Service of All the Dead

This is a superb episode in the Morse canon and improves upon repeated viewing. The direction and camera work is wonderful, full of quirky angles, dark lighting, riveting close-ups, unusual tracking shots. The later episodes in this brilliant show were a little more bland and safe regarding the cinematography. It's certainly not a weak episode, but definitely one of the more challenging ones. It has a great late 80's feel to it.. the grey summer, the parked 80's cars, the females dresses and hair styles. John Thaw and Kevin Whately play their respective roles with realism and warmth. I think I prefer this earlier version of Thaw's Morse rather than the pompous and aloof persona of the later episodes.

There was something rather endless about this episode. Part of the problem was that we had characters misidentified. When a man is found stabbed in a church, Morse is brought in. This quickly leads to him becoming enamored with a woman who is employed by the church. She is in control of cleaning and sprucing up the church. It is obvious that she also participates in other ways. As time goes by, we begin to have a series of murders or suicides, all of which are connected. What is interesting is that the service that began all this was never announced to the congregation but there were thirteen participants. A negative factor, to me, was Morse's hurried relationship with the woman. Still, even though this was not the best episode, it still is superior to most of its kind.

The whole plot is completely unconvincing, and the romance borders on cringeworthy.

There are a number of negative reviews of this episode and though in principle I agree that the storyline is absurd and utterly unbelievable this is how UK crime dramas generally work.

If you want watertight plots and police procedures then I highly recommend the French cop drama 'Spiral', if you prefer flights of fancy then this episode will be right up your street.

When a church warden is found dead under suspicious circumstances, Morse has a race against time to catch a serial killer....There are a total of six murders to solve, although Morse's prime suspect is one of the victims who meets a rather sticky end....The only connection between the victims was that they all attended the same church service....Could a seemingly innocent woman Morse takes a liking to be involved? Service of all the Dead is a rather ridiculous story that doesn't seem to have the thrill of most of the Morse franchise, even if the conclusion to the case is rather good.

As usual, John Thaw and Kevin Whately put in cherished performances, but it isn't enough to take away from the fact that Service of all the Dead is a slightly weak and over the top edition of this legendary police drama.

This was a rather subdued final episode for the first series. 6/10