The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn

This is so nicely orchestrated. We have the murder of a man who is deaf and very ill. At a party at the outset, he overhears (actually reads the lips) of a couple men who are plotting. When it comes out that he knows something, he is quickly dispatched. But who is the murderer? This begins a merry-go-round of suspects. These people are almost all up to something. It could be a strained marriage. It could be an obsessive compulsive disorder. It could be simple loyalty. What it is is a series of clues that send Morse and Lewis down one alley and up another. What makes things even harder is that while the murder is the principle case, there are other factors dealing with security. Very nicely done.

The Silent World Of Nicolas Quinn is a well crafted episode based on Colin Dexter's book. The episode concerns the death of a man working in a syndicate, the catch being that he is deaf. The episode is certainly intriguing, being fairly faithful to the book, while cutting some bits out, and has the advantage of a very good cast. The script is excellently written, I particularly loved Morse's "No it isn't, Morse's law is that we have time for one more pint" which is a mere contradiction to the principle we hear him utter at the beginning, "Morse's law is that whoever finds the body is the murderer", a principle that isn't strictly true, and perhaps an emphasis on the fact that Morse is a good inspector but a poor policeman. John Thaw is more than excellent as Morse, especially when he is being attacked by Roger Lloyd Pack, and when Lewis comes to the rescue, it feels ironic that Morse is less than gratifying towards the young sergeant. Kevin Whately is as charming as ever as Lewis, and the likes of Clive Swift, Barbara Flynn, Michael Gough and Anthony Smee offer their talents. All in all, a very intriguing episode. 10/10 Bethany Cox.

The first episode of Morse was okay but not great. While intriguing, it felt a bit clumsy, never got into a rhythm, the revelation of the perpetrator was so low-key I was sure the episode had some time left to go and very little was explained in the end.

This, the second episode, is better but it still feels a bit rough and unfinished. There's red herrings and twists galore, with very little explained. It's intriguing and more coherent than Episode 1 but there's still room for improvement.

Morse and Lewis are called in to investigate the murder of Nicholas Quinn, an examiner at Oxford University who's gone to his superiors with suspicions of wrong doings amongst his peers. Quinn is hard of hearing.

I've just finished reading the book, and noticed quite a few changes, Quinn gets more build up time in the book, and his character is given more layers.

Even before reading the book, I've always struggled with this episode, I find it the only flat entry, I'd go so far as to say I find it quite boring, even the production/filming is a little staid.

The best thing about the episode is the performance of Roger Lloyd Pack, very good as Donald Martin.

The weakest entry, it's not bad, it's just a little flat, 5/10