[2][3][4] Series seven, set in 1970, began screening in February 2020, with the first episode shown in the United States on Masterpiece Theatre on 9 August that year.

Set in the 1960s and 1970s in Oxford, the series centres on the early career of Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans) after he left Lonsdale College in Oxford University late in his third year without completing his degree, spent a short time in the Royal Corps of Signals as a cipher clerk and then joined the Carshall-Newtown Police.

In the pilot episode, having been transferred to CID after only two years as a uniformed police constable, the young Morse soon becomes disillusioned with law enforcement and begins writing a resignation letter.

The first full series begins with Morse transferring to the Oxford City Police in 1965 following a double-murder investigation that took place during the pilot episode.

Morse is received warmly by Ch Supt Bright and DS Jakes, as DI Thursday begins to keep a more watchful eye on him.

During the investigation he suffers concussion after being struck over the head and is cared for by his nurse neighbour, Monica Hicks, in whom he takes an interest.

At the same time, PC Strange enters into Freemasonry with many of Oxford's elite, and DI Thursday's daughter, Joan, begins to take an interest in Morse.

During the course of several cases, pieces of circumstantial evidence go missing, and a murder suspect threatens Morse by claiming association with powerful men who will not take kindly to interference.

In the final episode, the looming merger of city and county police and misgivings about corruption lead Thursday to consider retirement, in response to strong hints from Ch Supt Bright about age and health.

Assistant Chief Constable Clive Deare asks Thursday and Morse to investigate corruption within the police and council covertly.

Morse is sent to a rendezvous, where he is ambushed by corrupt officers, and Thursday is lured to Blenheim Vale, a derelict former wayward boys' home, where there was rampant sexual and physical abuse (of which Jakes was a victim).

Morse is cleared of the murder of Chief Constable Standish and the records in the case of Blenheim Vale are sealed for 50 years.

After solving a faked kidnapping and tainted fruit being sold at a local supermarket, DS Jakes survives a time-bomb, retires from the force and leaves Oxford.

Thursday shows frequent signs of outbursts against suspects unwilling to co-operate during the investigations, and even uses violence as a way of extracting information.

After solving another complex murder case, Morse refuses to be affected by failing his sergeant's exam and stays in Oxford.

When he arrives at the hospital, the doctor mistakes him for a husband and shares that she has "fallen down the stairs" and regrets the accident has caused a miscarriage.

Series 5 takes place between April and November 1968, various investigations continue during the creation of Thames Valley Constabulary from the city and county police forces.

Morse, now a DS, is assigned with a new DC, George Fancy, and becomes annoyed with his lack of initiative and basic investigative skill.

The final episode, with the gang rivalry looming all over town, includes the death of DC George Fancy (who gets hit by bullets that do not match any of those of the crossfire between gangs that occurred where he was found) and the departure of WPC Shirley Trewlove to Scotland Yard, while the rest come to terms with the death and the closure of the Cowley Station.

Thursday has been demoted to Detective Inspector and now works at Castle Gate Police Station, where he is joined by Morse and Strange.

DeBryn is kidnapped and held hostage at a factory site, where Morse, Thursday, Strange and Bright confront the corrupt officers.

In Episode 2, "Raga" shows tensions between the Asian community and far-right political groups in the build-up to a general election.

Thursday is angry when Morse connects her death to his investigations into a spate of "freak accidents" around Oxford, but Strange agrees to help.

In "Scherzo", the team investigates the murder of a cab driver near a naturist resort and the seemingly unconnected shooting of a Catholic priest in his confessional.

Fred Thursday repeats his advice to Morse that "the drink is a good servant but a poor master" and advises him to take leave and get help.

In February 2016, ITV announced that a fourth series had been commissioned, which Roger Allam confirmed to the Oxford Mail,[14] with filming beginning in late spring 2016.

The ninth series was broadcast on 26 February 2023 and had the final three episodes, set in 1972 (fifteen years prior to the events that began the original Inspector Morse era).

[29] Upon its US premiere, Los Angeles Times critic Robert Lloyd called it a "suitably complicated and pictorially engaging work of period suburban mystery.

"[30] Critics have been generally favourable,[31] though even positive reviews have commented that the show's murder-mystery plots are occasionally unsatisfying convoluted puzzles[32] or come to a "rushed, melodramatic and fairly preposterous conclusion.

A region 2 DVD of the pilot at 89 minutes long was released on 9 January 2012, but, as reviewers on Amazon.co.uk have noted, does not contain the full show and many scenes aired on ITV have been cut out.