Blenheim Vale: A Refresher for Endeavour’s Final Season
In Endeavour‘s ninth and final season, the old unsolved case surrounding Blenheim Vale resurfaces, and Morse’s dogged investigation leads to the shocking discovery of buried bodies. But if your memories of the events around Blenheim Vale also need to be unearthed, we are here to help…no backhoe required!
Contains Significant Spoilers for Endeavour Season 2, Episode 4: Neverland, Season 9, Episode 1: Prelude and Episode 2: Uniform!
- 1.
What Endeavour Episode is about Blenheim Vale?
The events around Blenheim Vale were first featured in Endeavour Season2, Episode 4: Neverland.
- 2.
What Was Blenheim Vale in Endeavour?
Blenheim Vale was a residential home for wayward boys that closed in 1955. In Neverland, the Blenheim Vale property is being proposed by developer Joe Landesman and his powerful crony Alderman Gerald Wintergreen as the site of the new police headquarters.
- 3.
What Happened in Blenheim Vale in Endeavour?
In Neverland, when Morse and Thursday investigate the murder of an escaped prisoner who’d been found beaten and drowned, their investigation unveils horrific sexual and physical abuse of the children then in residence by the very people—now pillars of Oxford society—charged with their protection. The home’s director, Gerald Wintergreen, and developer Joe Landesman, took the boys to hotels and guest houses where unthinkable abuse occurred. In an attempt at revenge, a group of the boys blew up Wintergreen’s car, and their ringleader, Big Pete, was taken away as punishment for the arson, never to return. When George Aldridge went to the police about it, he was accused of lying and the report was suppressed. Some of the abused boys made an “all for one and one for all” pact to convene within one week should any of them sense they were in danger, and years later, a journalist’s investigation (and subsequent murder) into connections between Blenheim Vale and Landesman Construction put their pact into action.
The six boys were murder victim George Aldridge, ventriloquist Ben Topping, Edward Spencer, who later hanged himself because of the abuse, Henry Patmore, who later married Edward’s sister, Hilary, “Big Pete” Williams, and a young boy nicknamed “Little Pete.” Morse’s investigation finds Henry and his wife Hilary living on the property at Blenheim Vale in a house that had belonged to the school’s doctor in order to conduct an historical dig, ostensibly to look for a Neolithic barrow, but actually in search of the body of Peter Williams, who they’re convinced was killed and buried there. But the dig was shut down shortly after Landesman Construction acquired Blenheim Vale.
As the case unspools and the tension heightens, at a critical moment, Morse learns that DS Peter Jakes is Little Pete, a survivor of abuse at Blenheim Vale.
Morse eventually learns that it was ACC Clive Deare and his lackey DI Chard who had suppressed the investigation into the events at Blenheim Vale back in the day. Deare was part of the cover up and conspiracy, and knowing he’s in danger of exposure, he tries to have Chard shoot Morse. Morse escapes and hightails it to the Blenheim Vale, where Deare has lured Thursday into a trap. Deare appears, shoots Thursday, then reveals that he has set Morse up to take the fall, not just for shooting Thursday but for strangling Chief Constable Standish. Before Deare is able to kill Endeavour and frame him for the killings, Angela Fairchild, daughter of the school’s doctor and herself a childhood victim of the abuse, steps out of the shadows and shoots Deare before turning the gun on herself.
The episode ends with Morse behind bars and Thursday fighting for his life.
- 4.
Blenheim Vale Connections in Season 9 Episodes Prelude and Uniform
The events of Blenheim Vale revealed corruption, secrets, and lies at the highest level of the police and in Oxford society. Thursday survived his injuries, Morse was exonerated, and the shooting of Thursday was attributed to a “mental breakdown suffered by ACC Clive Deare.” But further investigations were deemed “not in the matter of National Interest” and the case was sealed. Wintergreen and Deare were dead, but Landesman was never caught, and it’s not until Season 9, Episode 1: Prelude that we hear about him again. Here’s what to know:
When a corpse with a connection to Landesman Construction is found, Bright reveals that no one had seen Joe Landesman for six years, with Thursday adding, “The one that got away. There’s talk from Interpol he’d went abroad. Spain. Portugal. The company had property there. Holiday hotels, I think.”
The remains of “Big Pete,” or Peter Williams, have never been found, but he’s presumed to be buried somewhere at Blenheim Vale.
In Uniform, Blenheim Vale appears again, not just on the cover art of a detective series book—painted by a man who’s been killed—but in a connection with London gangsters so threatening that their visit has PI Ronnie Box on the run.
Peter Jakes has returned from his home in the US.
- 5.
Also Noteworthy
It’s in Neverland, when Morse and Thursday are trapped at Blenheim Vale and waiting for Deare that Morse recites part of the A.E. Housman poem, “How Clear, How Lovely Bright.”
The dead man found in Season 9 Episode 1: Prelude is soon identified as Andrew Lewis, from the North East. Any relation…?
