morse's car
Skalynn
lb
Skalynn wrote in message <20000102162751...@ng-bk1.aol.com>...
>Does anyone know what car Morse drives?
I'm pretty sure its a Jag, looks pre 70's,
but I may be wrong. I've been known
to confuse british sports cars.
Considering Morse refers to it as a
concession to his social rank I would
doubt its an Austin.
lb
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insert smiles wherever you wish
cyn...@mailexcite.com
Hello!
nice to meetcha!
In the early novels, Morse drove a classic Lancia, but later on he
changed to a Jaguar MK II 2.4 (reg. # 248RPA.
I've since read an interesting note I've not noticed in my books, they
say that in the later editions of the early novels, the Lancia was
changed to a Jaguar!
Anyway, the book (THE WORLD OF INSPECTOR MORSE by Christopher Bird) says
that in the early 60's, when Morse was still a young policeman, the
Jaguar was extremely popular as a police vehicle and therefore must've
been Morse's first introduction to it. It's orginal price was 1,534
pounds.
Hmmm....they say you learn something new every day. Now to check my
novels and see if the later versions of the older novels REALLY have
changed the car from a Lancia to a Jaguar!
CY
ska...@aol.com (Skalynn) wrote:
> Does anyone know what car Morse drives?
> ----------
> jir...@aol.com
>
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Jean Young
I believe it's a 1960 Mark 2 red Jaguar.
Hope that helps
MzGwenny
the difference.
Gwen
Martin Underwood
>It is supposed to be a 1959 Jaguar but it is really a Dalmair. I don't
know
>the difference.
Ah, the old "is it a Daimler or is it a Jaguar" debate!
The book that I've got, by Mark <someone - Sanderson?> describes it as a
Jaguar. Its registration plate dates it as pre-1963 when the "ABC 123 A"
format was introduced, with the isolated letter being a code for the year
(A=1963, B=1964 etc). The letters "PA" say that the car was first registered
in Guildford, Surrey - about 50 miles south east of Oxford. So the ca isn't
a "native" of Oxford.
Of course if the number plate has always been used on that car and not
transferred from another, "all" that is needed is a quick search in the
Police National Computer or the DVLC computer to see what THEY describe it
as. All highly illegal...
Max Shreck
>Anyway, the book (THE WORLD OF INSPECTOR MORSE by Christopher Bird) says
>that in the early 60's, when Morse was still a young policeman, the
>Jaguar was extremely popular as a police vehicle and therefore must've
>been Morse's first introduction to it. It's orginal price was 1,534
>pounds.
I seem to recall reading that choosing the Jag was also a nod to Thaw's '70s
police series, The Sweeney, where the villians always seemed to be driving Mk
II Jags. In facts, the opening credits to that show feature a Jag just like
Morse's.
I dealt with the Jag/Daimler issue in the FAQ, last posted in April:
==============
***** 2.3 What's that car Morse is driving?
A 2.4 litre Jaguar Mark II, circa 1960. Or a Daimler.
Why, you ask, would anyone call a car with a great big Jaguar hood ornament a
"Daimler"? Well, it's a hell of a can of worms. The topic has been hotly
debated for years on this newsgroup, but the brief summary is: The car's
registration (license plate number), 248 RPA, has been looked up and found to
be for a Daimler. Apparently the Jaguar and Daimler were very similar cars. I
have read that the car started out as a Daimler and got a new Jag grille and
hood ornament.
Wiser people than I have failed to definitively solve this mystery. If you are
so inclined, do some detective work of your own at Deja News (www.deja.com).
The following threads contain the exhaustive research of many dedicated
a.f.i-m'ers:
Morse's Jaguar MkII
beginning June 18, 1998
Morse's car
beginning Dec 2, 1998
Eureka! - Re: Morse's car
beginning Dec 17, 1998
More on the vintage of Morse's Jag
beginning Dec 20, 1998
Finally, the Jag-Lovers website, at http://www.jag-lovers.org, is an excellent
resource, as it contains message boards where knowledgeable, not to say
obsessive, Jag enthusiasts have debated this very topic at length. Just search
for "Morse" and you'll find a wealth of info and opinions.
=============
-- HRHH Max
cyn...@mailexcite.com
maxs...@aol.com (Max Shreck) wrote:
> CY wrote:
>
> I seem to recall reading that choosing the Jag was also a nod to
Thaw's '70s police series, The Sweeney, where the villians always seemed
to be driving Mk II Jags. In facts, the opening credits to that show
feature a Jag just like Morse's.
>
I didn't know that. I was told by OXFORD that they chose the Jaguar
because they couldn't find a Lancia. They found the Jag for 300 pounds
so they bought it. It didn't run hardly at all and in fact am told that
in The Dead Of Jericho (the first Morse), in the first scene at the
garage, if you look closely you might see the head of the person pushing
it so it looked like it ran!
CY
> I dealt with the Jag/Daimler issue in the FAQ, last posted in April:
>
> ==============
>
>
Max Shreck
>> I seem to recall reading that choosing the Jag was also a nod to
>> Thaw's '70s police series, The Sweeney, where the villians always seemed
>> to be driving Mk II Jags. In facts, the opening credits to that show
>> feature a Jag just like Morse's.
CY:
>I didn't know that. I was told by OXFORD that they chose the Jaguar
>because they couldn't find a Lancia.
You've got me terribly curious: Who or what is OXFORD?
I have a hard time believing that in all of England there wasn't a used Lancia
that this very high-budget production could afford. But let's say that they
really couldn't find one. Then, out of all the car models in the world, why did
they choose a Mark II Jaguar? Wouldn't it make more sense that if they were
trying to retain the feel of the book version, they would choose another
non-English car, instead of substituting an English car for an Italian one?
It's not just JT who would've well remembered the MkII as the archetypal
Sweeney villians' car -- it's Ted Childs, who produced both The Sweeney and the
early Morses. Cars were very important in The Sweeney, and I know lots of UK
viewers must've laughed the first time they saw Morse driving a "villain's
car."
Wish I could remember where I read/heard this, but apparently they used to junk
Jaguar Mark IIs quite frequently for The Sweeney, as Regan (Thaw's character)
was constantly getting the better of MkII-driving criminals in car chases. They
used to patch the cars up and try to reuse them until there was nothing left!
Perhaps the Morse people ended up with one of the old Sweeney junkers? The
irony...
-- HRHH Max
NP: Bert Jansch, "Black Waterside"
in...@firstimpression.gi
> Does anyone know what car Morse drives?
> ----------
> jir...@aol.com
NY
news:8bf8e55a-04cc-44c8...@googlegroups.com...
which model it is? I've just started reading the books from the beginning
again, and in Last Bus to Woodstock and half of Last Seen Wearing, I don't
remember any description beyond "Lancia".
Interesting that you say "Morse would not have been seen dead in [a Jag]
according to author Colin Dexter" because when I spoke to him about it maybe
7 or 8 years ago he confessed "Why didn't I think of a Jag as Morse's car?"
and "I agree, Morse is too much of an Anglophile to drive a foreign car". I
wonder if over time he's come to prefer TV-Morse's Jag to book-Morse's
Lancia? Haven't modern reprints of the old books been modified to substitute
"Jaguar" in place of "Lancia"?
Incidentally, I've spotted an inconsistency in LBTW: at one point Morse
reads something much faster than Lewis, whereas elsewhere he is described as
reading painfully slowly :-)