"There has to be heartbreak” for Endeavour Morse, says Shaun Evans

Speaking to RadioTimes.com, actor Shaun Evans (who plays the eponymous detective) revealed that while season seven may spell yet more romantic misery for the young detective, audiences need to see Endeavour get his heart broken, in order for the events of the original series Inspector Morse (starring John Thaw) to make sense.

"What we meet in the Inspector Morse series, or indeed if you pick up the books [by author Colin Dexter], there's a guy who never ends up getting married, and is kind of the broken at the beginning, I think," Evans said.

"So we have to have a bit of romance now in order to take us to that point. There has to be a sort of heartbreak thing. So I think just narratively there does need to be."

Evans also revealed that he believes Endeavour's relationship with women was coloured by the loss of his mother at an early age...

"She died when she was twelve years old, after his mum and dad had already separated. And I think I imagine there would have been - because he couldn't save her, in that fact, was quite heavy. Because he couldn't save her, in a way, those subconscious feelings have informed the person that he is now," Evans said.

"That's just the way I think about, that's just the way I see it. And so I think there's always gonna be something slightly broken with his relationship with women perhaps as a result of that. And then going to live with his dad, and his step-mum whom he didn't get on with, that's always gonna make it tricky, I think."

Endeavour series seven will premiere on ITV on Sunday 9th February at 8pm