Shaun Evans on DS Endeavour Morse

(upbeat music plays) (men grunt) - [Shaun] So we begin in 1971.

- [Sports Announcer] Free kick, just outside the penalty area.

- And this series goes over the course of the year.

So for the first one, it's the world of football.

- [Sports Announcer] He just snatched it from the jaws of defeat then at least something- - But actually what it's about as well is about tribalism really teams against one another, you know, the tribalism within a nation, just fascinating from start to finish and also to just take a look at the sort of beginnings of celebrity, the world of fashion.

A lot of it takes place in Oxford and in the Oxford colleges, cause for me, that's when the stories really come alive because it's so rooted in that place.

In the opening of the first film, a bomb goes off.

A bomb is detonated in one of the colleges.

This runs concurrence with a football player from Northern Ireland, playing for Oxford and there being a death threat against his life.

- Round the clock local protection until the match is over.

Division's order.

- Football's hardly my area of expertise.

Sir, I've very little interest in the game.

- Which is exactly why you've been chosen.

- The suggestion is made in the story, is this could this be this, this new IRA?

- Kinda like a body guard, do you mean?

- Well, something like that, either myself or one of my colleagues will be with you at all times.

- Do I have a say?

- No you don't.

- So yeah, it has been really, and so also my family are from Northern Ireland as well.

To be meeting all of these young Irish actors, it was just terrific, you know?

Absolutely terrific.

So it was an education for me in that respect.

- If you've any problems you just let me know, all right?

- Sure thing.

- [Shaun] I've had the good fortune of directing one every series now the past few years but this one feels really special maybe because it is the connection with Northern Ireland.

- You got a girl?

- Uh, no, no.

- [Sports Announcer] Very warm welcome to you on this chilly February evening.

If you're just joining us... - [Shaun] It also posed a lot of challenges as well, because obviously you're shooting in COVID times and that demanded a very different way of working.

Especially when you're talking about big crowds in a football stadium, two football teams against each other, a crowd in a fashion show, a crowd in a TV studio, how you negotiate that and play the scenes in a safe way.

It really brought us all together as a team.

And I think that's kind of an amazing thing during this time when everyone feels so separate.

- Oh, hello Sergeant.

Very nice to have you back.

- I've really valued every day.

Being with people, you know, both on set and off.

(upbeat orchestral music)