Crime drama Endeavour is back for a third season.
Evans (The Last Weekend) returns as the young Detective Constable Endeavour Morse in four new 120-minute films, but which familiar faces are set to return after the shocking and tragic events at the end of Season 2?
> Buy the complete Season 1-2 box set on Amazon.
Falsely accused Endeavour Morse was last seen isolated and alone languishing in prison, framed for the murder of Chief Constable Rupert Standish. Endeavour had unearthed corruption at the very heart of the City Force but his investigation had taken a sinister twist.
What of Endeavour’s senior officer, DI Fred Thursday (Roger Allam), whose life was hanging in the balance after being shot in the chest?
> Order Season 3 on DVD on Amazon.
Episode 1: ‘Ride’
Sunday 3 January 2016, 8pm
March 1967. A funfair on the Cowley Green turns sinister when a young bus conductress, Jeannie Hearne, is spirited away into the night, seemingly without explanation. When her body is found the next morning in the thickets of the Oxfordshire countryside, brutalised and abandoned, the case is brought to the attention of the Oxford City Police.
DC Endeavour Morse isn’t among their number. Instead, suspended from duty pending an enquiry, he languishes in self‐pity, bridling with anger over the findings of the Blenheim Vale case.
Based outside of Oxford’s dreaming spires, he commingles with old college acquaintances ‐ chief among them the brutish Bruce Belborough and his mysterious wife Kay, with whom Endeavour forms an instant connection.
But when Jeannie’s body tips up on their doorstep, the unexplained details prove too pressing to ignore, and Endeavour begins a covert investigation of his own.
All roads appear to lead to mysterious playboy Joss Bixby ‐ an enigma who masks deeper troubles with a cocksure persona and lavish, liquor‐soaked parties to match.
As other strands of the investigation begin to crystallise into focus, Endeavour must grapple with the shocking ramifications of a disturbing secret, hidden in plain sight.
Episode 2: ‘Arcadia’
Sunday 10 January 2016, 8pm
April 1967. As spring blooms, the death of artist Simon Hallward in a horrendous house‐fire leaves Oxford City Police baffled as to the cause of the blaze.
When a young housewife dies, seemingly of the same mysterious ‘tummy bug’ that has seen half of Chief Superintendent Bright’s troops go on Sick Leave, Endeavour’s investigation leads him to an inner‐city supermarket, Richardson’s, owned by a wealthy family of the same name, descended from a line of Quakers.
Riven with historical rivalries between ownership and management, it becomes clear that there’s more to the establishment than initially meets the eye. Guided under the dubious stewardship of owner Leo Richardson, his personal life is as troubled as his professional one ‐ with daughter Verity and wife Annette each nursing hidden dissatisfactions of their own.
As Endeavour unravels the clues, a dark design snaps into horrible focus, and concealed hypocrisies are suddenly brought to light. One of the Oxford City Police faces an unexpected crossroads. And when a surprising tragedy befalls the Richardson family, Endeavour must risk all in a breathless race across Oxford, and against time, to find those responsible for the killings.
Episode 3: ‘Prey’
Sunday 17 January 2016, 8pm
Early June 1967. A missing persons case -‐ that of Dutch au pair Ingrid Hjort – proves far from routine, pulling Endeavour into the dueling worlds of Oxford scientific academia, the city’s vast parks, Night School and the untamed wilderness of the Oxfordshire countryside. Therein: the august Mortmaigne family estate of Crevecouer and a splintered family unit of three siblings, each afflicted with their own personal demons but united through a mutual sense of loss, hinting at deeper wounds tied to the investigation.
When a suspected link between Ingrid’s disappearance and a similar cold case from some years ago is unearthed, unconventional methods in the investigation threaten to cross the boundaries of police professionalism. Fraying tensions across the force lead to some surprising friction amongst Oxford’s Finest, complicating matters.
As the body count rises, and a nighttime riverside lark – about between teenagers ends in seeming horror, Endeavour deduces that there may be darker forces at play, manipulating events from afar.
So it is that Oxford’s Finest are drawn into a tangled skein of lies and deceit which will imperil them all…
Episode 4: ‘Coda’
Sunday 24 January 2016, 8pm
Mid June. 1967. Endeavour finds himself occupied with unexpected strife in his personal life ‐ recruited by an old college mentor, Felix Lorimer, into investigating matters more suited to private eyes. Asked to monitor the movements of Lorimer’s estranged younger wife Nina, a natural spark between two vulnerable souls is struck.
With change in the air, and a shakeup in Oxford’s criminal underworld signalling an uncertain future, the young detective is set on a path that will ultimately lead to heartbreak.
The grisly murder of Cedric Clissold, a middle‐manager with a line in fashion, shot twice in the chest, proves another jolt in the proceedings.
When a notorious Oxford crime family, headed by violent chieftains Frank and Cole Matthews, is put in the frame for a possible role in Clissold’s death, Endeavour’s fierce intellect suspects there is a more complex answer yet to come. And, as he considers his future on the force, Season 3 builds to its agonising conclusion…
> Buy the complete Season 1-2 box set on Amazon.
> Order Season 3 on DVD on Amazon.
Watch the Season 3 trailer…
Are you looking forward to Season 3? Let us know below…