The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn

Julian Mitchell

13^th January 1987

A partially deaf exam setter dies of poison, and then a colleague at the Foreign Exams syndicate is killed with a poker

Correcting Lewis' grammar " Worked – worked, Lewis – he's dead isn't he ?"

"You know Morse's Law – there's always a 50-50 chance that the man who found the body did the deed"

"I always drink at lunchtime. It helps my imagination"

On not believing any of the suspects "It's what we're supposed to think; that's why we don't think it"

On being a bachelor "No woman would put up with me – I play my records too loud"

On getting it wrong " The trouble with my method, Lewis, is that it's inspirational, and so sometimes I get things arse about face"

By the end "Morse's law is that there's always time for one more pint"

Using Morse's law v1 " Well I was going to arrest him on the spot, but I thought I'd let you have that pleasure"

On seeing Morse at home "I wish I had time to read more books"

Saving Morse from the killer "Need a hand sir ?"

Think long and hard about a fire drill, a shopping receipt, a cinema ticket and a lip-reading demonstration.

Someone decided to raid the DW back catalogue, as we get Clive 'Jobel' Swift, Elspet 'Thalia' Grey, Michael 'Hedin' Gough (perhaps it was an Arc in Infinity fan), Frederick 'Brotadac' Treves and Roger 'Lumic' Lloyd pack (oh, that's in the future). And there's a huge missed opportunity for a Dominators onscreen reunion between Arthur 'Cully' Cox and Philip 'Wahed' Voss

Barbara Flynn has played more cool, collected, all-together strong women than most people have had hot dinners, but probably at her peak as Fitz's wife in Cracker.

Mr Dexter is living it up in the swanky drinks reception at the very start of the story

Very little changes, although Quinn lives in a rented flat on an estate rather than a quaint cottage, and the cinema has a much more interesting film showing....

Includes

A section from Der Frieschutz by Weber (when Morse gets the phone call)

Overture to The Meistersingers by Wagner (being conducted by Dr Bartlett's disturbed son)

Concerto Grosso Op3 No2 by Handel 2^nd movement (Morse at home 82:00)

That's the second story we seen Morse listening to Handel, even though in a later story he suggests anything is almost better than it.

On a personal note the Meistersinger overture sounds very exciting but playing it as a second violin I found I could be playing almost anything since no-one could hear me as I was sat directly in front of the horn section.

One of my all time favourites, which probably works so well because so little is changed from the book. The story structure is very solid and yet many of the conventions of the detective story are overturned. Its a nice touch of 'writing what you know about' that Colin Dexter uses his own partial deafness as an interesting yet vital part of his victim's character. The cast are obviously relishing the quality of the production, and in particular Thaw really nails the brilliant yet so often wrong side of Morse's character.

~~~

The story is peppered with usages of the words “bloody” and “hell”, from a variety of characters, and frequently in conjunction with each other, for example: “Where the bloody hell is she?”

Morse himself keeps up his own good work from the previous story, pointing out : “This isn’t a story – it’s a bloody murder, Lewis!” He also calls Phillip Ogilvy “a right sod” when he learns that he has been the brains behind some particularly cryptic crossword clues, says “Christ!” and “Shit!” in rapid succession when he realises that he’s been after the wrong man, and then, at the story’s climax, he rises to the occasion with aplomb when being attacked by the real killer:

Lewis: “Need a hand, sir?”
Morse: “GET THE BASTARD OFF ME!"