GEORGE UNGENTLY

ITV has announced today the casting of English actor Shaun Evans as the young Endeavour Morse in a prequel to Inspector Morse.

Endeavour, a one-off drama, stars Shaun Evans (Teachers, Martina Cole's The Take) as the character created by novelist Colin Dexter and played with absolute talent by the late John Thaw in the long-running Inspector Morse series (thirty-three episodes from 1987 to 2000). Kevin Whately, who co-starred as Morse's sidekick Robbie Lewis, has his own spin-off since 2006 with the highly successful Lewis (known as Inspector Lewis in the US).

Written by Russell Lewis (Cadfael, Kavanagh QC, Lewis), the story follows Detective Constable Endeavour Morse in 1965. The single film, made by Mammoth Screen for ITV1, will mark the 25th anniversary of the very first episode of Morse. It will be shot in Oxford this autumn and will air early next year. Michele Buck and Damien Timmer are executive producers for Mammoth Screen, Rebecca Eaton is exec producer for Masterpiece and Dan McCulloch is the producer. Endeavour is directed by Colm McCarthy (Injustice).

Shaun Evans will have to fight the shadow of the great John Thaw and judging from the photo he looks more like the Doctor than like a younger version of the beloved DCI Morse. But ITV has the golden touch for dramas, with eight of the ten most watched new dramas of 2011 and four of those new dramas recommissioned by ITV1 last month: Vera, Scott & Bailey, Monroe and Case Sensitive. Also in the pipeline are a second series of Kidnap and Ransom and another case of Victorian detective Inspector Jack Whicher (The Suspicions of Mr Whicher).

What's next? Young Kavanagh QC? Young Regan? (with Dennis Waterman as the "Guv") Or even Young Jane Tennison?

Endeavour will be distributed internationally by ITV Studios Global Entertainment.

http://www.itv.com/presscentre/pressreleases/programmepressreleases/endeavour/default.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/may/06/inspector-morse-prequel-for-itv
http://www.itv.com/presscentre/pressreleases/programmepressreleases/itvrecommissionesfournewdramasforitv1/default.html