List of Inspector Morse episodes

Anne Stavely, a fellow chorister and romantic interest of Morse, is found hanged at her home in Jericho. Her death is presumed to be a suicide, but Morse investigates despite not having been assigned to the case. While searching for a suicide note at her home, Morse encounters Sergeant Lewis, beginning their lifelong partnership.

Morse convinces DCS Strange that he is not involved in Stavely’s death and takes on the case. The suicide note was taken by neighbour George Jackson, who uses information from the note to extort money from Stavely’s former employers, Alan and Tony Richards. The choir meets shortly after Stavely’s death and Morse is introduced to Alan Richards, providing Richards with an alibi when Jackson is found to have been murdered at the same time.

Morse is distracted by the presence of the book Oedipus Rex on Stavely’s bedside table and theorises that Ned Murdoch, a local musical prodigy taken under Stavely’s maternal care, caused her death. Lewis is sent to find out whether Murdoch is, in fact, the son that Stavely gave up for adoption, and to take fingerprints of Tony and Adele Richards, but both come to naught; Stavely’s son lives in Wales and the Richards' fingerprints do not match any taken from the Jackson murder.

While reviewing his findings to Morse in front of the Richards brothers, Lewis inadvertently cracks the case by introducing himself to Alan Richards, revealing that the brothers had switched identities to avoid suspicion, and that Alan had killed Jackson to protect his brother and, perhaps, their firm’s reputation.

When Nicholas Quinn, a deaf member of Oxford’s Foreign Examinations Syndicate, is found dead at his home, Morse presumes murder and Quinn’s fellow syndics soon become suspects. Morse and Lewis investigate the movements of the staff on the Friday afternoon in question. The staff consists of Martin, Roope, Ogleby, Bartlett (the secretary) and the attractive divorcee Monica Height. Noakes, the caretaker, swears he saw Quinn leave the offices late on Friday evening, but he actually only saw a man in Quinn’s coat drive away in his car.

Ogleby seems the most suspicious under questioning, but Morse is delighted to discover his alter ego is the crossword setter Daedalus, with whom Morse has matched wits for years. After this initial questioning, Ogleby is brutally murdered.

Morse and Lewis surmise that exam papers have been leaked to the education department of Al-Jamara by Quinn’s predecessor Bland, that Quinn discovered this and told Ogleby, and that this was the cause of at least one of the murders. When Quinn was killed, Ogleby investigated and was also murdered.

Morse confidently, but mistakenly, arrests Roope for Quinn’s murder. Roope's alibi, which is that he arrived in Oxford late on the afternoon of the murder, is confirmed by a college dean he met on the platform, and he is released without charge. Roope meets Dr Bartlett soon after, and Morse arrests both of them, suspecting that Dr Bartlett needed the illicit income to pay for treatment for his mentally unstable son.

Morse realizes that "Donald Martin" and "Doctor Bartlett" would be difficult for a lip reader such as Quinn to distinguish, that Quinn made this mistake, and that Martin committed the murders with Roope as his accomplice. Morse confronts Martin at his home and ends up in a violent struggle, from which Lewis saves him.

Morse and Lewis are called to St Oswald’s where the churchwarden, Harry Josephs, has been seemingly stabbed by a local vagrant following a service. However, it transpires that things might not be as they seem when Max the pathologist informs Morse that the man had enough morphine in his system to kill him before the knife even entered his chest. While the hunt for the vagrant begins, the vicar, Lionel Pawlen, and his congregants are all eyed with suspicion.

Tipped off by another vagrant that the missing prime suspect may be, in fact, the vicar’s brother, Morse invites Pawlen in for questioning, but he summarily throws himself off the church’s steeple instead. Meanwhile, Morse takes a romantic interest in the church caretaker, Ruth, who seems amenable to the attention, but is somewhat evasive.

The bodies soon begin to pile up as Paul Morris, the organist, Brenda Josephs, with whom he had been having an affair, and even Morris’s son are all found dead, and Morse is no closer to solving any of the crimes.

Eventually, with Ruth being one of the only congregants left alive, Morse, by chance, is scouting out the church once more when she enters and is soon confronted by a mysterious man, with whom we know she is intimately acquainted, but who attempts to strangle her, anyway. Morse awkwardly attempts a rescue and a struggle ensues, resulting in a confrontation at the top of the church’s steeple. Morse, we earlier discovered, is afraid of heights.

While this psychopathic killer tries to put an end to Morse, Lewis rushes in to hit him over the head and watch him stumble over the edge to his death.

As they take away the final body, it is only Morse who has realised who this killer is: Harry Josephs, the original "victim" who never was.

It is revealed that Lionel Pawlen and his congregants were all in on the original murder, that of Lionel’s brother, Simon Pawlen, the vagrant. Simon had been left out of a great inheritance from an aunt owing to his alcoholism and wayward lifestyle, and had grown vindictive towards Lionel as a result, spreading rumours about the vicar’s behaviour towards choir boys that had forced him out of his previous parish.

The original murder, then, was an elaborate way of getting rid of Simon, and Lionel used an invented church service, The Feast of the Conversion of St Augustine, and his congregants as co-conspirators, with whom he would share his wealth, to execute the plan.

Since it was Harry Josephs that the congregants agreed falsely to identify, the psychopathic Josephs used this cover to exact revenge on his wife, Brenda, and her lover, Paul Morris, and Morris’s son for good measure. Lionel’s death was indeed suicide, gripped by the guilt of his brother’s murder and suspecting that his deceit would soon be uncovered by Morse.

A tour group of geriatric Americans descend on the Randolph Hotel, including a lady who is about to donate a priceless artefact, the ‘Wolvercote Tongue’, to the Ashmolean Museum. When she is found dead shortly after arriving, and the Tongue is missing from her hotel room, Morse suspects foul play, despite the doctor’s insistence that she died from natural causes.

The chief suspect, Eddie Poindexter, the dead woman’s husband, soon goes missing, and Morse and Lewis’s attention is diverted to Theodore Kemp, the colourful museum curator whose naked body is found floating in the River Cherwell the following evening.

Morse is convinced he now has two murders on his hands, both connected to the theft, but his guesswork is mere speculation. Kemp’s disabled wife commits suicide after learning of his death, and Morse finally stumbles into a fruitful line of inquiry by considering the movements of the other expert connected to the tour, Cedric Downes, and his wife, whom Morse and Lewis happen to intercept as she makes her way to London with a suitcase.

When they confront Downes on the platform of Oxford station later the same day, and his account of his awareness of Kemp’s death doesn’t match his wife’s, he’s taken in for questioning. That’s not before he literally bumps into Poindexter, who coincidentally steps off a train as Downes attempts to make an escape.

The confessions from Poindexter and Downes are forthcoming. Poindexter admits that his wife’s death, unsurprising given her heart condition, occurred in his presence, and that he took the Tongue in order to throw it away and collect the insurance money. His disappearance was also for the purposes of connecting with his long-lost daughter.

Downes claims that Kemp’s death was an accident and occurred after a confrontation when he had returned home to collect his notes for his lecture, only to find his wife with Kemp in flagrante. With a little bending of the truth from Morse, he also admits to subsequently killing his wife while she was disposing of Kemp’s clothing in London.

As the episode draws to a close, the Wolvercote Tongue is retrieved from the river and Morse admits that, despite his prior insistence, there were two cases here rather than one: the original death was simply of natural causes and the subsequent murders were not related to the theft at all.

Based on an original story by Colin Dexter, which he subsequently novelized as The Jewel That Was Ours.

Valerie Craven, the daughter of a local building magnate, has been missing for six months, and so an otherwise idle Morse is assigned the case.

When a letter arrives, purportedly from the missing girl, with a London postmark, initial inquiries take Morse and Lewis in the direction of a man named Maguire, a one-time boyfriend of Valerie. Reckless guesswork from Morse surprisingly strikes home, and it is established that the girl is, or at least was, pregnant.

Further investigation centres on Valerie’s school, and a head-strong headmaster, Donald Phillipson, and a former teacher now moved on, David Acum, are added to the list of suspects.

When the deputy head, Cheryl Baines, is found dead at her home, both Lewis and Strange lash out at Morse, whose prior insistence that murder was involved now seems confirmed.

Unexpectedly, it is Phillipson’s wife, Sheila, who is identified by a neighbour as being present at the scene on the evening of Baine’s death, and she is brought in for questioning. Insisting that all she encountered at the home was a body, she tells Morse and Lewis that she saw Acum as she left, waiting in a car around the corner.

Acum is, therefore, brought in for questioning, but, after a couple of pints to aid his thinking, Morse seems content to let him go. He does, however, insist on driving Acum back to Reading and, when Acum claims his wife isn’t home, Morse gladly accepts the invitation to wait for her.

Once inside Morse calls out for Valerie, and, sure enough, she emerges from upstairs, Morse having finally realised that he had already met Valerie when he had called at Acum’s house earlier on, but did not initially recognise her, as she was wearing a face pack at the time.

Valerie returns to find her mother in an altercation with Phillipson and his wife. Phillipson claims that he and Grace Craven were having an affair, and were together the night Baines died, and, despite initially confirming this to Morse, Craven now insists he is lying and that their affair ended months ago.

Valerie corroborates this version of events, explaining that she saw Phillipson as she was leaving Baines’ house on the evening in question.

Phillipson finally caves, admits to a struggle and her accidental death, and is taken into police custody as a result.

While Morse pursues another romantic line of inquiry in the form of Dr Jane Robson, he finds himself on hand at an Oxford college when one of its foreign summer students is murdered.

The Japanese man, Yukio Li, excused himself from dinner and is discovered in his room in a ritual pose with injuries to his hands and feet and a dagger in his chest. However, Max insists the cuts were to hide the fact that he’d previously been bound and gagged and that the lack of blood suggested the man had been dead for some time.

A cassette tape in a jiffy bag addressed to Yukio and containing traces of heroin is found in the back of the coach, and Robson confirms to Morse that Yukio had been to the summer school previously and was a drug dealer.

When another member of staff supporting the summer school, Graham Daniels, is found dead, Morse begins to suspect a wider plot and that perhaps his presence at the college dinner was contrived to give alibis to those present.

As Morse’s suspicions grow, particularly towards Kurt Friedman, a German who another student claims is a ‘phoney’, and Sir Wilfred Mulryne, a don of the college, he is told to drop his investigation by Superintendent Dewar, but this only strengthens Morse’s resolve to crack the case.

Through further pestering of Dr Robson, and some theorising of his own, Morse finally establishes the truth. The death, or at least the kidnap and torture, of Yukio Li was planned by Dr Robson and her brother, the man pretending to be Kurt Friedman, as revenge for the torture of their father in Japan during WWII at the hands of Yukio’s father. Mulryne had disclosed this family connection to Dr Robson previously.

The plan went awry as the doppelgänger they used for the Japanese was overpowered by Yukio who, in turn, pretended to be the doppelgänger himself and escaped. The dead man initially found was, therefore, not Yukio Li after all.

Yukio then used the cover of his "death" to exact revenge himself on those complicit in the plot against him, starting with Daniels and then Michael Robson/Kurt Friedman, who is found dead in the showers. On seeing this, Morse immediately realises that Dr Robson is next and rushes to her aid, only to find that someone has rescued her already by bashing Yukio's head in with a croquet mallet after he had attempted to strangle her.

Morse finds Mrs Warbut, of the college bursary office, in the church, who confesses to turning a blind eye to the plot, and who it is implied finally killed Yukio and saved Dr Robson. Warbut grew up in Japan and was scarred and embittered by the knowledge of what happened to Dr Robson’s father and many others during the war.

Morse and Lewis are called to a pub outside Oxford where a young woman named Sylvia Kane has been found dead in the car park, seemingly run over, but with scratches on her face that suggest an attack.

An envelope, containing what Morse identifies as a coded letter addressed to Sylvia’s superior at work, Jennifer Coleby, is found in Sylvia's purse. Inquiries begin at an Oxford assurance company. Morse quickly presumes the envelope contained wads of cash.

Meanwhile, the man Sylvia was due to meet for a date on the fateful evening begins to spend money in an extravagant fashion. He soon stumbles into trouble and is brought into the station, admitting he did take the money after discovering Sylvia and even her necklace, but, despite this confession, Morse is unconvinced he could have killed her and lets him go.

Instead, Mrs Jarman, an elderly woman who claims to have seen Sylvia get into a red car at a bus stop on the night in question, recognizes Sylvia on a television appeal hosted by Morse, and contacts the police. After her memory is jogged, she even remembers the registration plate, which takes Morse and Lewis to the home of Mrs and Dr Crowther, the latter of whom Morse has already encountered giving a lecture at an Oxford college.

While Sylvia's hitching a lift with Crowther is established, the connection between her and Jennifer Coleby isn’t until Max, who happens to be related to the Crowthers, tells Morse that Sylvia was due to attend physio at the hospital the following day.

Mrs Jarman had reported that another person had been with Sylvia that night, but didn’t get into the car. Instead, Sylvia had departed with the words “see you in the morning”. Morse and Lewis then realise that the mysterious other person at the bus stop was not a colleague of Sylvia’s, but Jennifer Coleby’s lodger, Mary Widdowson, who works as a nurse at the hospital.

By this time, Crowther has had a heart attack whilst disposing of evidence from his car, and so the episode climaxes at the hospital with Widdowson's confessing to Morse what had really gone on: she and Crowther were engaged in an affair, but with his potential appointment to a senior post at the University, Crowther wanted to give her money for a holiday so she would be out of the picture for a while, hence the wads of cash (and the coded message, ‘please take it’) in an envelope that was to get to her via Coleby, only for Sylvia Kane to intercept it.

When Sylvia was coincidentally picked up by Crowther at the bus stop, Mary Widdowson didn’t get in; instead, she followed them to see what would happen between them. When Sylvia gets out of the car, Mary confronts her and knocks her to the ground, only for Crowther inadvertently to run over her as he reverses out of the car park.

Although not murder after all, Widdowson is led away by the police for her hand in Sylvia’s death as Crowther regains consciousness in his hospital bed.

Morse and Lewis are sent to Hanbury House where an upper-class family has apparently suffered a break-in and the theft of a number of paintings. Sir Julius Hanbury, however, is nowhere to be seen, which is particularly unusual, since he is vying to be the next Master of an Oxford college and the vote is tied.

Exploring the grounds of Hanbury House, Morse is shown into the family mausoleum, and the battered body of Sir Julius is discovered. Soon after, Roger Meadows, the boyfriend of the family's au pair, Michelle, overturns his sports car driving away from the house. Lewis notices that his brakes have been cut.

A new forensic pathologist, Dr. Grayling Russell makes her debut for the first time since her predecessor Max was unwell and had a severe stroke.

Two murders, then, or possibly one, as, when Lady Hanbury is put under some pressure by Morse's enquiries, she claims that Sir Julius's death was suicide, which she and the gardener, John McKendrick, made to look like murder to present a less shameful story to the watching world. The "theft" was similarly part of their plan, and the paintings are later recovered from their hiding place.

Morse is not satisfied by this wafer-thin confession and keeps snooping, particularly around the attic where there happens to be a photographic studio. Lewis's keen eye reveals that the pictures being produced, in the style of Sir Julius' classical paintings, in fact feature Michelle. The prior suggestion that Sir Julius might have been blackmailed is now grounded in evidence.

Lady Hanbury's alibi for the night of Sir Julius's death soon falls apart under Morse's questioning when she claims to have witnessed Plácido Domingo featuring in Tosca in Covent Garden, while Morse knows this didn't happen, as he himself was present for the performance.

Caught in her lies, she finally confesses that she'd been having a long-term affair with McKendrick, and that, on confronting Sir Julius in his studio, and discovering what he had been up to, there had been a struggle, and that she had killed him in self-defence. She then had McKendrick cut the brakes of Roger Meadows' car in response to his threats to sell the story of Sir Julius, the au pair and the pornographic pictures to the tabloid press.

Lady Hanbury, McKendrick and Michelle are all driven away in police cars, leaving the six-year-old daughter on the doorstep of the stately home, and a weary Morse, looking on and decrying the tragedy she has inherited.

Morse, encumbered by a toothache, is once more tasked with picking his way through the feuding world of Oxford academics after one, Dr David Kerridge, is believed to be missing and a decapitated body is found in the local canal. Despite Lewis establishing that the clothes on the body belong to Kerridge, Morse chooses to believe the reports that the academic is alive and well in London.

Sir Alexander Reece, the Master of Beaumont College, who is known to Morse from his university days, tells of a bad-tempered rivalry between Kerridge and Dr Arthur Drysdale, a man recently diagnosed with brain cancer, who, with just months to live, has taken himself to Rome.

It transpires that Kerridge has indeed been in London, exploring the possibility of a television appearance that comes to naught, but is soon discovered battered to death in his flat. Meanwhile, the head of the canal man is found, and the bullet wound in the skull suggests to Morse that there are two murderers to be found. Lewis concludes that the canal man is Nicholas Balarat, a civil servant and honorary fellow of Beaumont College. He and Kerridge had exchanged professional criticisms.

After taking a trip to Whitehall to enquire about Balarat, however, Morse believes the Kerridge connection is a cover. He explains to an exasperated Chief Superintendent Strange his theory that it was Reece who shot Balarat. Reece had nominated Balarat for an honorary fellowship, and Morse believes he expected Balarat to return the favour in recommending him for the position of chairman in a new royal commission. When this didn't occur, Reece exacted revenge and disposed of the body at Thrupp to implicate Kerridge.

Before Morse can find any evidence of this, Reece himself is found shot dead in his lodgings. Meanwhile, Lewis speaks to the college scout to gather more information, and discovers that not only did Drysdale have his disagreements with Kerridge, but also that Balarat had run off with his wife.

Soon Morse and Lewis finally catch up with Dysdale, the Rome trip just a ruse, and he confesses to the killings. His brain cancer, Morse suspects, contributed to his desire for revenge as he settled old scores. Although admitting to killing Balarat for his betrayal and Reece for his professional fraud, he claims to have failed in murdering Kerridge, and, in fact, was convinced by Kerridge that he did not speak against him to deny him a prestigious academic post. He and Morse conclude that Reece must have indeed killed Kerridge, as Morse originally suspected, since he knew all about Reece's dishonesty and was fearful of being exposed.

Based on Colin Dexter's novel The Riddle of the Third Mile.

An old college roommate of Morse, Anthony Donn, comes to Oxford for an annual cricket match, calls Morse after 20 years and wants to get together and talk. They eat chips on a bench, but Donn never gets round to saying what is on his mind, though he tells a zen story. Morse soon gets distracted by a case in which three people are killed in a hate crime in the fire bombing of a radical bookshop. Donn then turns up dead in his college lodging. At first sight, it looks as if he has electrocuted himself, but, puzzlingly, he had a gun in his luggage. His wife says he hated guns. Lewis postpones his leave to go undercover as a college porter and replaces Donn on the cricket team, the Clarets. One of the team members, Vince Cranston, resents this as he is not a gentleman. At the cricket match between the Clarets and the Hearties, organized by another former college friend of Morse, Roly Marshall, Lewis acquits himself well, while Morse dozes. Meanwhile, Lewis had seen Peter Foster searching Donn's room. Both Anthony Donn's widow, Kate, and Peter Foster's apparent wife, Philippa, appear attracted to Morse.

During the cricket match, Peter Foster is found murdered in the changing rooms, stabbed in the chest with a pair of scissors. Morse confronts Philippa Foster, who admits that she is a customs investigator, and that Peter is not her husband, but her boss. Over the previous two years, they have traced regular exports of cocaine and heroin that correspond with the Clarets' tours to the Low Countries. They had not told Morse, as he might have been involved. She persuades Morse to permit this year's tour to continue. When the tour bus arrives at Dover, it is searched, but nothing is found. Meanwhile, Morse has tailed Kate Donn and seen her passionately kissing Vince Cranston. Morse realises that, contrary to E. M. Forster's advice to "only connect", he has to delink the two killings. He discovers cocaine hidden in the seat of the wheelchair used by Roly Marshall and deduces that Jamie Jasper, Marshall's nephew, killed Foster. Jasper worked in international finance and so had the opportunity to obtain drugs in the Far East. Morse then goes to the radio studio where Kate Donn is hosting her chat show and arrests her for murdering her husband. The motive is that she wanted to leave him for Vince, but he threatened to kill either Vince or himself (hence the gun). Morse suspected this, because Vince had given Kate a book on zen with a florid dedication.

The action takes place during the Test match, with commentary by Brian Johnston, which annoys Morse because it deprives him of his habitual music on BBC Radio 3.

A murder at a multi-storey car park uncovers a crime of passion involving a jealous husband, his wife, and her lover. The dead man was Michael Gifford, an architect, whose diary indicates he was meeting someone there. Lewis finds his house ransacked and is knocked unconscious by the intruder. He and Morse investigate Brian Pierce, an associate of Gifford's, who has a number of expensive paintings that he shouldn't have been able to afford. A telephone number in the diary refers to an insurance company but the owner, Edward Manley, says Gifford doesn't have a policy with them. Morse meets Camilla, a prostitute Gifford became possessive of, who says he sent her threatening letters and tapes when she ended their association. Morse and Lewis deduce Gifford had had an affair with Rosemary Henderson, one of Manley's employees. Her husband George had found similar letters and tapes. She says she and Gifford used to have their liaisons in the car park but she had broken it off and they were not due to meet that night. She has an alibi for the time of the murder. An investigation of Gifford's finances show both he and Pierce were responsible for financial irregularities; Pierce had been stealing materials from the firm for private projects. Pierce commits suicide before the police can speak to him. Rosemary stages the discovery that her husband found the letters for Lewis. Morse and Lewis visit Henderson's forest cabin and learn he was the one that broke into Gifford's house. Henderson's body is found shot dead in the woods nearby, possibly suicide. Morse realises the parking ticket in Gifford's car could have been swapped for one with a later time to disguise the time of death and give someone an alibi: Both Rosemary and Manley have cast-iron alibis for the believed time but are vague about where they were half an hour earlier. Morse proves Rosemary tried to cover up the fact Manley was at Henderson's cabin: The pair were lovers. Manley says he and Henderson fought after Henderson realised Rosemary was involved in Gifford's murder, having seen her go to the multi-storey car park that night: She had rung Manley to arrange an earlier meeting than the one in his diary. Manley claims the shotgun went off by accident as he and Henderson fought. Manley and Rosemary are both taken in for questioning.

Based loosely on Colin Dexter's novel The Secret of Annexe 3.

On his way to give a rare speech at an Oxford debate environmentalist and senior fellow Dr Julian Dear is attacked and later dies in hospital. Morse and Lewis begin inquiries but given that his death was of a heart attack and that the Master of Beaufort college, Matthew Copley-Barnes, is on the police oversight committee, they are encouraged by Chief Superintendent Rennie to wrap up the case quickly.

The arrival of Sylvie Maxton, a newspaper columnist who used to live with the Master's family, adds further scrutiny, exposing the fractious relationship between the Master and his mentally unwell daughter and her husband. As Morse begins to question the family about Dr Dear a series of unusual and disturbing packages arrive at the Master's lodge.

Meanwhile, a worried undergraduate attempts to avoid police detection and is later found in the bedroom of Dr Jake Normington, whom Morse previously knows through musical connections. Normington initially confides to Morse that Dr Dear had something important to say at the debate, and implies that he may have been stopped from doing so, but before long Normington flees to his academic post in the United States.

The undergraduate, Mick McGovern, is brought in for questioning but while brutish figures burn down his flat and his mother lies dying in a hospital bed, McGovern stays silent. When his mother passes away, however, he begins to talk. He insists that he did not attack Dr Dear and explains that he used to work for an industrial chemical company, which has financial ties to Beaufort College, and that an incidence of a cancer-causing fertiliser was suppressed by the firm. This information was what Dr Dear was due to share.

In the end this environmental aspect is all a red herring, which is exposed as the Master's family situation unravels. When the Master is found dead in his lodge Sylvie Maxton reveals to Morse the sexual abuse that she suffered at his hands as a child. She had sent the mysterious packages as a reminder to him. As it transpires, the Master's daughter had been aware of her father's behaviour all along and when she confides in her mother it is Mrs Copley-Barnes who takes matters into her own hands and kills her husband. In a dramatic finale Mrs Copley-Barnes prepares to throw herself off the chapel rafters before being talked down by Morse and is taken away in handcuffs.

It transpires that Dear was killed in a case of mistaken identity, as Lewis is able to identify by forensically analysing vomit found nearby and searching the local pubs for where a speciality quiche is on the menu. The culprit was the Beaufort College gardener, Phil Hopkirk, who, in a drunken stupor, attacked Dear thinking he was the Master. Hopkirk had presumably discovered that his own daughter, who took piano lessons at the Copley-Barnes' home, was similarly being abused.

Morse investigates a family business after the managing director, Trevor Radford, is found murdered in a brewery. He had been working late, preparing a defence against a takeover bid from a rival brewery, Farmers. Suspicions naturally turn to those who stand to benefit, who include the family members as well as two Radfords directors, Norman Weekes and Victor Preece. While both directors have alibis, Trevor's brother Stephen's seems particularly thin.

Stephen himself is soon found murdered, however, in an almost identical manner, prompting Trevor's widow, Helen, to confess to an affair with him. Lewis's investigations into the brewery also suggest Trevor had been 'cooking the books' and that Radfords' financial situation is precarious, with Trevor having taken out a £1-million loan three years earlier, which hasn't been repaid. It is later revealed that he had paid a solicitor to give an inflated value of the company's assets to secure this loan, a fraud that would come to light if the Farmers deal went through.

Despite the deaths of Trevor and Stephen, the brewery’s board, led by their father Charles (and very much against the wishes of their mother, Isobel), vote to reject the takeover bid. They appoint Weekes as the new managing director and task him with turning around Radfords.

The third murder is that of a solicitor, Nelson, who had previously been shown anxious and flustered upon hearing the news of the Radford murders. Lewis belatedly remembers bumping into him when visiting Victor Preece's mother at her home. The folder on Nelson's desk is labelled "Knox", which Lewis discovers was the name of the original Radford's partner when the brewery first began. Morse's questioning of Charles reveals that Knox was banished from Oxford under a cloud in 1850 while Lewis adds that a descendent of Knox is none other than Victor Preece.

Suspecting that he murdered the Radford brothers as revenge for being swindled out of his inheritance, which his mother essentially confirms when Morse and Lewis arrive on her doorstep, Preece is arrested. His mother is initially arrested, too, for the murder of Nelson, but it turns out that this is a mistake. Morse, reflecting on the diction of the woman who called Nelson's office, realises that Nelson had been swindling the Preeces and blackmailing Isobel Radford, and that it was the latter who battered him to death in retaliation.

When two women are murdered in similar circumstances Morse, Lewis and Sergeant Maitland, an expert in violence against women, set out to catch the killer before he strikes again.

Both the deceased, Maureen Thomson and Jackie Thorn, owned cars and attention turns to the local garage and its owner Jeremy Boynton. After Jackie’s neighbour, Angie Howe, is threatened by Boynton not to reveal his connection to Jackie, she does so anyway and he is arrested.

Despite Morse’s certainty that Boynton is the killer he has no evidence against him and Superintendent Strange steps in to release him. After Morse implies to Tim Ablett, Jackie’s boyfriend, that her unborn child may not be his, he attacks Boynton at his car showroom. While Boynton is taken to hospital Morse seizes the opportunity to rifle through the company records in search of incriminating evidence against him. This outrages Lewis who refuses to be involved.

After Morse and Maitland work through the night they finally have a breakthrough. Philippa Lau, who was attacked though not killed some months earlier, had also previously bought a car from Boynton’s garage. Strange is not impressed however and throws Morse off the case. The killer then strikes again and since Boynton is in hospital Morse’s theory is finally disproved.

Lau is questioned anyway and reveals that her driving instructor, Whittaker, had bought the car for her. Lewis realises the car connection with the victims is him, not Boynton, after all and rushes to arrest him. Morse happens to be in the car with Whittaker at the time and simultaneously makes the same realisation when he notices a roll of tape in the glove box. Whittaker confesses to acting out of twisted jealousy after his wife was taken into hospital long term. He attacks Morse with a knife as they drive at high speed and after the ensuing struggle it is Whittaker who is impaled on the knife when they come to a dramatic stop.

Morse, in his own words, becomes the hunted rather than the hunter, when he is framed for murder.

The victim, Beryl Newsome, is an acquaintance of Morse and a co-performer in a production of The Magic Flute, which is a recurring theme throughout the episode. After exchanging tense words with Morse on the way to rehearsal, Newsome receives a telephone call, during which she is stabbed. When Morse is first to find her body and picks up the knife lying beside her, he becomes the primary suspect.

DCI Bottomley is given the case, and Morse is quick to point out his Freemason connections. Fearing he has been set up, Morse takes Lewis to see his old colleague and mentor McNutt. When Morse returns to his car, he finds Masonic symbols scratched into it and then is later stopped and breathalysed on the way home by an officer who also happens to be a Mason.

Morse suspects that a villain called Hugo De Vries is behind the set-up and goes to see Marion Brooke, who worked with Newsome, and was also involved in De Vries' conviction. Brooke describes how large sums of money had been disappearing and reappearing in their charity's account, and, when Lewis takes a look, it transpires that, on the day Newsome was murdered, the money was deposited in Morse's bank account.

Bottomley rules out Newsome's former husbands, and Swedish police records confirm De Vries is dead. When he visits her flat, and Morse's clothes, beer and photo are present, Morse is arrested. While he sits in a police cell, Bottomley and Lewis arrive to search Morse's flat and find music blaring from the sound system. They then discover the body of McNutt in the airing cupboard.

When Bottomley discovers a violent attack committed by Morse in the police computer records, Lewis suspects a computer hacker is behind the set-up. He disproves the record from an archive copy of the Oxford Mail and Morse is released as a result. His ordeal isn't over, however, as he narrowly escapes a fire in his flat that evening and his suspicions are confirmed when Swedish police confirm that De Vries is alive: he has absconded from parole and he recently completed a degree in computer science.

When Morse and Lewis try to follow up the now missing Marion Brooke, high quality wine in her house confirms to Morse that she is De Vries' accomplice. The wine leads Morse to another address where he comes face to face with De Vries. After holding him at gunpoint, De Vries fools Morse once again and escapes in Lewis's car. He reunites with Brooke, but, as police surround them, he shoots himself. Brooke confirms her complicity in De Vries' schemes and their shared desire for revenge against Morse, who had brought him to justice years before.

The character of McNutt is referenced and Marion Brooke appears in episodes of Endeavour.

Morse and Lewis attend a celebratory function for the retiring and recently honoured senior policeman Charlie Hillian OBE, who dies later the same evening after a break-in at his home.

DCI Dawson, an old colleague of Morse, is keen to help with the investigation, and attention turns to the old, unsolved case of a murdered child, Mary Lapsley, when it's discovered that notes from the case were taken from Hillian's home. The notes were for a book Hillian was writing about his old cases with the help of the eccentric Mr Majors, whom Morse visits at his chaotic home. Suspicions, however, are tuned not to Majors but a bookseller called Frederick Redpath, who is spotted in the vicinity and who visited Hillian's house the day he was killed. When Dawson returns to the police station to question Redpath, he immediately recognises him as Briers, the prime suspect in the Mary Lapsley case.

Despite maintaining his innocence in both cases, a stance that Dawson accepts but Morse does not, he attempts to take his own life in custody but survives. Morse takes the opportunity to question Redpath/Briers' daughter about the Lapsley case. She describes how her father was persecuted for five years, losing jobs and receiving nuisance phone calls, and that on the day he lost his fishing knife, what turned out to be the murder weapon, he saw John Mitchell and his son Terrence by the river. As it happens, Terrence is Hillian's gardener, and has already been questioned about the break-in. He and his mother become increasingly evasive as Morse and Lewis continue their enquiries.

The Lapsley case becomes central to the investigation, and Dawson draws attention again to typed pages from a diary that were sent five years after the death as an apparent deathbed confession but dismissed as a hoax at the time by Hillian, a view that both Lewis and Morse maintain. Morse is more interested in asking why the identity of Mary's father wasn't properly investigated by Hillian and Dawson, who was Hillian's sergeant at the time. He visits Mary's grandmother and, after analysing a picture of Mary and her mother, comes across a badge that apparently belonged to Mary's father. Morse, it appears, has one just like it.

Lewis thinks they"re close to tracking down the missing John Mitchell, who he suspects was Mary's killer. Mitchell was working as a night cleaner at an office at the time and so had access to the typewriters used for the diary extract, which Lewis suspects was sent to stop the police looking for the killer. Mitchell disappeared soon afterwards, walking out on his family. Morse tells him no and to take leave instead, a suggestion that Lewis angrily refuses. Morse also suggests Dawson should question Mrs Mitchell about the whereabouts of John, but instead of doing so, he dramatically barges into their home and accuses her of knowing John was Mary's killer, which she confesses. Nonetheless, Morse visits Redpath again, who explains John Mitchell could not have killed Mary, as he was sick in bed, like his daughter was at the time. He then visits Terrence, from whom he extracts a confession. He killed Mary when he was only a child himself, a fact that his father later discovered and hid, sending the diary extracts years later to suggest that the killer was about to die. He also killed Hillian.

Finally, Morse and Lewis arrest Dawson for the murder of John Mitchell, and in the ensuing conversations he confirms Morse's unspoken suspicions: that he was Mary's father and that he had killed John Mitchell when he had confessed to killing her, after Dawson came to the same conclusion as Lewis. What Dawson did not know was that John was only covering for his son. Believing any jail term that he would serve would be insufficient, Dawson beat him to death and buried the body. He was behind the persecution of Redpath and, feeling guilty, wanted the case reopened to clear his name.

When a young woman dies during an exam at an Oxford college, Morse and Lewis are thrust into the midst of an ecclesiastical feud.

The woman, Victoria Hazlett, had been part of a Christian, female collective called Pax that run a house to support vulnerable women and was sitting the exam on her own after having injured her arm falling off her bike.

Another member of the group, Hilary Dobson, claims that the bike was hers and that the brakes had been deliberately cut. Her room at the college was burgled too and she is adamant that the chaplaincy team at St Saviour’s, particularly Geoffrey Boyd, are to blame for the incidents. Dobson explains to Morse that she has applied for the chaplaincy post at the college, an audacious move for a woman and one that is vigorously opposed by traditional churchmen like Boyd. Neither Lewis nor Morse can track him down however.

Meanwhile, the cause of Hazlett’s death is reported to be a chemical reaction that produced a heart attack, from the painkillers she was on, the alcohol in the wine and one other substance that can’t be identified. The pharmaceutical expert drawing this conclusion, Hank Briardale, is also shown advising the owner of a weight-loss programme, Think Thin, although the connection between this and the goings on at the college is initially unclear.

One of the women served by Pax, Dinah Newberry, is terribly upset about Hazlett’s death and runs away from the house. She chaotically confronts various people, one of them a Mrs Gardam, who is keen to get Morse’s attention after several unsuccessful visits to the police station, but Morse shrugs her off.

Morse is much more interested in another member of the Pax group, Emma Pickford, who seems amenable to his romantic advances. As ever, this does not develop as Morse hopes when Lewis discovers she had been less than honest about staying with Hazlett, as she should have done, the night before she died.

With Lewis’ help, Morse eventually realises that Dinah Newberry, unbeknown to Pickford, had visited Hazlett during the night, showing her a dossier of research and diet pills stolen from Think Thin that she believed were dangerous. Newberry had previously been a champion slimmer, as had Mrs Gardam, but been unsuccessful in keeping in shape subsequently.

Her theory was not strictly accurate but tragically the outcome she feared was, as when Hazlett accidentally took the pills instead of the painkillers that night, the chemical mix caused her death the next day. As Morse and Lewis piece this all together, Newberry confronts Think Thin’s owner with a knife but is halted in her attack by Pickford, with whom Morse reconciles with as the episode ends.

The body of a local artist and restorer, Harry Field, is found dumped in woodland and despite his wife’s claim that he had left her a message just the other day, he seems to have died almost a week earlier. Morse and Lewis begin their questioning among Harry’s drink-sodden friends including Tony Doyle, a secondary school art teacher who had apparently been lending Field money.

Several of Field’s paintings seem to depict the same woman who Lewis manages to track down, but despite seeming to be his muse, is little help with the case. Lewis also suspects that Doyle and Field’s wife were having an affair, but Morse dismisses the thought that Doyle is a killer.

After Field’s bike is found at a pub a short distance from a country estate, Morse connects a latin phrase on the back of Field’s final unfinished painting with the historic family who own it. The current owner, Paul Eirl, is in the process of trying to loan some priceless artwork for display in Britain for the first time. An art expert friend of Morse’s reveals that a portrait of Giovanni Bellini by Albrecht Dürer is the real jewel of the collection.

After further conversations with Mrs Field, Morse begins to suspect that forgery, perhaps by Field, has played a part in his death, but then the prime suspect Paul Eirl is also found murdered. A recently burned out hut and a disinfected car in his garage all but confirms his guilt over Field’s murder, but his staff are uncooperative and it cannot be proved.

When Morse’s art expert actually looks through Field’s paintings in his studio, he tells Morse that one is surely not by the same artist as it is vastly superior in quality. Morse shrewdly deduces that the proud Field would only own work by another artist he genuinely loved and therefore go and see Field’s father.

Sure enough, Harry Field Senior reveals that he is the true artist of the family and confesses to forging the Dürer painting in Eirl’s secretive collection. He suggests that Eirl asked his son to restore it, but that Field must have refused on principle and been murdered by him in the ensuing struggle. Continuing the conversation down at the police station, Field Snr further confesses to killing Eirl in retaliation.

But Field’s version of events may not be the whole story, as before the episode ends, Field’s muse turns up again to tell Morse that she had been to see Eirl, on the pretence that he wanted to buy some of Field’s work, but instead paid her to sleep with him. She implies that Harry had ridden to see Eirl in a jealous rage the night he died and so the exact circumstances behind Field’s death are left ambiguous.

Morse and Lewis investigate the murder of a Greek chef from a local restaurant with not much to go on apart from a few photographs. One shows a family with a baby and another an impressive Greek ship.

Coincidentally, Morse meets an expert of ancient Greek naval architecture, Randall Rees, soon after at a university function hosted by an old friend. Rees tells of a TV programme that he had recently done, which Lewis happens to have taped, about a reconstruction of an ancient Trireme. His wife, Friday, whom Morse also meets, is a famous TV personality.

The Trireme project has direct connections to the murder as the restaurant’s owner, Basilios Vasilakis, is trying to prevent it being brought to Britain. The man behind that scheme, Morse discovers, is Digby Tuckerman, who Nicos worked for previously and seems to have emerged unscathed from a series of failed business ventures. His alibi for the evening in question seems flimsy.

Meanwhile, the couple with whom Nicos lodged, Mr and Mrs Papas, are unhelpful, even despite the efforts of a translator. Their son, Dino, seems equally evasive, giving the impression they have something to hide. Nicos’ sister, Maria Capparis, arrives from Greece for the funeral but despite caring for a newborn goes missing after giving the translator the slip when out shopping. As a result of her disappearance Dino reluctantly reveals that her baby was fathered by someone who lived in England who was already married, a secret Nicos was aware of before his untimely death.

Studying the TV programme further, Morse realises that Rees, Vasilakis and Tuckerman were all in Greece together at the same time, frequenting Nicos’ restaurant and undoubtedly therefore met Maria too. Any one of them could have fathered her child and/or have reasons to want Nicos dead.

The case takes a twist when the baby is snatched from the care of Mr and Mrs Papas and soon after Maria is found dead in the river, seemingly killed in a similar manner to her brother. Morse puts pressure on Tuckerman who reacts angrily and storms off to confront Vasilakis who cooly disarms him and has him arrested.

Reflecting on the TV programme once more, Morse finally connects the seemingly perfect but childless marriage of Randall and Friday Rees with the missing baby and turns up unannounced at their house. Sure enough, Friday is holding the baby and confirms Morse’s latest theory by explaining that Randall fathered the child with Maria and that he killed both her and Nicos. But in a dramatic finale, Randall, Lewis and the translator all turn up and correct the story, revealing that it was Friday who committed the murders and took the baby, fuelled by her jealousy and desperation of not having a child of her own. As everyone closes in Friday panics and accidentally falls over the bannister to her death while Lewis catches the baby from her arms.

As the episode concludes, Morse gloomily reflects by quoting Virgil, the baby presumably the Greek ‘gift’ that innocently brought tragedy to everyone involved.^{[nb 1]}

Morse and Lewis take a trip to Australia to follow up a supergrass after a man he helped convict, Peter Matthews, dies in prison and a public inquiry is launched. Morse believes the witness, Kenny Stone, held something back from his confession and needs to firm up the evidence to stop members of an Oxford gang being released.

When they reach New South Wales however Stone, now named Mike Harding, is missing. His mother-in-law’s room at her care home has been ransacked and Lewis soon realises the Oxford mobsters are after Harding too, locating his whereabouts through her subscription to a local Oxford newspaper.

While initially trying to hide their true identities from the local police, Morse and Lewis make little progress in tracking him down. They are pretty sure Harding’s wife, Anne, is lying to cover for her husband but it’s not until her daughter, Karen, is kidnapped and her mother dies from the shock of the earlier attack that she goes to the police herself. Morse and Lewis explain who they are and are cast to one side as a result.

However Harding’s son, who Morse had visited previously, comes back to him with an idea of where he might be. They trace him down to a caravan, but when they arrive Harding is already dead. Anne then admits that the evidence Harding originally gave was false and that Peter Matthews was innocent after all. Harding killed himself perhaps because he thought he would be found out, or maybe because of his knowledge of the affair Anne was having with the local policeman, Scott Humphries.

Karen’s kidnapper makes contact again, demanding to see Harding. Morse tells him he will bring him and sets up a meeting. Morse, weighed by the guilt of helping to convict an innocent man and the two deaths that have followed, attends the meeting unarmed, attempting to save Karen by sacrificing himself and perhaps making amends.

By this time they have worked out that the kidnapper is Peter’s younger brother, Paul, and despite Morse’s attempts to reason with him he ends up shooting Humphries and is then killed by a marksman himself. As the episode winds down, Anne agrees to return to England to set the record straight and a dispirited Morse then traipses up the steps of the Sydney opera house.

The bank robbery referred to in this episode is depicted in the Endeavour episode, ‘Coda’.

Morse comes face to face with Susan Fallon, a woman to whom he was once engaged when her husband is found shot dead at his home.

The dead man, Henry Fallon, suffered from a degenerative illness and the assumption, confirmed at the inquest, is that he committed suicide. It is only when his doctor, John Marriat, returns from holiday to inform Morse that he would have been incapable of pulling the trigger given his condition that suspicions turn to Fallon’s son-in-law, Peter Rhodes.

Rhodes claims to have arrived at the house at 6pm and found Fallon's body, immediately alerting the police, but this was only minutes after Fallon’s nurse had left after having waved goodbye to Fallon through the window. He also claims that Fallon had called him at 3pm the same day to arrange the meeting but according to the nurse the phoneline had been out all day and only reconnected just after 5pm. Since his story doesn’t stack up, Morse charges Rhodes with murder.

Morse however cannot navigate the case objectively as he attempts to rekindle a relationship with Susan Fallon, who is tentative but amenable and encouraged into it by her brother, William Bryce-Morgan.

Meanwhile the doctor’s wife, Helen Marriat, reaches out to Morse and tries to persuade him of Rhodes’ innocence but offers no evidence. As Rhodes, in custody, continues to protest Lewis begins to believe him. The detectives realise that someone could have slipped out of the house before Rhodes found the body.

Morse turns his attention to the deaths of Rhodes’ wife and child, the Fallons’ daughter and grandson, some years before. Injuries to Helen Marriat’s hand lead Morse to suspect she was involved somehow and after he provokes her about her guilt, she confesses that this is indeed the case. She had been having an affair with Rhodes and taunted Henrietta about it, causing her to catch them together, which led to the accident in which she and her son died, after Rhodes grabbed the wheel when Henrietta was driving them home.

Since John Marriat knew of this Morse suspects he told Henry Fallon who then planned to use his suicide as a way of setting up Rhodes and getting revenge on him for their deaths. Morse still can’t see it straight though and jumps to the conclusion that Marriat, an advocate of euthanasia, assisted Fallon in killing himself, firing the fatal shot with his consent. After getting permission from Strange to investigate the possibility Susan was involved, which has not occurred to Morse, Lewis has a more plausible theory. Having visited the Fallons’ London flat where Susan supposedly was at the time of his death, he takes possession of an answerphone message of Henry pretending to speak to Susan, a call that she had previously claimed to have received in order to give her an alibi.

Her involvement is confirmed by her tragic decision to take her own life. Marriat, despite being a euthanasia advocate, tries to persuade her not to but she insists that she must keep her promise to her husband, essentially a suicide pact, and stop Morse finding the truth. Morse is heartbroken over Susan once again and remains convinced Marriat was involved but is unable to get a confession from him. Out of kindness to him Lewis throws away the answerphone tape that incriminates her, allowing Morse to continue to believe she had nothing to do with her husband’s death.

Morse and Lewis investigate one of the country’s richest and most powerful families after a leading industrialist is discovered murdered in his palatial home.

The deceased is Sir John Balcombe and neither his wife, Lady Emily, nor his sons, Harry and James, seem particularly devastated by his death. As the sons bicker in an infantile manner and Lady Emily breezes about aloofly, the murder weapon, a stone mason’s hammer, is found. The only other clue is a pen, originating from Montreal, that was in Sir John’s hand.

Back at the station Morse has to answer to Superintendent Holdsby, covering for Strange who is on leave. Very keen to enhance his reputation, Holdsby courts the press and it isn’t long before one tabloid makes Morse the story, much to his annoyance.

Morse and Lewis speak to those connected to the family including two friends of Lady Emily. Margaret Cliff stays on the estate a few weeks a year and has care of a troubled teenager called Jessica. Alfred Rydale is Lady Emily’s personal lawyer and initially misleads them into thinking the Balcombes were planning to take their company public, which set the brothers at odds with each other.

Morse’s Oxford connections and Lewis’ diligent police work establish a slightly different story which involves underhand dealings by James that have led to his removal from his role in the company. When Harry is found dead soon after, suspicions for both murders fall on James. However, when Morse surprises him with the detail of the initials ‘SF’ on a knife that was stuck into Harry, he becomes extremely agitated and Morse begins to suspect there might be another story that has yet to be revealed.

James is then killed too and despite Morse making some progress by finding a body buried in the same location Holdsby loses his nerve and takes him off the case.

An aggrieved Morse then attends the police fete and casually picks up a book which happens to be written by Margaret Cliff. When he reads that she studied for her doctorate in Montreal he suddenly realises her connection to the killings. The buried man was her brother, Stephen Ford, who had gone missing twenty years ago when working for the Balcombes. She had discovered, from Lady Emily, that he had been her lover and that the Balcombe men had killed him as a result. Margaret therefore enacted revenge by killing the three of them in turn.

She had needed Lady Emily’s help, however, and so lied to make her believe that Jessica was her daughter, by Stephen, who had in fact died in infancy - a reality Lady Emily never fully accepted. This deception has tragic consequences however, as Lady Emily can’t keep this secret from Jessica. When she reveals it to her, Jessica immediately stabs her to death, completing the demise of the entire Balcombe family.

Morse and Lewis investigate the apparently accidental death of a wealthy tourist in Italy and uncover an antiquities' smuggling racket.

Lawrence Cryer, convicted of real estate fraud, is found dead in a cell at a minimum security prison, Farnleigh. Morse, Lewis and D.S. Cheetham question various inmates, including Cryer's former partners, Bailey and Thornton, who are also incarcerated at Farnleigh and various victims of the fraud. The Farnleigh governor, Hillary Stevens, is also questioned. An inmate, Charlie Bennett, incarcerated for murdering his wife, is suspected of being the perpetrator.

Teen suicides, one of which is Morse's niece, are being linked to the local rave scene. As part of his preparation for the inspector exam, Lewis is temporarily assigned to another inspector who works strictly by the book.

Matthew Brewster, owner of a private clinic, is found dead in his garage with the car engine running. The pathologist discovers that he was murdered. Morse and Lewis question the dead man's wife and son. They uncover that Michael Steppings threatened the victim; Steppings' daughter was declared brain dead after undergoing simple surgery at the clinic. Steppings is interrogated for the murder and is released when Morse substantiates his alibi. Meanwhile, Lewis discovers that Wendy Hazlitt, a nurse at the clinic, had an affair with Matthew Brewster. He also uncovers a set of anonymous threatening letters, using words clipped from newspapers and magazines, which have been sent to the victim. Forensic examinations reveal that one of the letters has been tampered with, and that an extra death threat has been added, using different glue. Morse's investigation leads to the victim's son, and his belief that the son was blackmailing the victim. Morse accompanies Steppings to visit his comatose daughter in hospital, where she is on life support. Morse begins to like Steppings on learning from observation and staff that Steppings devotedly visits her daily, while Steppings is moved when Morse brings her flowers; however, Lewis discovers that Steppings' accusations of medical incompetence against the Brewsters were correct: Mrs Brewster's developing illness made her take time off to rest or visit hospital, and the Brewsters let the not fully qualified Hazlitt act as anaesthetist. Hazlitt was acting in place of Mrs Brewster, who was in hospital on the day of Steppings' daughter's operation. Hazlitt administered the incorrect anaesthetic dose, leading to the daughter's brain damage; however, Dr Brewster spurned Hazlitt's advances, and so Hazlitt decided on revenge: she contrived contact with Steppings and confessed how his daughter's operation was mishandled, hence the earlier unexplained break-in at the clinic, which was Steppings checking the files to verify the dates of Dr Brewster's absences against ops. Hazlitt and Steppings drew up a plan to murder Dr (Mr) Brewster, which involved blackmailing the son, requiring Steppings to forge threatening letters and the son to reveal them to Morse. Meanwhile, Dr (Mrs) Brewster dies after suffering trauma from being told her son has confessed to the murder and been arrested. After Morse realises and proves the son is lying to cover up for the murderer, the son then murders Steppings before Steppings can flee the country. Steppings writes to Morse, confessing, and saying his ex-wife will look after their daughter, which she does by having the life support switched off.

John Peter Barrie, a convicted rapist and devil worshipper, escapes from a prison infirmary by eluding the authorities with several disguises. Morse and Lewis begin a manhunt in an attempt to track him down. They question his prison therapist, Dr Esther Martin, and Humphrey Appleton, a priest and an expert in the occult, who provides them with information on Barrie's state of mind. Meanwhile, Barrie abducts Holly Trevors, wife of Steven Trevors, an odd-job man working for Oxford college, but releases her. Barrie then demands to meet with Dr Martin on Lammas day, a pagan day of ritual fire. Lewis visits an Occult bookshop, where he finds that one of their regular customers is a colleague of Steven Trevors. Morse begins to suspect that someone is helping Barrie, after witness statements reveal that his disguises involve professional theatrical make-up. Meanwhile, Steven Trevors's fingerprints are discovered, previously unidentified, on the police database from an earlier unsolved crime, which is linked to Barrie. On Lammas Day, a group of devil-worshippers are celebrating a Black Mass, when they are suddenly surrounded by a ring of fire, and Steven Trevors is burned alive. The mystery deepens when Barrie's much earlier connection to his prison therapist is revealed.

Neville Grimshaw, an investigative journalist, is found shot dead. Opera diva Gwladys Probert is shot by a sniper during an academic procession, which is witnessed by Morse and Lewis. Morse and Lewis discover that Grimshaw was investigating Andrew Baydon, a prospective major benefactor of the college. An investigation finds that the two shootings are related. Baydon, a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp, is revealed as a collaborator and guard, and Morse suspects that he ordered the killing of Grimshaw, which leads him to realise that Victor Ignotas, a survivor of the same camp, may have unintentionally shot Probert whilst attempting to kill Baydon.

Stephen Parnell, who confessed to murdering five people was due to stand trial, is killed in prison, but, in his dying declaration, he claims that he did not kill the last victim, Karen Anderson. Morse learns that the murders were first investigated by DCI Martin Johnson and Lewis the previous summer, but that Karen Anderson's body has never been found. Morse becomes convinced that Johnson overlooked key evidence, and that Karen Anderson's body has been buried in Wytham Woods, and not in Blenheim Lake, as Parnell had stated in his confession. Morse questions George Daley, a witness who found Anderson's overnight bag a week after she disappeared, and turned it over to the police. A confrontation breaks out between CS Strange, Morse and Johnson about the disappearance of Karen Anderson and the fatal stabbing of Stephen Parnell in prison. The next day, Daley is found shot to death in one of the gardens at Blenheim Palace, and Morse is put in charge, because Strange feels as though Johnson may have cut corners in the investigation. Morse and Lewis then interview Dr Alan Hardinge, the bursar of Lonsdale College; Dave Michaels, the groundskeeper of Wytham Woods; and Margaret and Philip Daley, the wife and son of George Daley. When they question Mrs Daley and her son, they touch upon some photos found on Karen Anderson's camera. Lewis identifies the location in one of the photos as Park Town, which leads them to Alisdair McBryde, a local resident. McBryde identifies Dr James Myton, a South African doctor, who seems to have fled the country mid-way through his rental of a local flat and appears in two of the photos. Morse and Lewis discover that McBryde and Myton had encouraged Karen Anderson to pose for nude photographs for them on the day before she went missing. A search of Myton's flat leads Morse to convince Strange to let him search Wytham Woods. When the search turns up some skeletal remains, Morse is convinced that Karen Anderson has been found.

Dr Felix McClure, a retired university don, is found stabbed to death in his apartment. The phone number of "K" is found in McClure's notes. Morse and Lewis begin investigating McClure's college associates and students. These include Ted Brooks, his former scout, who was sacked by McClure for apparent drug dealing; Matthew Rodway, a student who died in questionable circumstances; and Ashley Davies, another student and friend of Rodway, who trains racehorses at Seven Barrows near Lambourn, and was rusticated by McClure. They discover that Ted Brooks has physically and emotionally abused his wife, Brenda, for years. Brenda's daughter, Kay, who is a high-class escort and is engaged to Ashley, had also been abused by her stepfather, Ted, when she lived at home. Morse interviews Kay about her relationship with Felix and Ted. Morse also questions Julia Stevens, a school teacher and very close friend of Brenda, who is dying of a brain tumour. Morse suspects Ted Brooks killed McClure, because McClure had discovered Ted was selling drugs to the students again. Ted disappears from his house, and his body is found in a nearby river. Brenda Brooks confesses to destroying evidence that incriminates her husband in the death of McClure. Morse and Lewis disagree on whether to search for a possible accomplice, who they suspect must have helped Brenda dispose of the evidence. Morse is convinced that Kay, Julia and Brenda were involved in Ted's disappearance and murder; there's just one hitch – no evidence to prove his theory.

Rachel James, a physiotherapist, is shot through a window of her own home while drawing the blinds one Friday morning. Meanwhile, Dr Julian Storrs and Denis Cornford are two candidates locked in an intense rivalry for Master of Lonsdale College, to replace Sir Clixby Bream who is about to retire. Morse and Lewis begin the investigation by interviewing her neighbours and the clinic where she worked. Morse soon establishes that Julian Storrs gave Rachel a Valentine's card found in her possession, and was having an affair with her at the time of her death. Morse also learns from Storrs that Denis Cornford and Adele Cecil, a neighbour of Rachel, were once lovers. Julian and Angela Storrs travel to Bath for an overnight stay at the hotel. The following morning, Geoffrey Owens, Rachel's neighbour, is found shot dead in his house in similar circumstances. Because there is no Number 13, Morse concludes that Rachel James is mistakenly killed and Geoffrey Owens had been the intended victim. Morse also uncovers that Owens supplemented his reporter's income by blackmailing unknown victims. Among Owens' papers, Morse finds a slip of paper in a file with an article he had written about the retirement of Bream. Morse's trawl through the archives leads him onto a case where housewife Alice Martin and her daughter Debra shot Alice's husband Kenneth, a wealthy businessman, and then burned him on his yacht, because he was going to run off with a younger woman. Lewis had to leave work in the middle of an investigation to find out his son's disruptive behaviour with his classmates at school. Morse finds out that Alice and Debra changed their names to Angela and Diane Cullingham, to avoid the stain of their past following them – and that Angela Cullingham has since become Angela Storrs. Morse and Lewis meet Sir Clixby Bream to talk about the upcoming banquet at Lonsdale College. Following the death of Denis Cornford's wife Shelly after an angry altercation, Denis Cornford became the first candidate to withdraw from the role of Master of Lonsdale College. The same night, Morse meets his long-suffering girlfriend Adele Cecil to discuss the previous day's events about the deaths of Rachel James, Geoffrey Owens and Shelly Cornford. The next day while Julian and Angela are having breakfast at the hotel, Morse and Lewis travel to Bath to interview the hotel staff and later they meet Julian and Angela Storrs to talk about the couple's stay at the hotel. A small confrontation breaks out between the Storrs couple, Angela Storrs is arrested by Lewis for the murders of Rachel James and Geoffrey Owens. Back at Lonsdale College, Morse and Lewis had informed to Sir Clixby Bream that both candidates Denis Cornford and Julian Storrs had withdrawn their roles as Master of Lonsdale College as Sir Clixby Bream soldiers on unless he steps down from his position for good. Morse and Lewis meet Adele Cecil at the pub for the first time and they discussed the anagram 'AROUND EVE' and the answer is 'ENDEAVOUR'. In the end, Morse and Adele Cecil arrive at Bath for an overnight stay at the hotel.

• Note: This episode features guest actor from Inspector Morse spin-offs. Roger Allam of Endeavour as Denis Cornford.

Morse and Strange attend an exhibit entitled "Criminal Oxford". During a lecture by Dr Millicent Van Buren, a visiting professor from Boston University, Morse starts to feel ill, and is later found by Strange collapsed on the lavatory floor. While hospitalised, Morse is diagnosed with a bleeding ulcer, which his doctor ascribes to his excessive consumption of alcohol. To pass the time in his recovery, he reads Van Buren's book on Victorian investigation techniques, which details the 1859 murder of Joanna Franks, whose body was found floating in the Oxford Canal. Rory Oldfield and Alfred Musson, two boatmen on a fly-boat on which Joanna was travelling, were convicted of the murder and hanged. Another, Walter Towns, received a last-minute commutation to transportation for life. However, Morse comes to believe that the men did not kill Joanna, and were victims of a miscarriage of justice. While Lewis is away on an inspector's course and with the assistance of Adele Cecil and Constable Adrian Kershaw who is on temporary secondment, Morse uncovers several inconsistencies in the trial. For instance, Joanna had accused the boatmen of being rude and drunk, but was later seen drinking and smiling with them. A fourth boatman on the fly-boat, a teenager who was not charged, testified for the prosecution. Consulting Dr Hobson, Morse discovers that Joanna's shoes were not appropriate for walking outdoors and would not have fit a woman of the height indicated by the length of her dress, which had been altered, and the coroner's report. Her drawers, which had been described as torn or ripped, were actually cut with a knife deliberately. Kershaw investigates the insurance payment to Joanna's husband Charles Franks and discovers that she had insured herself, and that payment of £300 was made in full to Charles. Morse figures that Donald "Don" Favant, a passer-by when the body was found, and Charles Franks, are aliases derived from Frank Donavan, Joanna's first husband who was a magician and was believed to have died. Don Favant is an anagram of F. T. Donavan. Although Morse is unable to exhume Joanna's body, he travels to Bertraghboy Bay, on the west coast of Ireland, to open the grave of Frank Donavan. When the coffin is opened, there are no human remains. In the end after a final check-up with the doctor, Morse is finally discharged from an outpatients surgery.

• Notes: Colin Dexter, the author of the Inspector Morse novels, wrote this story based on the actual true crime case surrounding the death of Christina Collins which occurred in June 1839.^[2] This is the only episode not to feature Kevin Whately as DS Robbie Lewis.

Yvonne Harrison is murdered in her bed and found by her husband, Frank, her body having been left in a sexually compromising position. Morse, after no progress, is taken off the case after two months, and it remains unsolved. A year later, an anonymous letter sent to the police suggests Harry Repp, who is to be released from prison, may be the perpetrator. Back from sick leave, Morse's failing health has Lewis assuming a more active role. While Morse has a doctor's appointment with Sandra, Lewis meets Debbie Repp to talk about her husband's release from prison. Paddy Flynn, the cab driver who drove Frank Harrison to his home on the night of the murder, is found dead in a local rubbish dump. Harry Repp is also found dead, in the boot of a stolen car. A local lothario, John Barron, is killed in a fall from a ladder. It is speculated that the three men had been blackmailing whoever killed Yvonne, and that Barron killed the other two so that he could keep the blackmail money for himself. Yvonne's son, Simon, is questioned in Barron's death, but then a teenage boy admits to having caused Barron to fall off the ladder by crashing into it with his bicycle. The police deduce that the Harrison family conspired after Yvonne's murder to stop the blackmailing. The teenage boy is actually Frank's illegitimate son, Roy, who lied to the police in order to get Simon off the hook for killing Barron. Morse, Lewis and their three widows attend a series of funerals. Yvonne's daughter, Sandra Harrison, a doctor who had seen Morse a few days earlier, had killed her mother in a jealous rage over John Barron, who'd seen her arrive last at Yvonne's home. Just after uncovering the truth, Morse collapses from a heart attack at Exeter College and later dies in hospital.^[4] Lewis gets a phone call at the airport in Heathrow, where he has gone to intercept Sandra, who is attempting to flee to Canada. Then, as Lewis takes Sandra into custody near Heathrow Airport, she tries to explain her motivations, but he rebuffs her; she tells him Morse will understand, and he shouts, "Inspector Morse is dead!". Wagner's Parsifal accompanies the final scene and in the end after CS Strange had retired, Lewis bade an emotional farewell to Morse as he is resting with his eyes closed on the mortuary bench and left for the final time. The episode ends with a foggy scene around Oxford.