User Reviews

When a church warden is found dead under suspicious circumstances, Morse has a race against time to catch a serial killer....There are a total of six murders to solve, although Morse's prime suspect is one of the victims who meets a rather sticky end....The only connection between the victims was that they all attended the same church service....Could a seemingly innocent woman Morse takes a liking to be involved? Service of all the Dead is a rather ridiculous story that doesn't seem to have the thrill of most of the Morse franchise, even if the conclusion to the case is rather good.

As usual, John Thaw and Kevin Whately put in cherished performances, but it isn't enough to take away from the fact that Service of all the Dead is a slightly weak and over the top edition of this legendary police drama.

This was a rather subdued final episode for the first series. 6/10

I personally prefer the middle years of Morse, in the second series they really did seem to get into their stride, after a great first episode I found the two that followed somewhat unremarkable.

Service of all the dead has some very memorable moments, a good start, a cracking ending, but there are two things I'm not a fan of. Firstly, Morse moons after Ruth like a lovesick puppy, almost to the point of being obsessive, and secondly the story is very confusing, the motives for the murders seem wafer thin.

It's Morse, so it's still a very fine watch, Thaw and Whateley are as wonderful as ever, plus it works as a mystery, you are left guessing. It has a very dark, gothic feel to it, the music is perfect.

I really didn't care for the character of Ruth Rawlinson, although John Normington is very good here, if very creepy.

Pretty good, but much better episodes would follow, 6/10.

This is a superb episode in the Morse canon and improves upon repeated viewing. The direction and camera work is wonderful, full of quirky angles, dark lighting, riveting close-ups, unusual tracking shots. The later episodes in this brilliant show were a little more bland and safe regarding the cinematography. It's certainly not a weak episode, but definitely one of the more challenging ones. It has a great late 80's feel to it.. the grey summer, the parked 80's cars, the females dresses and hair styles. John Thaw and Kevin Whately play their respective roles with realism and warmth. I think I prefer this earlier version of Thaw's Morse rather than the pompous and aloof persona of the later episodes.

I love any mystery that keeps me guessing and this was one of them. I found the church a great atmospheric creepy place for murder. Morse's attempt at relationships show a man who's plainly out of practice and you have to feel sorry for him. I never trusted the woman of his affections in this episode....but...well you'll see. The camaraderie between Morse and Lewis just gets better and better with each episode. There is a homage to Hitchcock's Vertigo..All in all a very intriguing storyline. Just one thing, Morse always seems to get the crap knocked out of him in every episode..time for another pint.

I have had a lifetime of brushes with the figure of Morse and have resolved to delve deeper into the character/earlier works. Although I've read a full Morse novel by Colin Dexter, seen a fair bit of the Endeavour TV prequels (multiple series) and seen a few episodes of the Inspector Lewis TV sequels, "Service of All the Dead" is actually the first of the original Morse TV show episodes I've watched in full and as an adult. And it surprised me by impressing me--and unsettling me, not an easy feat.

As you can tell from the above, I have had only a semi-solid impression of Morse the character. I decided to dive into focused viewings of the original TV adaptations--and aside from a sharp-tongued, opera-loving guv'nor and his less urbane sidekick, I wasn't sure what to expect.

I didn't expect what "Service" offered: less-common cinematography (e.g. weird, almost voyeuristic camera angles; reflections of actors in objects other than mirrors) and editing choices plus stark, un-melodramatic murder and suicide tableaux, all combining to leave an unsettling impression on the viewer. The creepy "high church" Anglican choral and discordant organ music contributed to the effect.

As I was watching, I felt a progressive sense of dread, one that was often fulfilled/confirmed. It's the polar opposite to the atmosphere of a show like, say, Midsomer Murders, which even in its earliest 90s episodes was saturated with an (enjoyable) air of camp and with perpetually low stakes. Service, like Midsomer, has a rather high number of connected murders in short order---but the murders in Service always feel ominous, the stakes remaining high, even intensifying.

Having read a Colin Dexter novel, I expected Morse's dealings with women to be fraught with tiresome (by this point in the history of literature) and belittling female cliches. And sure enough, "Service" includes those...however, I was willing to overlook that silliness (and Morse's unprofessionalism in dealing with female witnesses) because of the arresting performance of Angela Morant.

She plays a beautiful, raven-haired, late 40s caretaker of both the local church and her disabled mother. I wished she could have played a more original character but she did it very well and I couldn't look away when she was on screen. The final scene with her, with the famous Morse musical score by Barrington Pheloung (RIP as of 18 days ago) beginning to play, was enough to make me forgive the slightly lacking characterization.

That plot is why I gave 8 stars rather than 10. It suddenly, in the last 10 minutes of the episode, became convoluted, with a somewhat unlikely twist stubbornly half-concealed until the last possible minute.

I can't get worked up denouncing the plot development, though. The rest of the episode was so enjoyably tense and memorable that I think it's worth owning and rewatching. I agree with a previous reviewer that Lewis' facial expressions during a perilous moment for a suspect were excellent, and the director's and editors' choices to hold the shot, watching his expression unfold, were so incredibly effective compared to a standard TV show which would have cut away after the requisite three seconds.

I'm really excited now to continue my deep dive into the Morse TV films of the 80s and 90s. I was too young then to appreciate this character and the combined efforts of the TV writers, director and editors. A job well done by all.

There was something rather endless about this episode. Part of the problem was that we had characters misidentified. When a man is found stabbed in a church, Morse is brought in. This quickly leads to him becoming enamored with a woman who is employed by the church. She is in control of cleaning and sprucing up the church. It is obvious that she also participates in other ways. As time goes by, we begin to have a series of murders or suicides, all of which are connected. What is interesting is that the service that began all this was never announced to the congregation but there were thirteen participants. A negative factor, to me, was Morse's hurried relationship with the woman. Still, even though this was not the best episode, it still is superior to most of its kind.

Our curmudgeonly, beer loving, DCI Morse gets his, er, man after the usual twists and turns, ably assisted by Lewis.

This is a pretty good episode of the long-running series, well made, well photographed, and well performed. If the plot seems convoluted, be thankful that the original Dexter novel was adapted in the way it was; it could have been worse.

Nice cameo by Michael Horndern, too.

Like many Morse episodes, well worth watching a second time, this one.

The first two episodes of Morse were okay but disappointing; plot was a bit clumsy and seemed more about style than substance. Red herrings and twists galore with not much being explained at the end.

This episode is more intriguing and, as a big positive, everything is explained at the end (and it certainly needed explaining!). Still a bit rough around the edges: Morse getting involved with a woman who is a potential suspect and then helping her out later was highly unprofessional.

Still, it is very intriguing and entertaining. The Morse-Lewis dynamic is always interesting.

Now this is a brilliant story. There's bodies aplenty and a great mystery.

Of course there's no swearing or nudity or graphic violence.

Hence some of the negative reviews.

Morse is supreme. Sadly, I suspect its too sedate for today's tastes.

That's why I like it so much.

Television for purists not the puerile.

The whole plot is completely unconvincing, and the romance borders on cringeworthy.

I've loved the "Inspector Lewis" and "Endeavour" series but they are miles beyond the original series in the quality of scripts and the character development. Aside from too many of the plots just being silly, the Morse character is annoying. He's hit on a female murder suspect or a close relative of the deceased in every episode I've watched and never taken no for an answer. I get it that it was filmed in the 1980s and 1990s. A slip or two over a matter of many years might be forgiven but the constancy of the plot device and how it always distracts Morse makes him look like a 12-year-old with a very poor emotional IQ. He's also a whiner.

I agree with all the negative reviews on this episode. Even the acting is terrible - almost laughable. It makes Morse seem like an idiot - incapable of solving anything!

Slow moving, poor plot. The characters are totally unengaging, particularly the female lead. The two conclusions are weak, including the motivations of the leading character, and Morse's actions at the very end of the episode. One of the very few episodes I can't even sit through.

My mother used to watch Morse on PBS because she liked the setting and "that nice man Lewis", but she did not like Morse. After watching the first three episodes of this series on BritBox, I agree with her assessment.

Morse appears to be perpetually annoyed that he has to do his job, is needlessly rude to Lewis and worst of all, when it comes to female witnesses and/or suspects, he behaves like a stalker. His behavior towards the female lead in this episode was highly inappropriate. And that's before he commits perjury on her behalf.

As for the storyline, there are numerous murders but no sense of urgency from Morse. He doesn't even solve the mystery; he just prevents the final murder in the killer's scheme.

And the "clever" filming is amateurish -- too many shots of characters in mirrors, reflections of windows, etc. Looks like the work of a first year film student from the '60s.

Season 1, and especially this episode, were a huge disappointment.