★★★★☆
Forget Laurence Olivier’s Richard III, Connery’s Bond or Lugosi’s Dracula, there are certain roles that one really cannot separate from the actor. John Thaw’s Chief Inspector Morse is one of them. It can have been with no little trepidation that Colin Baker – best known to many for his tenure as Doctor Who in the mid-80s – agreed to take on the part in this new touring production. It certainly takes some time to get used to Baker’s more boisterous take on the character but once one stops resisting and goes with it, it is rather endearing. He is aided by a script which delves right to the heart of Morse’s character, exploring his contradictory emotions regarding his decision to so easily abandon the academia for a life in the police.
The rest of the cast offer equally enjoyable performances. Andrew Bone as Lewis perfectly recreates the character’s most endearing qualities, and, though it is a joy to watch, this is also perhaps something of a disappointment. How much more interesting it would have been to seen him deliver a fresh interpretation of the character, as Baker does with Morse.
Mention must also be made of the play’s staging. It says something for the quality of the set design that a pair of panelled walls and a tiled floor can convincingly stand in for Elsinore, the back alley outside a theatre, an Oxford river bank and numerous other places beside.
All in all, an enjoyable new take on an old favourite. Hopefully, this will be the first of many such stagings of Inspector Morse. “Of course,” people will say in years to come, “once one has seen Danny Dyer’s Morse, few compare…”