Inspector Morse: Fat Chance (1991)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Written by Alma Cullen, based upon the novels of Colin Dexter
Directed by Roy Battersby
Starring John Thaw, Kevin Whately, Maurice Denham, Zoe Wanamaker, Maggie O’Neill

Features:

• Biographies
  
• Filmographies
  
• Trivia
  

Released by: BFS
Region: 1
Rating: NR
Anamorphic: N/A; appears in its original 1.33:1 format.

My Advice: Check it out.

Once again Morse and Lewis are called upon to save the day, when a young, bright deacon, Dr. Victoria Hazlett, collapses and dies during her examinations. Bidding fair to be the first female chaplain of the conservative St. Saviour’s College in Oxford, was young Hazlett done in by other female clerics jealous of her talent? Or was the Old Guard horrified by the potential shake-up of their patriarchal stranglehold on the Anglican church?

This is a particularly interesting episode as we watch Morse try to unravel his feelings for Emma, as well as his feelings about the killers. At one point, Lewis is forced to give Morse some bad news, and watching the two of them interact in that scene is wonderful, revealing not only the talents of the actors, but the hidden depths of each character.

The features are consistent with the other discs in this series; we have select biographies and filmographies, presenting information you’ve seen before if you have already sampled this series. On the other hand, you don’t have to buy an entire series to get this information. We also get a nice selection of trivia--random bits of information about Morse, the novels, and this episode. Very interesting stuff.

The quality of the audio and video presentation is solid. It’s a pleasure to see TV made a decade ago still work as though it was being shown this week; the overall look of the show isn’t as dated as you might think, nor are the concepts, plot points, or ideas. The colors are, if not lush, at least bright, almost the way they would be on TV today. Again, if you have any complaints about the way this show looks and sounds, you’re being way too picky about how your mysteries look.

All in all, this is a very interesting episode. We get to see not only a lot of interesting character interaction, especially between Morse and Lewis, and Morse and Emma, but we also learn a bit about the way women’s rights stand within the Church of England. If you enjoy mysteries or police dramas, then you definitely check Inspector Morse out. Fans of modern dramas will also appreciate these films, as they quite a bit about the lives and motivations of the main characters. Some mysteries spend too much time trying to dazzle the audience with the detective’s cleverness (and thereby the author’s cleverness), instead of giving you a solid story with interesting characters. Colin Dexter and the screenplay authors know better and instead give you a good show that’s just plain fun and interesting to watch.