Tag Archives: Arcadia

The Endeavour Archives: NEVERLAND also previewing CODA

1 Reply

Funny. It’ll be twenty-eight years tomorrow since I joined the job. Twenty-eight years to the day – excepting the war, of course. All this with the merger put me out of sorts. Got me thinking less ahead than behind. I forgot for a minute it’s not about me. It’s about them that turn to us for help in time of need. Weak, defenceless. Old, young. Especially the young… I was born a copper. And I’ll die one, I expect. – THURSDAY

THE ENDEAVOUR ARCHIVES: E14KM

Russell Lewis

An exclusive interview

by Damian Michael Barcroft

With thanks to PC Banks

Bloody place. It turns me guts. Bleach, sweat, boiled cabbage… and everything on tick. Never Never Land. – JAKES

Part IV:

NEVERLAND

Second star to the right and straight on ‘till Blenheim Vale

Do not forsake me oh my Pagan

Presenting the final look back at series two and a preview of tonight’s last film of what, I’m sure you’ll agree, has been a remarkable series three…

DAMIAN: Is it fair to say that there were some who were rather displeased that you ended series two on a cliff-hanger?

RUSS: Mmm. Some. But outside of whether Thursday would live or die – there were far fewer chads left hanging than people seem to think. Most, if not all, of the answers are there.

DAMIAN: You wouldn’t do that to us again tonight Russ, WOULD YOU?

RUSS: Never say never. You wouldn’t expect me to tell you in advance, WOULD YOU?

DAMIAN: I think it was Great Expectations in which it was said, ask no questions, and you’ll be told no lies. So, let us fly to safer ground then, NEVERLAND. In retrospect, do you find it particularly pleasing that Jack Laskey (Peter Jakes) had his moment in the limelight in this film?

RUSS: Yes, absolutely.

DAMIAN: At what point did you come up with Little Pete’s heartbreaking backstory concerning his childhood and the awful, terrible things at Blenheim Vale – was this always part of his backstory or created especially for NEVERLAND?

RUSS: I always knew some part of Jakes was whistling past the graveyard. Again – I find it difficult to chicken/egg the process at such a distance. It’s possible it grew from the central notion of Peter Pan. That – JM Barrie — was hard-wired into the story to a much greater degree until fairly late in proceedings.

Initially, the entire story was set around Christmas – Thursday emerging from Burridges, his arms laden with presents as the snow came down. Phil Spector’s Christmas album blasting out of every radio. Endeavour and Monica went to a pantomime of Peter Pan at The New, with her niece and nephew. For a moment, you glimpsed one possible future for Endeavour – that of a happy family man. Endeavour went round and met her Mum and Dad and brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts at a Christmas party. Benny & Clyde were part of Captain Hook’s crew – there might even have been some version of Smee. I’ve got a feeling there was a Thursday family Christmas lunch. And Endeavour alone for the festive. But it’s so long ago that my memory may be shaky.

Alas – Christmas was torpedoed amidships at the very last minute – and all the antique decorations went back to the suppliers unopened. Which was a pity – visually.

But Peter… yes, there was something fun in the notion of two Peters, if not the Two Jakes. Big Pete and Little Pete.

DAMIAN: Would you have written his character any differently in series two had you known in advance that Jack was leaving us?

RUSS: I don’t think so. Not particularly. It’s always the stories that lead with ENDEAVOUR – and telling those, from TROVE through to NEVERLAND, takes up so much screentime that any space I can find for character material is at a premium. Certainly in SERIES II – I had a large company of regular characters – approaching a dozen, I think — to serve. So…

DAMIAN: Benny and Clyde! You’ve added to a wonderful legacy of screen ventriloquist dummies (my personal favourites: Hugo from Dead of Night and Fats from Magic), there really is something so sinister and yet endlessly fascinating about them isn’t there?

RUSS: It’s also a tremendous way to cut down the cost of the cast. Two characters for the price of one actor! I’d seen Oli Lansley in Tim Whitnall’s fantastic Kenny Everett biopic – which was also made by Mammoth – and thought he was simply terrific. I’d no idea he was going to actually try to perform both parts in the moment, as it were. I’d thought we’d drop Clyde’s dialogue in later. But there you are.

DAMIAN: Do you think Nurse Monica “with the moped” Hicks (Shvorne Marks) has been rather ill-used in series three?

RUSS: Neither the character nor her story is played out – in my mind at least. It ain’t over until… &c.

DAMIAN: Endeavour talks to Monica about leaving the police, packing it all in, going abroad and teaching. Would he have made a good teacher do you think?

RUSS: I think he’d have been a fantastic teacher.

DAMIAN: In our very first interview, you mentioned “a decent, encouraging English teacher”. Who was he or she and did they ever learn of your accomplishments as a writer?

RUSS: There were two – a Mister Harris, (David – it might have been. School teachers actually having forenames wasn’t something you even considered a possibility as a kid.) who – legend had it — had some part in the jet engine design for Concorde; he took my youthful scribblings seriously; gave me voluminous notes, and introduced me to writers like Stendahl, and, also, the Hard Boiled school; and, then — Richard Burrows who was my English teacher across during the ‘O’ Level years for Lang & Lit. He was (and is) just a wonderful man – and we became friends after school was done. He’d been in OUDS, and, extraordinarily, I did a show with him at the Edinburgh Fringe in the early 80s – and then, some years later, acted as his Stage Manager // Tour Roadie // Sound and Light Guy on a tour he did of a one man show about John Bunyan. He wrote a very good screenplay version of that as well. He relocated to Sussex, and became a classics master. I haven’t seen him in too long. A lovely, kind, wise, encouraging soul – without whom…

DAMIAN: What advice and, indeed encouragement, would you yourself give to those dreaming of becoming a writer?

RUSS: ‘I can’t lie to you about your chances, but you have my sympathy.’

There’s not really the space available to discuss this properly. And anything I’d have to say would be telecentric. But – briefly, and for what it’s worth…

All I’d ask is — do you want to write, or do you want to be a writer? If it’s the former – then nobody’s stopping you. If it’s the latter, then these aren’t the droids you’re looking for. Don’t dream – DO! Write. Even if whatever other demands you have on your time mean it’s just a line a day. Watch as many films and as much television as you can find time for. See plays. Listen to drama on the wireless. Soak it all up. The good, the bad, and the ugly. If you have an instinct for it, you will take something from everything you see — just by osmosis. Read as many screenplays, plays and teleplays as you can. See how other people have done it. Build your knowledge shot by shot, line by line, scene by scene, beat by beat. Watch the classics. Talk to people who do it for a living, if you know any. Write to those whose work you like or admire, and ask for advice. If they’re decent – and most are – you’ll get a reply.

Do not waste your time and money on any ‘YOU TOO CAN HAVE A SCRIPT LIKE MINE’ courses. Avoid books of screenwriting theory – particularly those with diagrams – they will fill your head with meaningless garbage. Likewise – don’t buy script coverage services. Might as well shout down a well for all the good it’s going to do you. Nobody can tell you how to do it. You have to work it out for yourself.

Send your original material and spec scripts of existing shows to agents, and the companies that are buying. Assess the marketplace. Find the shows with high turnover and output. Study them. Learn the house style. If you don’t have representation, pick up the phone and call the script department/editors of the show you want to write for. Talk to a real live human being. If you can beg for five minutes face to face over a cup of tea all the better. Either way, find out who is looking to expand their roster of contributing writers. Send your material. You won’t be the right fit for everything. Rejection and knockbacks build character – and characters. Don’t expect it to happen overnight. It isn’t the X Factor. Kiss the frogs, build a fortress around your heart, and if you’re fortunate enough to land a paying gig — stay limber.

DAMIAN: What exactly does an executive, as opposed to a “regular” producer do, or at least, what do you do as an executive producer on Endeavour?

RUSS: We mimsy around, getting on everyone’s nerves, and generally being unhelpful to the people who actually get it made. On Series three that would be Producer Tom Mullens and Line Producer – the unsinkable Helga Dowie, who has a long and distinguished track record, and has been with us since the pilot. Essentially, Executive Producers are like General Melchett – safe behind the lines, giving stupid orders to the heroes in the trenches.

A lot of it’s about imparting tone – conveying the overall vision for the series – picking up on the things that are out of whack, or don’t chime happily. Protecting the soul of the show, if you will. Keeping an eye on the details. Saying whether we like the colour the Police Station has been painted, or want it changed. Advising on casting. Watching rushes. Monitoring performances. Giving notes on successive edits. Being there for sundry mixes. Tweaking. Buffing. Polishing. Irritating…

You act as a final arbiter on certain creative choices. But usually – the producer has put all the right HoDs in place, and is managing them brilliantly. You know – we have fantastically talented people working on the thing who know far more about their particular area of expertise than we do. Unless it’s something one feels strongly about – the best thing you can do is get out of the way, and let people get on and do their work.

DAMIAN: We must mention the eminent Anton Lesser. Is Bright softening in his old age?

RUSS: There was a two-handed scene between Thursday and Bright out in the woods that we shot for RIDE – in which they discussed matters arising from Blenheim Vale, and Bright’s part in that. Sadly, we lost it – partly for length, and partly because due to failing light we’d only managed to get it as a wide two-shot – but that dealt with where Bright is.

Disappointing – as it contained one of my favourite Bright speeches ever. A proper window onto his soul. We simply couldn’t use it. Which is always frustrating. There’s another Bright scene in tonight’s FILM that we couldn’t do – material that we had to cut as we couldn’t get the right location… But Anton’s as cool as a cucumber approaching absolute zero and a total pragmatist. And if we get another go around the lighthouse… all these things will get their moment.

I think in terms of softening – the events of Blenheim Vale shook his world-view. He’s always been on the side of the angels, though, I think. For all his bluster. Courageous, in his way. And when the chips are down – devoted to his men. And now – in the shape of WPC Trewlove – his women too.

DAMIAN: Bright occasionally mentions his wife – what are the chances we might meet her one day?

RUSS: No comment.

DAMIAN: Is even Mrs. Bright allowed to call him Reggie or it is Reginald or perhaps even Sir at home too?

RUSS: It’s a pet name — picked up from their colonial travels.

DAMIAN: There are some lovely moments that undoubtedly resonate with viewers who grew up in the sixties (or seventies in my case) such as Thursday’s frequent sage advice: (on warming the polish with a heated spoon before shining) “Look after your shoes and your shoes look after you”, “See you finish your crusts”, “When I started, the good blokes all wore blue” and Bright: “The policeman is your friend”. Is this sort of nostalgia derived from your own childhood memories?

RUSS: Yes – very much.

DAMIAN: Gideon’s Way, the British crime series broadcast between 1965 and 66 is mentioned in the first series of Endeavour by Jakes. What are your most potent memories of the period regarding how the police were portrayed onscreen that may have influenced or flavoured how you depict your men in blue?

RUSS: I think it would have to be Bright’s ‘The Policeman is your friend’. That was drilled into me as a kid. I’d have been too young, I expect, for some of the kitchen sink police procedurals – Z Cars, etc. So, my relationship with the police was more likely to be defined by Carry on Constable, and the Rank Look at Life cinema fillers where every copper wore a uniform, and greeted you with a friendly wave and a smile.

It was a Tufty Club world.

And then it wasn’t.

DAMIAN: When we discussed the last film of series one (HOME) prior to the broadcast of NEVERLAND during our first round of interviews I asked the following:

“Some might argue that FUGUE was the most suspenseful of the first series although I would have to say that HOME takes that honour. You deliberately, and quite masterfully, trick the audience into thinking that the threat is with Thursday and his family throughout the episode right up until the very end. Indeed, I was constantly thinking I can’t believe they are going to kill off Fred and coming to the conclusion that maybe Roger Allam didn’t want to do the show anymore! So, to not only have the unexpected twist of Morse actually getting shot in the nail-biting finale, but also connect this to John Thaw’s slight limp was truly a stroke of genius. Can you please detail how these events came to be tied together and was the leg thing an idea you always wanted to incorporate?”

Considering, obviously unbeknownst to me at the time, you did actually have Thursday shot at the climax this time, you must have been a little amused by the question?

RUSS: Well, I always do my best not to give too much away.

DAMIAN: And what a finale it was! I think the trick to its success, and again, testament to your genius writing in this genre, is that like Jakes in ARCADIA, if this was to be Thursday’s last appearance, it would be a fitting end – beautiful, brilliant and most importantly, utterly believable in its writing and realization. In many other crime/detective shows, there’s never really much sense of life or death danger when the heroes are put in peril – with you and Endeavour, one never really knows do they?

RUSS: That really is very kind of you. Well – we know certain characters survive. But that still gives me a number whose futures are unwritten. No guarantees. I do like to blindside the audience when I can.

DAMIAN: The choreography and camera angles felt very Western and the shootout slightly reminiscent of High Noon perhaps?

RUSS: Well – as I’ve said before — we do like a Western.

DAMIAN: As thrilling as all this was, I suspect it was Thursday’s fantastic “I was born a copper” speech that really sold it for audiences. You even squeezed in a little A. E. Housman for good measure – had you been dying to quote from that particular poem?

RUSS: It’s funny – the Housman… it was the preceding stanza that I liked and it seemed to chime with the unfolding drama, but if you didn’t know it, you wouldn’t, in the moment, make the connection to the more familiar lines. So – in the end, we played to the gallery, and went for the recognition factor of the Remorseful Day stanza.

DAMIAN: In many ways while there are still clearly more stories to be told and new adventures to be had, NEVERLAND marked the beginning of the end for Endeavour as we have known it thus far didn’t it?

RUSS: I suppose it did in a way. Unlooked for – for the most part. As I may have mentioned before – artist availability was a bit of a factor this time out. Drove a coach and four through my design somewhat. But I hope to try to cleave to the Quality Street approach still. Every one is someone’s favourite.

It’s fascinating – watching people’s reactions to the films as they go out – person A will love something in one film, while person B is a bit non-plussed; the following week, you can reverse those reactions. Things which delight some dismay others. And vice versa. You can’t please all the people all the time – and you really oughtn’t try to. However, I do think that there’s a strong, core audience that seems to instinctively ‘get’ whatever it is we’re about, film by film.

I think it’s important that we never feel as if it’s just ticking boxes. Becoming samey. Keep pushing. Trying new things with it. You don’t want it to become a boring, predictable watch. It’s a fairly robust format. And, so long as the regular characters are all firing as they should… it ought to be possible to take the stories in unusual directions while still making sure it remains Endeavour.

DAMIAN: For the final time, please tell us something about the last film of series three, CODA…

RUSS: I guess time will prove whether it’s really CODA or codetta. Both titles were considered. It’s an end, certainly, if not THE end. But, yeh – it’s our last nod to the Fab Four too. For now, at least. I did promise that ’67 would be a roller-coaster. After the thrills, spills and loop the loops of the preceding three stories, this marks the end of the RIDE. Please keep arms and legs inside the carriage until it has come to a complete stop.

EPILOGUE

DAMIAN: Series three took just under a hundred days to shoot. How much of your time did it take to write and redraft the films?

RUSS: Pretty much all of it. And those hundred days are actually only the days when the cameras are rolling. It doesn’t include down time – prep, weeks between shoots. It’s somewhere between six to nine months all told – because you’re still doing fixes and tweaks right to the end.

DAMIAN: To what extent has the success of Endeavour prevented you from pursuing other projects?

RUSS: I try to work development of other projects around ENDEAVOUR, but any new stuff takes a few years from initial notion to production and broadcast, so… there’s a fair bit of stuff in various stages between blueprint and prototype. But, lately, it’s all had to fit in with the ENDEAVOUR schedule.

DAMIAN: You’ll see Endeavour to the end?

RUSS: If the Network, the Mammoths, the boys, and the audience want me to. I wouldn’t want to overstay my welcome, or drag the show down in any way. If I didn’t think I had anything new to bring to it, then it would be time to go, and pass the baton on. We haven’t got there yet, I don’t think – but it’s an industrial-size can of whup-ass each year, and your capacity to soak it up probably diminishes with each go round.

When the time comes, I’m sure Damien Timmer will take me on a little run out to the Pine Barrens.

Leave the gun – take the cannoli.

DAMIAN: I think you know how much Endeavour means to audiences and how much I appreciate your time in doing these interviews. Thank you very much indeed Russ, and, if 1968 does happen, can we do all this again? – I’ll bring the sandwiches…

RUSS: Thank you. A pleasure. Sandwiches are always welcome.

BRIGHT: The job takes its toll, Thursday. Only so many years of active service in any of us.

THURSDAY: I’m good for a while yet. – NEVERLAND

Follow Damian on twitter for more exclusive interviews

4Kx

The Endeavour Archives: SWAY also previewing PREY

“A policeman’s lot is not a happy one, I’m told. But the lot of a policeman’s wife hardly gets a mention. But while I’ve been out running around, nabbing villains and generally playing silly buggers… the real brains of the outfit has made a house a home, raised two children, our children. Seen ‘em off to school each morning, clean and smart. And somehow, even with all that to do, there’s always been a hot meal for me when I get home. Twenty-five years ago I got the best bit of luck any man ever had. The toast is… my Win.” – THURSDAY

Russell Lewis

An exclusive interview

by Damian Michael Barcroft

Part III:

SWAY

With special thanks to JS Kirstie

DAMIAN: Last Sunday we said a sad farewell to Jack Laskey. Should Little Pete ever find himself in Oxford again, would you find a way to write him back in the show?

RUSS: Jack is a part of the Team Endeavour family forever. So, naturally, I’d be delighted to see Peter Jakes back in Oxford should the opportunity arise.

In real life – Jack’s playing the lead in a fantastic show which shoots in Canada called Company X – and its production dates cross very heavily with ours. It was possible for him to shoot the first half of this series, but his representation let us know through Susie – our casting director – that he would not be available going forward. I was broken hearted to lose him, as we’d barely scratched the surface. But – happily, he survived! – and you never know..? Faces from the past have a habit of turning up in Oxford.

DAMIAN: So SWAY, I really love this film. It’s up there with my absolute favourites FIRST BUS TO WOODSTOCK, HOME and NEVERLAND. We all know that you have mastered the art of the “whodunnit” but like FIRST BUS, SWAY explicitly showcases your ability to juxtapose a detective thriller with beautifully written, character-driven romantic drama. The scenes between Thursday and his old war sweetheart Luisa Armstrong (played to heartbreaking perfection by Cecile Paoli), who haven’t seen each other in twenty years are just devastating. Here’s an example of what I mean:

THURSDAY: We were friends once.

LUISA: That’s the last thing we were. Friendship takes time. What did we have? Two months? Three? If that. There wasn’t room for friendship too.

THURSDAY: Don’t tell me. I was there. I remember everything. Everything. Every moment like nothing before or since. It’s here. Still. Forever. The scent of the pines. The sun on the water. So vivid. And you. All above everything, I remember you.

LUISA: Don’t.

THURSDAY: Your eyes.

LUISA: You can’t say these things. You can’t, not to me.

THURSDAY: I’ve no-one else to say them to.

“I’ve no-one else to say them to” – still brings a tear to my eye! Of course, all this is particularly heartbreaking since Thursday and wife Win are about to celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary! Aside from all the blood and guts, are you a bit of an old softy really?

RUSS: Well – thanks. I’m delighted you liked SWAY. I’m very fond of it too. I once worked in an old fashioned department store, and I suppose Burridges grew out of that.

There’s also a terrific Avengers story ‘Death at Bargain Prices’ – from 1965, I think — that has Steed and Mrs.Peel going undercover at a big London department store; which – though heightened in dramatic terms, and a pretty long way from Endeavourland, was a great spur visually.

However, it was the Carry On team, and Norman Wisdom, I had in mind when I was putting it together. I just wondered what would happen if you recast those almost stock characters // archetypes, and played them straight – rather than for comedy. ‘Carry On Strangling.’

In my mind at least there was as much of Kenneth Connor’s frustrated ‘Phwoarrr!’ underpinning Joey Lisk as there was Michael Caine’s ‘Alfie’. You can probably cast the rest with the remaining Carry On stalwarts yourself.

Anyway, there’s something about such places out of hours – when you’re doing a late night stock-take, say, or laying out stuff for a new display, or a sale – when most of the lights are out, and the escalators have been turned off… The manikins in shadow…

That was my one regret about SWAY – no escalators! But, swings and roundabouts… And the really exciting thing (for a geek like me) is that the location we used for Burridges is the same store that appears in the opening scenes of the Boulting Brothers’ ‘TWISTED NERVE’ – with Hywel Bennett and Haley Mills…

And this is where it all all gets a bit Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Because, it was Bernard Hermann who composed the grating whistling theme to ‘TWISTED NERVE’ — that Quentin Tarantino later rolled out in Kill Bill. From Bernard Hermann it’s but a step to his frequent collaborator Mr.Hitchcock. And the whole thing comes full circle via FRENZY through Billie Whitelaw and (good old Bob Rusk himself) Barry Foster, who both appear in TWISTED NERVE. The necktie strangler was clearly a cousin of the stocking killer. And back to Morse via Barry Foster in ‘The Last Enemy’. So…

By the way — Le Minou Noir was a gift of Camille Gatin’s – Producer on Series II — who, as you probably guessed, is French. I think I’d originally gone for Le Chat Noir as a brand name – but we couldn’t clear it. Though the logo survived.

An old softy? I don’t know. I suspect a natural aptitude for cruelty would be closer to the mark.

DAMIAN: If Luisa, after the “Fredo, hold me. Once. For what we were” moment hadn’t have told Thursday never to come back, would he have continued to see her in secret?

RUSS: “The ‘what if’ game’s no good to any bugger.” I know what I think, but I wouldn’t want to be prescriptive.

DAMIAN: There’s a lovely moment in which Thursday gently touches Luisa’s hair as they part from their final embrace. Was this scripted or an improvisation from Roger?

RUSS: I don’t think it was scripted. It might have been a suggestion of Andy’s – the director – but it’s just as likely to have been something improvised by Roger.

He likewise improvised the front end of Thursday’s farewell speech to Jakes at the pub in ARCADIA – the one that invokes all the Cowboy film titles. That was all Rog. And rather marvellous it was too. They were light on dialogue on the floor to cover a camera move that Bryn had in mind, and for some reason couldn’t reach me or Sam Costin – so… Cometh the hour — cometh the Allam.

DAMIAN: Another gem of a moment occurs shortly afterwards. Thursday returns home, hangs up the hat and coat and just stares silently at himself in the mirror. Mrs Thursday offers him stew and dumplings and he looks away from the mirror and at her – a moment – but what was he thinking?

RUSS: Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…

Here’s this young man from cold grey old England and he finds himself literally parachuted in to this country of colour, dazzling sunlight and heat. Sights, smells, tastes unlike anything he’s ever experienced before. He’s living on his wits – death at his shoulder. Hunted. Running with the partisans. Jeeping one step ahead of those who would kill him. Aware that each day could be his last. And he’s got Luisa working with him…

They were young. Love and death. Two faces on the coin of life. The heart chooses. I felt it made him human. Had he known that she survived the massacre, he might never had come back to England. But he didn’t – and so he came back and picked up the threads of his life. Made a go of it. And it’s been a good life. Win, and Joan and Sam.

I think that the realisation is there when he looks into the mirror. This is who he is.

And it ties in to a warning from the Code that was drummed into us as kids when the 5th of November rolled around – “NEVER RETURN TO A FIREWORK ONCE LIT.” Which was all of a piece with everything else that was going on in the story. Strange on Patrol in civvies. Endeavour and Nurse Hicks at the bus-stop, etc.

DAMIAN: Was Luisa’s fate always that which occurred on screen or were there other possibilities in your mind?

RUSS: (WARNING! INSPECTOR MORSE SPOILERS FOLLOW!) No – it was always going to be a tragic ending. The jumping off point was DEAD ON TIME – and the Morse/Susan Fallon axis. Lewis finding the cassette tape – and disposing of it. I thought it might be interesting to turn that coat inside out – and make it Thursday who had the romantic history with a suspect.

In early drafts of SWAY, I think right up until the readthrough draft – ENDEAVOUR kept the contents of Luisa’s letter from THURSDAY. Shielded him from the pain it contained. As with Lewis and the cassette tape. But Shaun wasn’t comfortable with that. He didn’t feel he had the right to keep something like that from Thursday. And so the final few scenes were rejigged to the version we went with.

DAMIAN: I don’t think I’ve seen Cecile in anything before, how did she come to be cast in the part?

RUSS: Cecile was brought in by Susie Pariss. And if you ever watched Bergerac you will certainly have seen her. She was terrific. Thought she invested the whole thing with great dignity and extraordinary depths of hidden sorrow.

DAMIAN: I understand that there is a cast read-through for all the scripts before filming begins, what was the reaction to the first draft of SWAY, particularly from Roger Allam?

RUSS: I think Roger was pleased with it. Something ‘meaty’ – as he’d describe it — for him to get his teeth into. Read-throughs are typically our last chance to tinker with the script before its issued as a Shooting Draft. They usually take place at the front end of the week between shoots – and I have until Friday to turn around any late thoughts or changes arising from the read. Sometimes it’ll be a production thing – a location or a scheduling issue that’s not going to work for us. But we always have the Network in attendance, and they point up any plot or dialogue things they’re not happy with – and likewise with Shaun and Rog. We read the script through, then hunker down for a couple of post mortems. One with the broadcaster – line changes, etc., points of contention – and then one with the boys. The director sits in on both.

DAMIAN: Was there ever a conscious decision either by yourself or Roger that there should be a very Thursday-heavy film that explored his past in such detail?

RUSS: Yeh – I’d wanted to see a bit more of Thursday’s past life. It had been kicking around in the back of my head even on Series I – and I think I’d mentioned it to Rog even then. I thought it would be interesting if we muddied the water a bit. Filled in some of the blanks. I like characters that are carrying some baggage. Some folk got a bit cross about it – and thought his involvement with Luisa diminished him in some way. I didn’t. Clearly.

I think I mentioned previously – I didn’t want Endeavour – as a character — to be some sort of sexless, neutered, teenybopper fantasy that just held hands and recited Baudelaire over buttered muffins. And it was the same with Thursday. He’s lived a life.

DAMIAN: As straight as a die. Decent. Unafraid. Those are your words to describe DI Fred Thursday. You once told me that you have known people with his qualities, could you tell us who they were please?

RUSS: My old man – principally. Fred Thursday’s war bears a more than passing resemblance to his. Others of his class and generation. His brothers. Mining stock from the Valleys of South Wales. Some great-uncles on my maternal side who fought in the Great War. Lancashire Pals. Signed up under-age. Out of the mill and into the trenches.

DAMIAN: There’s a piece of music that plays throughout SWAY including a scene between Thursday and Luisa and the when Huggins tries to strangle his final victim. It took me a while to place it but I went through my John Barry collection and realized it was very similar to his music score for The Ipcress File. Is this an original piece by Barrington and if so, the Barry influence can’t be a coincidence surely?

RUSS: I haven’t seen it since it was broadcast. But Barrington’s not much minded to pastiche, so it seems unlikely. I’m not sure if you’re talking about the ‘record’ that the killer puts on. In the UK transmission that was Dean Martin’s version of ‘SWAY’ from which the story took its title, but we couldn’t get clearance for the International version, and that includes DVD and iTunes versions – so, it was substituted… I’m pretty sure it was a library piece.

DAMIAN: Well, the piano has stopped and the beer has run dry, please tell us what you can about tonight’s film, PREY…

RUSS: Hmm. Past and future brush shoulders. To which end I’m indebted to our Line Producer Helga Dowie for making sure we had the right location. There’s a very loose connection to Joss Bixby’s ‘Belvedere Set’. It’s quite a pastoral piece. Not much more I can tell you on this one. Except of course… be afraid.

Every life holds one great love. One name to hold onto at the end. One face to take into the dark…

– Luisa Armstrong

Follow Damian on twitter for more exclusive interviews

The Endeavour Archives: NOCTURNE also previewing ARCADIA

3 Replies

THE ENDEAVOUR ARCHIVES #7

Russell Lewis

An exclusive interview

by Damian Michael Barcroft

With thanks to Hilary Bray

Camille Pleyel

and Wynnie Stoan

SO, last week I was telling you about the eleventh day of shooting and the first on location in Oxford for Series 3 – Film 1: RIDE. You’ll forgive me if I didn’t go into too much detail for fear of spoilers but I hope to rectify that now the episode has been broadcast.

Radcliffe Square was the first of the day’s three location shoots. Rehearsals and sound checks etc. were all well underway by the time I got there at 08:22. Remarkably, considering the scene only lasts just over two minutes in the final cut that you will have seen last Sunday, it took until 10:43 to get the required footage. But then, despite the promise of spring (12 April 2015), it was bloody cold and windy – so much so that they had to stop filming because Shaun’s eyes were watering. Indeed, I don’t think I ever expected to see Endeavour Morse jogging on the spot outside the Bodleian to keep warm.

However, in addition to the weather, cast and crew had to contend with various obstacles including unruly cyclists and a particularly angry delivery man – all determined on making a cameo appearance. It is testament to the good natured family atmosphere enjoyed by both cast and crew that they all remained so humorous and patient – although, since I’m posting this on a Sunday, I won’t reveal what Roger said when confronted by a group of snap-happy tourists hell-bent on a selfie or two.

Needless to say, a lot of cheese and pickle sandwiches were eaten that morning. Anyway, more of this later. I’ve also included a full transcript of the scene in question at the end of the following interview as there is a particularly lovely moment between Endeavour and Thursday which was sadly cut from the final edit. For now though, here’s the second part of an exclusive interview as we continue to explore series two while offering the odd glimpse of tonight’s film…

Part II:

NOCTURNE

DAMIAN: As with FUGUE (S1:02), the second film of series two also happens to be a horror/thriller story. Will tonight’s film ARCADIA continue the trend for series three?

RUSS: The short answer is no. There was a request to shake the Selection Box a little this time out — so that we didn’t get too predictable. There is an ‘ENDEAVOUR does… (insert genre here)’ film amongst the four, but we have swapped the order around a little.

DAMIAN: We talked about your love of horror in one of our interviews last year and there are so many references again in NOCTURNE but would it be fair to say that THE INNOCENTS (1961), the work of M. R. James’ and the seventies GHOST STORIES FOR CHRISTMAS were particular inspirations for the mood and tone of this film?

RUSS: All of those things. PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK came up a bit too — in my discussions with the Director, such as they were.

DAMIAN: While we were doing our interview prior to the broadcast of NOCTURNE, you mentioned that the actual backstory regarding the Victorian murders sprang from a loose personal connection with the murder of Francis Saville Kent and an affectionate tribute to Dan McCulloch (producer of series one), could you elaborate on this please?

RUSS: In the late 70s, I worked on a BBC dramatisation of the Constance Kent case which was shot in the West Country – as near as damn it to the original locations. If I remember right – the cast had an anniversary supper – on the evening of the murder.

I suppose we were down there two to three months — across the summer. Staying in various hotels. One in the Quantocks had a touch of Fawlty Towers about it. Not in the service – but in the 70s atmos. Public telephone in the hallway – with a ‘hood’ for privacy! This was an England where a glass of orange juice was often offered as a ‘Starter’.

Fawlty Towers’ ‘The Wedding Party’ with the flirty French guest who goes out in an evening to sample the delights of Torquay..? Mad, but there’s something about the still, summer-night blackness beyond the entrance that absolutely nails what this hotel was like.

One of the locations we used was a house owned by a Headmaster at some school or other — I can’t remember where exactly — and, though a much smaller building, that had a feel of Shrive Hill House. While the crew were filming outside, I had an explore of the servants’ quarters and attic. It stuck in my head, and provided the jumping off point for Endeavour exploring the upper floors of Blythe Mount.

The tribute to Dan… Well, he’s a Home Counties boy — and Dorking has some very pertinent personal associations for him. It was a tease — the notion that he might end his days a hopeless rummy in a rooming house there. In truth, I can think of no future for him that would be less likely.

DAMIAN: Morse tells us that “this place [Shrive Hill House/Blythe Mount School for Girls] is like a honeycomb; backstairs and concealed corridors…” which instantly reminded me of Poe, particularly the Corman film version of The Fall of the House of Usher (1960). While there’s an abundance of gothic elements and nods to the genre (note the Hammer Horror double-bill that gives Strange “the proper willies”) in some of your scripts, I thought that NOCTURNE, unlike FUGUE, was similar to The Hound of the Baskervilles in that it takes a detective famous for their logic and deductive reasoning and places them in an apparently supernatural setting which almost stretches the conventions of Morse to bursting point. While I, and I’m sure other “connoisseurs of the macabre”, loved every moment, were there any concerns that the audience might find it a little too Scooby-Doo?

RUSS: I suppose it may have been a stretch for some, but I hoped we’d built up enough trust with the audience over the preceding films that they’d go with us. Probably just me trying to have my penny and my bun. But – for all the ghostly bells and whistles — we did try to play fair by the rules of the whodunit.

It’s interesting that you reference The Fall of the House of Usher. Though Blythe Mount didn’t crumble into the tarn, in the original, early drafts of NOCTURNE, the school went up a raging blaze – Endeavour hunting for Bunty and the killer through the smoke and flames; an ending like so many Hammer Horrors – but, the director wasn’t keen. So…

DAMIAN: Who is your favourite screen Sherlock Holmes by the way?

RUSS: Oh – that’s hard. Benedict Cumberbatch is doing great work, of course. A Sherlock for the 21st century. Modern and thrilling.

Perhaps it’s like the Doctor – every generation has its own Sherlock. For someone of my years… Jeremy Brett is hard to trump. One of Paget’s illustrations sprung to life. I did see him and Edward Hardwicke do The Secret of Sherlock Holmes on stage, which was rather wonderful. But I remember when the first of the series went to air – JB’s brilliance notwithstanding, it was David Burke’s Watson that was the real great leap forward. They redefined the relationship – after decades of a kind of ‘received’ performance from the what-what-what? school of Watson, David Burke restored his dignity.

Basil Rathbone was the Sherlock I grew up with as a kid, with the movies on re-run, so I’ve a great fondness for his portrayal. That would have been the first Sherlock that properly registered with me. Peter Cushing was terrific.

Blasphemous, perhaps, so say it softly, but I thought Robert Downey Jnr & Jude Law made a pretty decent fist of it in the two Guy Richie movies. Jared Harris was a corking Moriarty. And Eddie Marsan’s Lestrade… On screen for all too brief a time, but not a second of it wasted. But then Eddie Marsan’s work always has such integrity. I don’t think he’s ever played a false moment. You know – like Edmund Reid, or Fred Abberline – one didn’t become a Detective Inspector in Late Victorian London by being dull-witted. I think you really feel that with Eddie Marsan’s portrayal. That he could handle himself – intellectually and physically.

Nicol Williamson was interesting in The Seven Per Cent Solution, but a bit of a stressful watch. Hard to take your eyes off Alan Arkin’s Sigmund Freud, though. Hard to take your eyes off Alan Arkin in anything. Weirdly enough – it was Arkin’s turn in ‘Wait Until Dark’ I had in mind for the photographer in TROVE. That sort of Paul Simon ‘do’? A sort of… French Crop, is it? But, sadly – the look fell by the wayside.

However… ‘favourite’ Holmes… I have a very special place in my heart for Christopher Plummer’s turn in Murder By Decree. James Mason also gives a hugely entertaining old school Watson. ‘You squashed my pea!’

Of course, like From Hell — it shadows the late Stephen Knight’s now much discredited hypothesis. But the yarn spun, and the supporting cast… Frank Finlay’s Lestrade; Donald Sutherland’s Robert Lees; Sir Anthony Quayle, Sir John Gielgud, and a cracking turn by David Hemmings… together with a suitably creepy score and cracking production values, makes for an altogether irresistible two hours. Great opening model shot of London skyline too. If you haven’t seen it… Great fun!

But he’s crime fiction’s answer to Hamlet, isn’t he? It’s quite possible that the greatest Holmes may not have been born yet.

DAMIAN: I loved the moment when the author of “Plighted Cunning: An account of the Blaise-Hamilton murders”, Stephen Fitzowen (splendid Desmond Barrit), bangs on the door of the school and says in a very Lionel Grisbane sort of way, “Good Evening” which I almost expected him to follow with “I have returned…”. Was there a particular model for the character or an actor in mind to play him as you wrote the part?

RUSS: Yeh – Desmond was great. I think the stage direction in the shooting script featured an exterior establishing shot – which was Fitzowen getting out of a taxi, and framed in a halo of light from a lamp by the door – portable recording equipment in hand, standing in for Max Von Sydow’s suitcase. But in the end – for scheduling reasons — this was never shot.

That whole sequence was intended to take place on a dark and stormy night. Thunder. Lightning. If you’re going to embrace the tropes..? All or nothing at all. But, despite my best efforts, I couldn’t convince the director to get behind it. C’est la guerre.

The character was a nod to Dashiell Hammett’s The Dain Curse – which featured a writer Owen Fitzstephan right at the heart of proceedings. There was an adaptation of this in the 70s with James Coburn as ‘Ham Nash’, the Gumshoe; and everyone’s favourite troubled Jesuit — Jason Miller — as Fitzstephan (which was another happy connection.)

My memory is a dented and wonky sieve, but I think Fitzowen was originally several characters; including a trio of academics with an interest in parapsychology. I don’t think I went as far as naming them Venkman, Spengler & Stanz, but that’s certainly what I was drawing on. Just a bit of fun. Seeing how they played out as dramatic characters, rather than comedic ones. Sadly – due to space and budget – they ended up biting the bullet, and some of their material was grafted on to Fitzowen.

But he was a type, more than anything… A touch of Ronnie Barker’s ‘Magnificent Evans’ in there. Maybe even a bit of Ed Reardon. Some of that… Neil Oliver is it? The TV historian? Some of that Celtic ‘WhooOOOOoo!’ in the delivery. A chap, one suspects, who could invest even the most commonplace occurrence with a suggestion of the fey folk at work or the Gods at dice. I’d love to hear him order breakfast.

It was a bit of a pig for poor old Des – especially the magic lantern show, which featured hideous amounts of unadulterated plot-spiel. Lines like that are very difficult to get down – as there’s nothing to play off. No cues. But he did it wonderfully.

DAMIAN: Once again, this film features a plethora of cultural references including, in addition to those already mentioned, Lewis Carroll, Ian Fleming, Philip Larkin, Charles Perrault, P. G. Wodehouse and John Wyndham to name but a few. At what point do these occur to you, is it through the research and writing stage or do they forever reside within your consciousness rather like Simonides’ method of loci?

RUSS: Mostly just flotsam and jetsam swilling around the cloaca maxima that serves for a mind.

DAMIAN: And is Plighted Cunning simply a reference to King Lear and, if so, was this used because of the story, like NOCTURNE, concerns themes of betrayal and justice regarding a father’s fortune?

RUSS: I think – because I was drawing on the Murder at Rode (Road) Hill House – that I was trying to find a title that had an echo of Cruelly Murdered by Bernard Taylor. That and Yseult Bridges’ The Saint With Red Hands – were our two main guidebooks to the case. I think I was just trying to come up with a title that a rather florid character such as Fitzowen might have used, and it seemed to chime. The Queens of the Golden Age plundered Shakespeare, so it felt right and fitting to follow their example. One of those three in the morning decisions that’s hard to accurately recall after such a passage of time.

DAMIAN: I know you’re fond of walking, to what extent have your adventures manifested themselves into your scripts such as the Domesday Book (TROVE) and Holmwood Park Sanitorium (NOCTURNE) for example?

RUSS: Quite a bit, I suppose. You do see some odd things. Long abandoned vehicles in unlikely places. The caravans in NEVERLAND came from one I’d seen in a state of advanced disintegration. It was on a regular route – and, over a couple of years, I just watched this thing gradually disappear. Actually, when I first saw it, the caravan looked rather like the mobile home at the start of THEM! Torn open. Thankfully no fifteen foot ants came whiffling out of the tulgey wood. But yes – I’m a sucker for the atmosphere of such places.

Holmwood Park first put in an appearance in LEWIS – Falling Darkness – and it seemed fun to fold it back into ENDEAVOUR in some way. I think I read somewhere, or someone told me, about a place like Holmwood Park, not too far from Oxford, where undergrads that had burnt-out sometimes ended up. A kind of proto-Priory. Quite a lot of derelict medical facilities out there. Nature reclaiming buildings. Creeping decay. Ruin. Damp. Fungi. And there’s definitely a sense of frozen in aspic about some of them. Time stopped. Some of the larger sites – the staff social areas – clubs and canteens. Press your nose up against the window and you can see cabinets still filled with old Darts trophies – shields and cups. Round Robin Tennis fixtures – decades out of date. Fantastic.

DAMIAN: There are close-ups of “Plighted Cunning” in NOCTURNE and we regularly see various shots of articles and clippings from The Oxford Mail. Given their detail and relevance to the plots, who actually writes these?

RUSS: Sam Costin creates the text for these – and he’s an absolute genius at it.

DAMIAN: Where are all the props such as Plighted Cunning and the autographed Rosalind Calloway LP (from FIRST BUS TO WOODSTOCK) stored?

RUSS: In various prop-houses and storage facilities.

DAMIAN: How was Chopin’s Nocturne chosen?

RUSS: It’s a favourite. They’re all terrific, but something about the one we went with seemed to my ear even more eerie than its fellows. And I thought if we could put that on a musical box…

DAMIAN: We talked about film noir last week so I was intrigued to discover there is actually a 1946 George Raft movie in that genre called Nocturne! – were you aware of this or is it just a coincidence?

RUSS: It is just a coincidence.

DAMIAN: There are some lovely moments between Morse and Joan Thursday (Sara Vickers) and there has been an obvious attraction and chemistry between the two since the first series. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see them destined for a bit of slap and tickle or perhaps I should say a bit of how’s your father?

RUSS: It’s an interesting relationship. And the chemistry is rather lovely to watch. I do know exactly how it’s going to evolve, but more than that… I can’t say.

DAMIAN: Another scene which I adore was between Morse and Max after the young girl Maud Ashenden is murdered. Max says to Morse, “Adults, one takes the rough with the smooth. But this… you find this piece of work, Morse. You find whoever did that. For me, all right? You find them…”. An absolutely beautiful moment in which Morse expresses sympathy but also genuine surprise at Max’s unusual lamentation for a corpse. Was this purely because it was a child’s death or were there possibly hints that there might be other reasons that it resonated with Max to such an extent?

RUSS: I thought it would be nice to see another side of Max. The typically sanguine and unflappable pathologist undone by the brutal ruin wrought upon poor Maudie. And Jimmy Bradshaw played it – as always — to perfection. I don’t have a lot of room to cast as much light as I’d like to upon those most intimately involved with Endeavour – mainly for reasons of time, and the demands of unspooling the plot, but I hope I can give some clues here and there as to what makes them tick. Nice for the actors to have something to play, rather than simply offering ‘just the facts, ma’am.’

DAMIAN: In the absence of you actually telling us anything about tonight’s film ARCADIA, can you please say something clever and cryptic instead?

RUSS: Well, we’ve done the Manufactory; the Department Store; and so this is – to some small degree – our ‘Ladybird Book of the Supermarket.’ A key player from Morse’s later adventures puts in an appearance. And we touch on Endeavour’s childhood connection to Quakerism. One door opens…

~~~

101. EXT. OXFORD LOCATION PARK BENCH [Radcliffe Square] – DAY 5

ENDEAVOUR and THURSDAY.

ENDEAVOUR: Didn’t you say that was Harry Rose’s business?

THURSDAY: Slots? In part. Harry Rose has been at it since the Devil was in short trousers. Oh — and it’s definitely Bixby by the way. Dr.deBryn was able to match his prints to a number of latents taken from the house. (digs out sandwiches) Right.

ENDEAVOUR: You’ve seen them? Cheese and pickle. The Belboroughs?

THURSDAY: All bar the tennis player. She stayed at the Randolph. The rest haven’t got a decent alibi between them for Bixby. Though your mate Anthony Donn says he was with Belborough the night Jeannie was killed. (a moment) You really think there’s a connection between Harry Rose and this bloke at the shooting gallery?

ENDEAVOUR: Maybe. I don’t know. I’m just stumbling around.

THURSDAY: What you’re good at.

THURSDAY eats his sandwich – watches the world go by.

ENDEAVOUR: The first week I hardly slept. I didn’t know if I was going to be found hanged from the bars of the cell, or take a dive from the top walk. (off Thursday) Every night I expected to hear boots on the landing – the key in the lock – but nobody came by. A month. I didn’t know if you were alive or dead. That was the worst of it. No. Not quite. The worst was… Knowing it was my fault.

THURSDAY — appalled.

ENDEAVOUR: (CONT’D) I was too slow. My stupidity nearly left Mrs.Thursday a widow, and…

The thought is too much for him.

THURSDAY: I knew walking in to Blenheim Vale that I might not walk out. (That’s) The job, I suppose. Something bad like that? Sometimes you’ve to put all you are against all they’ve got. It was my decision. And I’d do it again without a second thought. Don’t ever blame yourself.

ENDEAVOUR: If I’d been quicker off the mark…

THURSDAY: You were there at the end. Nobody else. You had the chance to run. To look to your own neck. But you didn’t. You stood. A pinch like that, it’s not brain that counts. It’s guts. I won’t forget it. Ever. (a moment) You should eat something. You don’t eat enough. Here.

THURSDAY offers the other half of his sandwich. A moment — ENDEAVOUR takes it. Just two men, sharing a sandwich.