If y’all feel the need to test your IQ, may I humbly suggest that you either read Colin Dexter’s Morse books or – even better – watch the TV series. And then watch the follow-on series, Lewis.
Morse (fictional) studied Classics at Oxford University but he never completed the course and earned the name PAGAN.
He became a policeman with Thames Valley.
The Dead of Jericho is the first. And episode by episode, book by book, y’all’ll be taken into a world of classical history, mythology, opera, Wagner, poetry, crosswords, murder, literature, betrayal, true friendship overlaid by a veneer of condescension, love, sexual perversion, Shakespeare, fantasy, religion, Freemasons, biography, lies, museums, infidelity, art, complete bravery, isolation, cricket, empathy, astronomy, gross satanic choice, rape, revenge, Jacobean Tragic Literature and some of the most haunting music ever composed.
It’s a challenge that gives so much more back than is taken.
The Remorseful Day was the last book, last episode.
John Thaw became Morse. Kevin Whately was Lewis – that everyman challenged day and night by a greater intellect than his own. But Lewis learned from Morse, his tormentor and his MENTOR.
Beautiful.
Housman, anyone?
Oh. Lewis becomes the Inspector but unlike Morse, who was given a common-man- Sergeant, Lewis is given an ex-Theology student with a guitar. James Hathaway played by Laurence Fox (now an ex-actor and banned from earning his living.)