Endeavour and Grantchester: A Pair of Masterpieces

 

by Pa Rock

Culture Vulture

I am a longstanding fan of British television.  It's an itch that I scratch with a subscription to Britbox,  a streaming service that covers the bulk of the British television experience - everything from the dramatic and comedic plays of Shakespeare - to the social faux pas of Hyacinth Bucket - to Doctor Who's travels through time and space in the TARDIS.   On the days when the selections at Netflix and Prime seem thin, Britbox always has something steaming on the sideboard just waiting to be devoured.

Over the past few weeks I have been catching up with a couple of very unique British period-piece police dramas, each set near a famous university.   Both are produced by the BBC for the PBS series, Masterpiece Theatre.

"Endeavour" is the prequel to the very popular "Inspector Morse" BBC series that ran from 1987-2000 with a total of thirty-three episodes.  Inspector Morse lived alone, enjoyed good wine, opera, and crossword puzzles, and drove a classic car.  He was also known simply as "Morse" until one of the final episodes when it was revealed that he had been named "Endeavour" by his Quaker mother.  Inspector Morse worked in the city of Oxford, and his cases often brought him onto the campus of the old university.

"Endeavour" centers on a younger Detective Sergeant Morse who is just beginning to build his reputation as a skilled police investigator in the 1960's city of Oxford.  Endeavor (Shaun Evans) gives glimpses of the lonely old inspector that he is destined to become through troubled relationships with women and the problems that his unflinching principles create in working with his fellow officers.   The characters weave themselves seamlessly into the turbulent 1960's, and their stories are highly compelling.  "Endeavour," which premiered in early 2012, has seven seasons (thirty episodes) currently streaming.  

"Grantchester" is a mystery series based on the "Grantchester Mysteries" of author James Runcie.  It focuses on a young village vicar who helps a police detective solve murders in and around the community which lies near Cambridge University.  The program, set in the 1950's, bears some similarities to another British television series, "Father Brown," but with a younger vibe.

"Grantchester," which premiered in 2014, has six completed seasons and thirty-one total episodes.  Currently the first five seasons are streaming.

Veteran British television actor, Robson Green, plays Geordie Keating the police part of the investigative duo, and his original ministerial partner was James Norton.  Norton, himself a veteran actor with an extensive list of film accomplishments, left the show during the fourth season when he felt his character had worked through his storyline and it was time for a replacement vicar.   Tom Brittney, a relatively new face to television audiences, came on board to play the next vicar, a man who bears some of the same flaws that burdened the previous vicar in the small, but very progressive, college community.

I will admit to feeling that the chemistry between Robson Green and James Norton was too good to ever be improved upon, but I was wrong.  Season five of "Grantchester" satisfies at a whole new level!

If you have time to kill - and don't mind killing it with clever murderers and even more clever cops - and vicars - you will not be able to do better that "Endeavour" and "Grantchester."  Both are masterpieces in every sense of the word.