Over two decades ago a young, fresh-faced detective climbed into an old red Jaguar Mk II car for the first time.
Beside him was a grumpy super-sleuth with an eye for the ladies and a thirst for beer. Inspector Morse had existed before then in the books of Colin Dexter but it was the ITV version that was to catapult the character into TV’s stratosphere.
It’s hard to imagine now but when a new Morse episode was on, pub trade dropped, restaurants always had spare tables and you knew for absolute certain that your mum wasn’t going to ring. The then ITV director of programmes Marcus Plantin called Morse ‘appointment TV.’
Even the final three episodes shown in 2000 were seen by 18 million people. That’s about one third of the British population, or about one million more than would watch an England group match in the World Cup.
It has spawned huge book sales and shops started selling replica Jags, jigsaws, Morse mystery board games and even novelty bank notes.
