Life continues to only get better and better if you are an Endeavour fan. Unlike Downton Abbey, Crimson Field, Home Fires, Lewis, Wallander, Mr Selfridge and Indian Summers where there will be no more episodes produced, Endeavour just keeps chugging along like ‘the little engine that could’ with the fourth series returning to PBS’ Masterpiece beginning Sunday, August 20.

(C) ITV Plc

The fourth series of the Oxford-set Inspector Morse prequel series starring Shaun Evans is set in the summer of 1967 where the new episodes will see Morse (Shaun Evans) and Thursday (Roger Allam) struggle to pick up the pieces of their lives after the events of last year’s finale, with the new run of episodes picking up just two weeks after series three ends.

Series creator/writer Russell Lewis will, once again, be at the helm promising a number of ‘tips of the hat’ to its ancestry as 2017 will be the 30th anniversary of the Inspector Morse series. As part of the 30th tip of the hat, Wolf Hall’s James Laurenson has been cast in the new series, a reference to the actor’s former role as Tony Richards in the first ever Inspector Morse episode (which also featured Gemma Jones and the 2nd Doctor, Patrick Troughton).

Endeavour S4 – what we know so far….

• Endeavour waits to hear the result of his Sergeant’s Exam, and self-medicates to numb his heartache, but whisky and Tännhauser will only get a man so far.  While Thursday and Win deal with their own sense of grief.  Their home is empty, Sam gone to the Army and Joan… Who knows where?
• The summer of 1967 is on the turn. Midsummer has been and gone but in Lovelace College a team of boffins is about to unveil a ‘thinking machine’ that will challenge the Soviets, and plunge Endeavour and Thursday into their most perilous, baffling and darkly terrifying case to date.  White Heat.  Cold War.  And an immortal game that will cast the life of a friend into the hazard.
• The stories that remain will take Endeavour and Thursday, together with the rest of Oxford’s Finest, into places hitherto unexplored – the worlds of 1960s pop; Doctors and Nurses; and an exploration of the English pastoral.  

Returning for series 4 alongside Evans and Allam are will be Anton Lesser, Sean Rigby, Dakota Blue Richards, Caroline O’Neil, James Bradshaw and Abigail Thaw, with new guest stars including Chris Fulton, Adam James, Tristan Sturrock and Gillian Saker.

Endeavour S4 begins Sunday, August 20 at 9pET/8pCT on PBS.

In: Mystery