(gentle music) (car door thuds) - [Ronnie] We weren't bad lads.

Not really.

Somehow we all ended up at Blenheim Vale.

Things happened there.

Awful, terrible things.

- You think Peter Williams was buried here.

- [Ronnie] He's here somewhere.

- I was born a copper and I'll die one, I expect.

(gunshot bangs) - For me to have Blenheim Vale and have that story is just genius.

Russell had had this story building from series two.

We have had, in series seven, we saw some of those characters who had protected those at the top, at the highest echelons of the police force and beyond.

And what I think is brilliant about that is how current and how relevant that is for today's audience.

- But do you really want to go over all that again?

Blenheim Vale nearly did for the pair of us last time.

We solved it.

- [Endeavour] Not all of it.

- [Charlotte] Brilliant opportunity for us to revisit certain themes, certain stories.

- You've gotta let it go.

- (scoffs) I can't.

- And I think that will pay dividends in terms of satisfaction in story denouement but also in paying off the love of the audience for some of our earlier characters as well.

- Look, what happened with Lott and what happened in the yard stays between us.

- Both of them should be tainted by Thursday's act.

He killed someone, they've been tainted by this episode that neither of them are the same and neither of them can then co-inhabit the same space because they would always be reminded of that thing.

That's really interesting territory, I think.

And then if you take it a step back, how much of it is altruistic and to save Thursday or how much of it is self-destruction?

I choose the exact day that they're gonna get married to meet this guy, to put myself in physical danger the exact day that Joan's getting married.

I mean, I think that can't be an accident.

That has to be intentional, you know?

There's a recklessness to it which I think is really interesting.

(somber music) - Mind how you go.

- Goodbye, sir.

- Endeavour.

- Morse, sir.

Just Morse.

- Thursday and Endeavour part ways because they have to.

What happens between them is, they cannot go back from that.

And it's a brilliant story and it's powerful and shocking in lots of ways.

- And I love the way Russ has written this last episode, this wonderful reference to Shakespeare's life and Shakespeare's work.

In his last play, in "The Tempest," "Our revels now are ended."

This drama that we've all been watching, enjoying, all the actors in it, all the situations, all the terrible things and all the joyful things and all the, it's life and life is a dream.

"We are such stuff as dreams are made of."

- "And our little life is rounded with a sleep."

- And it's a very poignant reference not only to Bright's own journey but all the characters and then, in the wider sphere, all of us watching and the planet and the universe.

What are we doing here?

What's all this about?

I just love it that he's given that to Bright to say.

It's not Morse.

Morse is the man who has the poetic side, the obscure side, the hidden side.

And he's always coming from left field.

Bright's always been the logic and suddenly we get this man emerging and having moments of real connection in this last episode.

- It'll be over 72 hours of Endeavour Morse and Russ has written every single episode.

I think he always wanted to feel that we had achieved everything that we wanted to do for the characters, for the stories that he'd set up from the very start.

And I think he has done that in this final series.

And, although heartbreaker for everybody that the series is ending, me included, I think everyone will see that he has done a beautiful ending and done that justice after over 10 years and nine beautiful series.

(gentle music)