Colin Dexter And Inspector Morse

By Author: Carolyn Clayton
Total Articles: 130
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The fictional character Inspector Morse was created by the British crime author Colin Dexter and his novels were written between 1975 and 1999. Colin was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire on 29th September in 1930. In 2000 he was very pleased to receive an O.B.E from HRH Price Charles for services to literature.

Colin's was educated at Stamford School until he was called up for National service and signed up with the Royal Corps of Signals. Once back he graduated in 1953 and his early career was in education where he taught Latin and Greek for 35 years. He then started to struggle with hearing problems so left the education establishment and worked with the Oxford Examination Board until he retired in 1988. During his time at the Oxford Examination Board he found time to write a few books.

Due to the stories popularity a television adaption ran from 1987 to 2000 with the actor John Shaw playing the inspector. Dextor appeared in cameo roles in the first three dramas and also made some appearances in the films that followed. This year Shaun Evans will be playing a young inspector Morse for the news series 'Endeavour' ...
... which is going to focus on the detectives early career. Kevin Whately played Robert Lewis, Morse's detective assistant in all but one episode.

The character of Morse is of a white upper-middle-class male with a likable personality but with a slightly sullen temperament. He is portrayed as a compassionate person and believes in the equality of all people. He is very intelligent and doesn't like errors such as spelling or grammatical errors in documents. He will often point out spelling mistakes when reading documents written to him. Morse uses his great use of intuition and memory to bring the killer to justice.

Some interesting little know facts are that Morse drives a vintage red Jaguar Mk11 which was bought for the show for just £1000, but sold for £20,000 after the final episode. Morse's first name is strangely "endeavour". His parents were Quakers and this name was apparently quite suitable, so was chosen for him. Morse never married but fell in love with Adele Cecil in the last few episodes.

Today the author Colin is no longer writing novels, he does give the occasional talks where he discusses his literary passions and influences. Within his talks he gives some interesting insights into writers such as Dickens, Tomas Gray and Bronte.
For more information on the Inspector Morse Tour Oxford including many other tours including Midsomer Murders Tour check out Brit Movie Tours.