A Quickie with... Shaun Evans

Lisa Howells - Heat Magazine 7-13 January 2017

In our mental Hierarchy of TV Hotness, Young Morse takes the top spot. His soulful face and moody sleuthing do more to get us through dreary Sunday nights in January than any amount marshmallow-cramed hot chocolate. The fourth series opens in the summer of 67 - Joan Thursday has left and Morse is anxiously awaiting the results of his Sergeant's exam. Eager to take his mind off his troubles, he's called to what looks like a suicide when a research scientist working on a project involving computers that "think" (how very modern) is found drowned. But, when more bodies turn up, Morse is soon plunged into a baffling - and highly dangerous - case.

What can we expect from this fourth series?
The first episode is classic Endeavour. Oxford, uni, chess. The second is set in a mansion house where a band's recording an album. The third one set in a hospital is more Scandi noir, as is by a great Icelandic director. And the fourth is in a power station.

How's Morse doing now?
At the beginning, he's feeling optimistic about work, but not great about his personal life. But things soon go wrong, and he gets a bit "F**k this!" [Laughs] You've also got DI Thursday mooning about now Joan's left, and that has a big impact on their relationship.

Why is the show such a hit?
It's about having a good story and telling it well. But we're lucky. It's one thing to have a great idea, another for someone to pay for it. We change location nearly every day and it's always, "Incredible stately home!", "Really big mansion house!".

It goes to some dark places for a Sunday night drama...
We all say when we're working on it, "The darker, the better." There's no point pretending it's something it's not, but that's not to say it has to be lukewarm. It could fall into the trap of being safe, the fact that it doesn't lies with the writer and the team.

Morse is pretty useless with women - does he have more luck this time?
Yeah, he ballsed it right up with Nurse Monica, but she was just too nice. He needs someone who's a bit more [thinks] "Grrr". But Monica comes back, so we get to end that in a better way. And things with Joan take a twist, which is quite satisfying. It can be frustrating for me, too, I'm like "Why isn't Morse saying anything? Why isn't he speaking up?". But the writer says, "Please, just trust me on this." And he gets is right. 

Does any of the script ever go over your head?
So much of it! I always want to make it as simple as possible, but that's the style. It's set at Oxford and the writer has chosen to make the stories complex and the characters verbose. But my friends always say to me, "Bloody hell, it's complicated, isn't it?"