Get Ready: Endeavour Season 8
Have you been missing Shaun Evans, Roger Allam, and all the gripping mysteries they solve on Endeavour? We have, too. Luckily, the premiere of Endeavour Season 8 is officially just around the corner on MASTERPIECE on PBS! Get ready for three all-new episodes with everything we know so far, and some teasers from Evans and Allam about where we pick up with their characters after that harrowing Season 7 finale. [Note: This feature contains Season 7 spoilers.]
- 1.
Season 8 Premiere Date
Mark your calendars: Season 8 is officially premiering on Sunday, June 19 at 9pm. The all-new season has three thrilling episodes, airing Sundays, June 19 through July 3, from 9-11pm ET on MASTERPIECE.
- 2.
What's the New Season About?
New year (it’s 1971), new cases, and new struggles lie ahead for Morse, Thursday, and their team. While still reeling from the events of the past year, they’re summoned to investigate cases involving IRA relations, and a string of murders that may end up threatening not just the public, but the detectives themselves.
After Violetta’s tragic death at the end of Season 7, Endeavour has spiraled deeper and deeper, struggling with the loss, guilt, and love weighing heavy on his heart and mind. But crime doesn’t stop for heartache, and the trouble in Oxford is bigger than ever.
As tensions rise outside and inside the team, Endeavour and Thursday find themselves continually at odds. The question is, will their relationship withstand the strain?
“[Series Writer] Russell Lewis has really done a great job with the scripts,” Evans said about the new season, especially with Endeavour’s mental health struggles. “Human beings are so complex. People want to label things and explain them away. But you can’t. One of the beauties of being able to do something long form like this where we return to it again year on year is that hopefully you have the opportunity to show that in a way that’s a little more subtle. That has always been the intention from us all.”
- 3.
Season 8 Episodes
Season 8 has three all-new episodes, running on Sundays, June 19 through July 3, airing from 9pm to 11pm (ET). Here’s what you can expect this season…
Episode 1: Striker
An explosive murder at an Oxford college has potentially far-reaching political ramifications. Meanwhile, Endeavour is tasked with guarding the life of a beloved football team’s star striker. Premiering Sunday, June 19 at 9/8c.Episode 2: Scherzo
On the outskirts of Oxford, a cab driver is found murdered in his taxi. The investigation into his death leads Endeavour and the team down a surprising path. Endeavour receives a guest who reminds him of a past he’d sooner forget. Premiering Sunday, June 26 at 9/8c.Episode 3: Terminus
In the cold of winter, the team is called to investigate the violent killing of an Oxford college don. Thursday receives news that creates tension at home. Premiering Sunday, July 3 at 9/8c. - 4.
The Scoop from Shaun Evans
About Endeavour: Endeavour Morse, maybe more than ever, is fighting inner demons — a fight he may be losing. After losing Violetta two months before the start of Season 8, he’s been dealing with her loss in all the wrong ways.
“When we pick Endeavour up in February 1971, he is drinking too much, not coming into work, phoning in sick quite a bit,” Evans revealed. “That’s what we see over the course of the whole season. That getting slowly worse.”
His struggles don’t affect just himself and his own career, but his relationship with Thursday, as well. “Thursday was with Morse when Violetta died at the end of the last season. At the beginning of this series it’s more about concern. Thursday can cut him some slack but he sees that Morse is not turning in on time and when he is coming in he’s not presenting very well. Always looking a bit scruffy and stinking of booze…I think it’s a slow dawning for Thursday over the course of the season.”
On Directing: This season also presented a chance for Evans to, once again, step behind the camera and direct an episode (Episode 1). After first directing an Endeavour episode in Season 6, Evans was excited to have the responsibility once again — even with the extra challenge of doing so during a global pandemic.
“One of the wonderful things about it was, it just brought everyone together at the very beginning,” he admitted. “How are we going to make this work while keeping everyone safe? It was a tireless effort from the crew. I have to take my hat off to them. It was also an extraordinary learning curve. That is one of the great things about directing and producing as well. You are certainly part of a team… You want to make it the best it can be. Tell the stories and do justice to [series writer] Russell [Lewis]’s work and everyone else’s work. That spurs me on.”
- 5.
The Scoop from Roger Allam
About Thursday: While Endeavour battles his own inner demons, Thursday straddles the line between being concerned for his partner and friend, and the frustration of Endeavour’s work suffering as a result, Allam explained.
“[Thursday] is always defensive of Morse and perhaps tries to put to the back of his mind any concern, anxiety or worry about how he is,” he explained. “But, again, as the series progresses and Morse misses days at work it just becomes too much to ignore.”
He continued, “As is the way of these things, especially in those days, it’s all ignored. No-one speaks about it until it is really necessary to do so. I don’t think Thursday realizes how bad Morse’s drinking problem is at first. It was a drinking culture then and Morse has always drunk, ever since they introduced him to the notion in the pilot episode. But it’s now very serious.”
About the Time Period: Allam also described the new storylines taking place in the early seventies, and how the events of the times perhaps foreshadow what’s still to come for the world. It’s a time period Allam himself remembers quite well.
“In the 1960s there were assassinations in America, including of President John Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. As a young child I remember seeing the assassination of Kennedy on the television. Seeing adults crying. It had an enormous impact on me as a child… The 1960s was when we first saw a lot of those things on the television news more regularly, which we didn’t before.”
“Then when we move into the 1970s, not only do you get domestic trouble in Northern Ireland which is much closer to home, then you get the oil crisis. The sense of people’s lives improving materially is lost. And maybe that reduces the feeling of optimism around.”
- 6.
How to Watch Season 8 & Catch Up
Want to catch up on last season, or even start from the very beginning? When you watch Endeavour with PBS Passport, an added member benefit, you can see all the previous seasons on your own schedule. Also, as a PBS Passport viewer, you’ll be able to binge all three episodes of Season 8 starting Sunday, June 19, 2022, 9/8c.
