Endeavour's Shaun Evans

DSTV
Get your detective shoes on and join Endeavour Morse in his earlier days in the mystery business. Set in Oxford in 1967, follow Endeavour and the Oxford City Police CID as they take on a number of investigations, keeping you on your toes. Shaun Evans (Endeavour Morse) takes the time to chat about his role and what we can expect.
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How does it feel to be back? Do you enjoy returning to the character?
It’s great. I do really enjoy it. I’m very lucky to be able to finish a series and then have the option of coming back, so I can see if there is room for improvement. It’s very satisfying to be able to do that.

What compels him to work as a policeman?
Working out puzzles; working out something that no one else can see in an intuitive, imaginative way. He finds that quite satisfying.

What can we expect from Season 3?
This is the first time we have shot Endeavour in summer so it looks and feels lighter, but the stories are still quite dark. We’ve had brilliant actors and characters throughout these last few years like Sean Rigby, Anton Lesser, and Sara Vickers, and this series everyone gets their moment. We’ve only seen small parts of their stories so far but now it all starts to come together. We couldn’t have done that previously, you need to build in order to break your heart.

What is your favourite film from this series and why?
The fourth film is my favourite. It’s a really good story and it’s really well told. There’s a lot going on in it, not just one thing, but many things and different layers of stories coming together. It’s a really satisfying, heart-breaking story with a terrific cast.

Season 3 is set in 1967. What differences has that brought and do we see any historical moments from that era?
We start to see the psychedelic 60s of drug culture and free love. It’s important to bring those elements into the story because it’s what was going on at the time. These aren’t documentaries, it’s an amazing world to set a drama in and explore. These stories work best in the world that we’ve created for the drama. In the 60s so much was going on, it’s sort of infinite, the pool that you can draw from. So when we create it really well, that’s when the story’s really engaging.

What is it about the character of Morse that audience’s love?
It’s an oddity isn’t it? This is a young man who’s into opera, into crosswords, and yet is in a world in which that isn’t really indulged. His mind works in a very specific way. But if you were to put that character in a story that wasn’t well told or well-constructed then people wouldn’t be fascinated or engaged by it. There’s no separation, the character works because the stories work. When the stories don’t work, the character doesn’t work. It works as a whole, not as individual pieces.

Have you enjoyed playing Endeavour this series?
There’s certainly been moments where I’ve thought, ‘this is an incredible job.’ There was a moment shooting at midnight and they’d decorated one of the colleges, we all had tuxedos on, and there was a band playing, and an orchestra; it was an amazing moment. I find it incredibly satisfying and gratifying.
We get to roam through the streets of Oxford at one/two o’clock in the morning, it’s fun! It’s also a great team of people.