our trust in becomes more prevalent.

A well produced episode of Endeavour, one that grips the viewer with the knowledge all is to change.

Ian D. Hall