Shaun Evans was 36 during series 4 but is clearly playing someone much younger, certainly no older than 30.
How much do we know about Morse after he dropped out of Oxford?
The pilot is set in 1965 I would guess Morse would be mid to possibly late twenties then. There was talk about learning Russian whilst in the secret services before joining the police, I can't remember but was there also mention of the army?
I'm sure that someone else will reply with more authority than I, but my recollection is that he wasn't in the "secret services" but in the army where he learnt Russian and monitored Soviet radio transmissions. Compulsory National Service (in the armed forces) in Britain ended in December 1960, and it's possible that Morse was old enough to have been "called up". My vague recollection is that he had the chance to develop a career in the army, but opted to become a policeman, presumably serving several years in uniform before becoming a detective.
shareSecret Services implies spies and what not. I think Morse was in the "Signals", and was involved in some kind of code breaking and monitoring. As we found out this series he can speak Russian, so it makes sense he was involved in the Cold War monitoring, possibly even at Bletchley Park or a similar establishment.
He could have been conscripted and then moved into that field.
If I recall, there have been other threads on this subject, and the inconsistency between how old he said he was when his mother died and the date on her gravestone. I seem to remember thinking he was born at some point either just before or during the early part of the war. we know Thursday was a young soldier during the war, so that would mean he would be around say 20 to 25 years older than Morse. Seems plausible.
I've always used John Thaw's age as a guide. He was born in 1941.
shareI wish I could attach screenshots... in the 4th episode of series 1 (home), Morse is visiting his mother's grave. On the gravestone, it says Constance Morse died in 1950. In the pilot episode, Morse tells a woman that his mother died when he was 12. So he was probably born in 1938, depending on when his birthday was, I guess. So in 1967, he should be 29. :)
shareThanks, very interesting.
shareGreat eye, thanks for the details!
shareI think fans of the show are often more attuned to these kinds of details than the writers are - no offense to the writers. But I also think viewers worry too much about these kinds of details and forget to allow for dramatic license. I also think that when they first begin writing the series they have no idea where it's going or how successful it will be, so discrepancies here and there should be forgiven.
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