1. https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/feb/05/endeavour-
review-as-comforting-as-cheese-on-toast
Endeavour review – as comforting as cheese on toast
Russell Lewis’s Inspector Morse prequel – a clever, well-crafted
whodunnit oozing with period detail – gets better and better.
You know how sometimes even the most adventurous foodie just
fancies cheese on toast for tea – familiar, comforting, English and a
little old-fashioned, especially on a Sunday night? Well, it can be like
that with television, too. Nothing too innovative tonight, please, no
parallel universes or subtitles. Murder, oh yes, you need a dunnit in
order to ask who, but not too graphic or weird. The sex should be
hinted at, rather than actually done. Endeavour? Perfect.
The Inspector Morse prequel, now in its fifth series, has reached
1968, where the Rolling Stones are on the radio. Not that young
Morse (Shaun Evans) is doing much swinging or spending the night
together with anyone. Promoted to DS in the new Thames Valley
force, he is more sure of himself and grumpier than before, further
along the journey towards Colin Dexter/John Thaw’s character. He
has no time outside work for much apart from opera and the
crossword, certainly no time for the new boy: cocky, young DC
George Fancy, whose focus is mainly on what he calls “crumpet” –
and he is not talking comforting teatime treats.
Victim No 1, a former boxer, has been shot, then a metal spike
hammered into his ear. Ouch. The next, a history don, has been
stabbed in the eye with a steak knife. Both eyes. “Eye eye,” says Dr
Max DeBryn (I love James Bradshaw’s DeBryn, sort of Endeavour’s
Gil Grissom in CSI Oxford).
Murder No 3 tops the lot, or rather does not – he has been
decapitated, body left in the bed, head under a silver cloche. For your
main course … head of art dealer! We don’t see it, of course – this is
Endeavour, not Game of Thrones. We see the disgust on the faces of
Morse and DI Thursday (Roger Allam); secondhand gruesomeness.
Turns out these murders are all inspired by the biblical paintings of
Artemisia Gentileschi, who turned the horrors of her own life into
scenes of women’s vengeance on the men at whose hands they had
suffered.
Now, a modern-day (well, 1960s) Gentileschi, Ruth Astor, is exacting
revenge on the members of a vile men’s dining club, like something
between the Bullingdon and the Presidents Club – worse, even, if that
2. is possible. Never has murder seemed so just or such fun. Go on, one
more, he is the worst of the lot, rock to the skull, bash.
Has Endeavour suddenly found relevance in the real world, then?
Let’s not get carried away – it is a whodunnit, but a clever and
excellently crafted one (by Russell Lewis), with plenty of whydunnit,
too. I like Shaun Evans’s new pricklier Morse and the lovely period
detail: not just the cars and the telephone exchange, but in the
attitudes of the day.
So, familiar, maybe, and comforting (as comforting as murder can
be). But it is also really good. If it were cheese on toast, it would be
made with the finest English cheddar and there would be some kind
of pickle.
Vocab help:
Whodunnit: a detective story or mystery story
To ooze: to exude / desprender, transpirar
Activity (in pairs):
Identify the structure of the review in question and compare it to the
instructions p30.
Find a complex relative and an interesting inversion (Subject/main
verb main verb/subject)
In pairs, rephrase the relative in question using several sentences
and the inversion restoring it to its original order.
Find a word meaning:
to call for forcibly or urgently and obtain
Highlight (take notes) on what makes the review an interesting read
3. Correction:
Structure of the review:
1. Title
2. ABSTRACT (short summary / outline used as a teaser to make
the reader want to read further)
3. Overall impression
4. Plot summary
5. More detailed opinion
6. (implicit in this case) Recommendation
Complex relative: Turns out these murders are all inspired by the
biblical paintings of Artemisia Gentileschi, who turned the horrors of
her own life into scenes of women’s vengeance on the men at whose
hands they had suffered.
Because Artemisia herself had suffered at the hands of evil
men, she turned her grief into scenes of women’s vengeance
against their perpetrators.
Inversion: Never has murder seemed so just or such fun
Murder has never seemed so just or such fun
to call for forcibly or urgently and obtain
: To exact (very often used with the concept of vengeance)
Highlight (take notes) on what makes the review an interesting read
It taps into common cultural references we can all relate to
(cheese on toast), it is humourous
(dunnit/whodunnit/whydunnit ;) and wonderfully well written.
e.g. If it were cheese on toast, it would be made with the finest
English cheddar and there would be some kind of pickle.
