Endeavour star wanted Thursday to "die in a blaze of glory"
Roger Allam has discussed his initial hopes for his character's ending.
Amongst the many other things covered in the Endeavour finale, the closing instalment of the drama finally revealed why Inspector Morse never speaks about Fred Thursday in the original series – but star Roger Allam has revealed he initially wanted a rather different ending for his character.
Allam – who has played Thursday in all nine seasons of the show – said that there was a part of him that hoped he might be killed off at the end of season 9, although he was ultimately satisfied with the ending he did get.
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"At one point, I did want to die in a blaze of glory, fighting off all the bad guys!" he said during an interview with Digital Spy. "But I knew that wouldn’t work – because then, why would Morse never mention Fred Thursday? Also, I can see how it might overbalance the story because a lot of the regular characters’ stories have to be dealt with."
He added: "I think I really do like it [the ending Thursday gets]. I think it’s very good."
In the end, as had previously been teased by Allam, it was revealed that it was a "huge crisis" in the Thursday family which eventually led to a parting of ways between the two detectives.
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Towards the end of the episode, it was revealed that Thursday had killed Tomohawk – a member of a biker gang involved in drug dealing who had been threatening his son Sam.
After working out what had happened and fearing possible retribution, Endeavour instructed his friend to go into hiding – telling him that they can never see one another again. Their final scenes see Fred handing his gun to Endeavour, who tells him "Goodbye, sir" – a mirror of what Inspector Lewis had said to Morse when he died.
Shaking hands one last time, Fred affectionately refers to Endeavour by his first name, but the Detective Sergeant replies: "Morse, sir. Just Morse."
Endeavour's season 9 finale and all episodes are available to stream on ITVX now. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on.
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Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
