Please visit the John Thaw Topcities Website.
Please check out David Bishop, The Complete Inspector Morse, Kew Gardens, Richmond, Surrey: Reynolds and Hearn Ltd., 2002, which is a comprehensive book on Inspector Morse, including the results of my music-mystery detecting.
David Bishop, The Complete Inspector Morse, 2nd rev. ed. Kew Gardens, Richmond, Surrey: Reynolds and Hearn Ltd., 2006, which is a comprehensive book on Inspector Morse, including the results of my music-mystery detecting.
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Please check out EMI Gold's newly released The Inspector Morse Collection: The Very Best of Inspector Morse [BOX SET of 3 CDs], which contains a representative selection of music from each of the thirty-three videos, based in part on the results of my music-mystery detecting.
Amazon.co.uk
For some time, my friend and colleague, Joy Roach and I, Helen H. Roulston, have been researching the use of classical music in the books and videos of the "Inspector Morse," "Rumpole of the Bailey," and "Inspector Lewis" series.
Whereas John Mortimer, a lover of classical music, including opera, created Horace Rumpole, depicted by Leo McKern, who does not share his musical tastes, Colin Dexter, author of the "Inspector Morse" books, created a detective who is a dedicated listener to "real music."
Inspector Morse's taste in music is fairly traditional but wide-ranging, with the music dramas of Richard Wagner being particular favorites, as they are of his creator, Dexter. When the videos were made, starring John Thaw as Morse and Kevin Whately as Lewis, Barrington Pheloung incorporated many pieces of classical music, especially those by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Schubert. However, most of these pieces are not identified in the credits at the end.
After a break, Kevin Whately was persuaded to star in his own "Inspector Lewis" videos, scored by Barrington Pheloung, with a new assistant, James Hathaway, depicted by Lawrence Fox. Lewis has finally absorbed some of Morse's love of music, which he shares with Hathaway.
After careful listening by musical experts and ourselves to the videos, reading reference books, searching through web sites, and asking people connected with the "Inspector Morse" series, we have managed to identify all but one piece in the Morse videos and one in the Lewis videos, which are cited below.
We found the five CDs of the Music from Inspector Morse and the one CD of the Music from Inspector Lewis, composed and/or arranged by Barrington Pheloung, to be most enjoyable and helpful in our research.
Would anyone who can furnish me with the names of the pieces and composers (or at least a clue or two) please email me at the address cited below. If you are able to identify this piece, please let us know if you would grant permission to post on this page your name, along with your message, and any response to it. In any case, we will post any positive identification of the piece and interesting comments or clues, either with the contributor's name, if allowed, or anonymously.
If anyone wishes to ask a question about a piece that is used, please feel free to do so.
If anyone wants to let us link this page to another and vice versa, please email me with the particulars and permission.
 hroulston@murraystate.edu
"Inspector Morse" Series I
"Service of All the Dead" Video copyrighted 1987. First shown in Great Britain January 20, 1987. First shown on Mystery! March 3, 10, 1988. Based on the book by same name.
 After Morse tells the minister he wants to talk about the minister's brother, the minister goes back into the church, then disappears, which Lewis notes. While the first part of a much later musical version (in the musical idiom similar to that of the Romantic minimalists) of the Requiem Agnus Dei is being sung by a mixture of male and female voices, Ruth and Morse talk, as the minister jumps off the church roof and dies. The same Requiem Agnus Dei briefly continues as Morse and Lewis climb up the stairs to the roof of the church. Lewis admires the view, saying he can practically see Scotland, while Morse reveals he is afraid of heights. Nevertheless, Lewis leans over and excitedly calls Morse to come and look. The reluctant Morse does so, leans over the edge, sees a dead body (Paul Morris, the organist), and faints. The next part of the same Agnus Dei vocal music is playing as Brenda Josephs is seen dead in a boat. Morse and Lewis crawl down into the crypt (while the end of the same Requiem Agnus Dei is heard). Lewis sees something--the son of Paul Morris, with his blond hair peeking out from the coke, as the conclusion to the same Agnus Dei is heard. The word "dona," which means "give," is sung over and over like a chant.
REQUIEM ANGUS DEI
Agnus Dei Lamb of God,
qui tollis peccata mundi, who taketh away the sins of the world,
dona eis requiem," Grant them rest,
requiem sempiternam." rest everlasting.
"Inspector Lewis" Series II
Music
Scholarship
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