Detective Chief Superintendent Jim Strange OBE is a fictional character in the television series Inspector Morse, played by James Grout.
In the episode “Twilight of the Gods”, Strange is seen wearing a miniature form of the OBE medal on his suit, indicating he is the holder of the national honour.
Slightly overweight, and given to bouts of pomposity, he is nonetheless a dependable and honest policeman, with his mind set on a career in the police.
During the third series, set in 1967, he is promoted to Sergeant and subsequently moves from uniform to the Criminal Investigation Department as Morse's immediate superior.
In 1972, Thursday sends the newly married couple to Kidlington for several months, where Strange’s secondment keeps them both safe from the fallout from the investigation and exhumations at the disused Blenheim Vale boys home, and from a biker gang’s retribution for the death of drug dealer Tomahawk Kennett.
By the chronologically later stage of the (earlier) Inspector Morse series, Strange, holding the rank of Chief Superintendent, is the Divisional Commander for Oxford, of the Thames Valley Police force.
Morse is also a traditionalist, but not in the same conservative sense as Strange; likewise, Morse is not interested in Freemasonry, although he proves knowledgeable on the subject, and in the 15th episode Masonic Mysteries proves his knowledge from the sublime (deep symbolism of masonry) to the less so (revealing to a junior traffic cop that he knows the masonic handshake, and that he is fully aware of which members of the local police are in the lodge); it is certainly true that the rules and regulations often frustrate Morse, and this leads to disagreements with Strange – a theme also picked up by the prequel, which shows the two characters disagreeing over the importance of rules in series 1, episode 1.