Product Details

• Actors: John Thaw, Kevin Whately, Colin Dexter, James Grout, Peter Woodthorpe
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Bfs Entertainment
• VHS Release Date: November 11, 1998
• Run Time: 105 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0773386726
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #57,539 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Morse retires! Egad!!, April 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Inspector Morse - The Wench Is Dead [VHS] (VHS Tape)

While recuperating, Morse is presented with a book of Victorian cases. He is intrigued by one particular case and analyzes the 150-year old evidence using modern forensic methods. His new assistant and an American author fill out the main cast. The case twists and turns and the ending is a surprise. The only down side to this episode is that Morse is considering retirement and no further episodes are planned.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Morse the Time Traveler, May 14, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Inspector Morse - The Wench Is Dead [VHS] (VHS Tape)

As junior XXX pointed out in his/her review, this episode features no Sergeant Lewis. He's nowhere to be found for whatever reason. But even in the novel, the character of Lewis is less than integral to the plot.

While you (we) can only guess at the film adaptation's dumping of Lewis, I found this a most enjoyable episode of Inspector Morse, as we flashback to the year 1859, complete with haunting period music. It's an interesting combination of Morse and "period piece." It not only foreshadows "what's to come" in "The Remorseful Day", it virtually sets up the "last Morse."

Lastly, I have not read all of the Dexter novels, but of the few I have read, this film adaptation strays farthest from the original novel. It ain't just Sergeant Lewis missing. There are other fundamental plot and character changes. Once you get over the substantial changes, you may find, like me, that this is one of the more enjoyable episodes of Morse.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fair episode, poorly designed DVD, November 26, 2003

By 

Rob Walton (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inspector Morse - The Wench Is Dead (DVD)

As others have pointed out, Sgt. Lewis does not appear in this, the penultimate Morse. Apparently, it was because of a contract dispute between the studio/producers and actor Kevin Whately. Despite his absence, and Morse being bound to a hospital bed for most of the program, it's a decent and entertaining episode.

My real complaint is with the quality of the DVD. As with others in this series, the makers of this disk have done a poor job packaging Morse. It's almost comical that this is the only disk in the series for which they've included a photo of Lewis, yet it's the only episode he's not in! I gave up on buying these Region 1 disks long ago. Instead, I bought the complete series from the UK (an elegant package of the whole set is available through Amazon.co.uk) and picked up a multi-regional DVD player on which to watch them. The series and the player together cost about the same as the series would cost if you bought all of the U.S. editions.