Morse, we'll miss you!
Through Morse, Oxford has become the murder capital of the country. The eighty deaths on film have included a girl jumping off the chapel organ in Univ, a woman committing suicide in Jericho and an elderly's lady death in room 310 of the Randolph.
Yet Morse's Oxford of pubs, quaint old colleges, pubs, the Radcliffe Infirmary pubs, the Randolph, and more pubs have become as well loved as the detective himself. Indeed, the distinctly archaic setting is as much a part of the success of the books and TV episodes as is Dexter's arrogant, heavily drinking bachelor. But alas, Morse's days are sadly numbered. Having already died in print, he is soon to meet his maker on our screens, and with his demise will disappear those familiar glimpses of Morse's Oxford.
So before Morse disappears completely, we take a stroll around his Oxford. Confusingly enough, the fictional places are usually intermingled with fictional ones. We will often find Morse tucked away in a corner of The Kings Arms, or sponging a drink off Lewis in The Turf but we'll more likely find them both in The Bird and Baby, a pub which bare more than a passing resemblance to The Eagle and Child. Brasenose is often featured on the TV episodes (perhaps due to TV crews using any excuse to show the Rad Cam or Bod) but it is shown under the pseudonym of Lonsdale College. Artistic license also leads parts of different colleges being filmed as one.
Similarly, Dexter throws other real-life details into his books, such as Morse researching ties in The Bear, in which the walls are covered by an array of ties. Also if you venture into the Pitt Rivers museum you can see the knife which Dexter's character Kevin Costyn steals to later be used as a murder weapon in The Daughters of Cain.
Oxford clearly makes the perfect setting for the novels, with its Town and Gown and multitude of pubs. The concept could not really work in any other city and it's a fitting characterisation that Morse, who failed his finals at St John's should then go on to investigate crimes, many of which strongly centre on the corrupt private lives of college dons. For Dexter, a Cambridge graduate, writing the character of Morse must have come as second nature, and living in Oxford was further inspiration if he needed it. Morse may soon have investigated his last murder in Oxford but his spirit will live on in our imaginations.
19th Oct 2000