Shaun Evans – Making Morse his own

Between them, Inspector Morse and Lewis spent 20 years pulling in huge audiences.

And spin-off Endeavour, about the young Morse, delighted eight million viewers with its pilot episode last year.

So you can see why ITV bosses would hope it might be another long-runner to replace Lewis, which finished in January.

It’s back for a four-part series this week.

But suggest to star Shaun Evans that any handcuffs being brandished are golden ones to tie him to make more and he’s quick to shoot down the notion.

“It wouldn’t happen that way for me,” says the quietly determined actor who is very firm about his views on the series.

“I’ll make a judgement after these episodes go out, depending on how things go.

“I’d never want to be complacent that we’re going to get an audience for any job I do.

“We’ve made four and it was an incredible experience to play one character for more than a year really.

“So if a line was to be drawn underneath it now, that wouldn’t take away from what we’ve done.”

Liverpudlian Shaun has recently starred in Silk, Whitechapel and ITV’s chilling drama The Last Weekend, so you can see why he’s not keen on being tied down to one role.

But he admits he was happy to come back after the one-off Endeavour.

And while his character is the younger version of the curmudgeonly cop played by John Thaw, Shaun says he’s doing it very much on his own terms.

“I read a few of the books but only after they offered me the job,” he confides.

“I told them I wouldn’t be doing an impression and if they wanted someone to do that then they needed to look elsewhere.

“Unless you have the freedom to create something new it’s going to be boring for me to come to work and boring to watch.

“It has to be its own show. I watched one or two Morse’s but only because they happened to be on.

“I think they’re good and it’s no accident they had the audience they did.

“They were great shows, well made and with a very charismatic actor. But they feel like such a separate thing from what we’ve done.”

Shaun may not be doing a John Thaw impression but he does get behind the wheel of the iconic red Jaguar if briefly.

“It’s a beautiful car to drive but it was just, ‘Reverse it here Shaun,’” he smiles.

“So it was hardly like I was spinning it from Land’s End to John O’Groats.”