User Reviews

I'm really confused over some plot points. I'm okay with coincidences, but some of these were so improbable that I had a hard time following the details of the plot.

In the beginning of the episode, Sylvia Kane and Mary Widdowson were headed out to Woodstock. Sylvia Kane has an envelope in her purse that was intended for her boss, Jennifer Colby, but Sylvia stole it. Jennifer Colby happens to be the roommate of Mary Widdowson. The envelope Sylvia stole was actually intended to go to Mary, via Jennifer. None of them seem to be aware of most of this. Sylvia knew Jennifer was her boss, and Mary knew Jennifer was her roommate, but that's it. If you don't think that's totally nuts already you probably don't follow it.

So Mary and Sylvia decide to hitchhike out to Woodstock, and who randomly comes along and offers a ride? A professor, who happens to be Mary's lover.

The coroner is friends with the professor and his wife, of course, but that coincidence doesn't even register next to those other whoppers.

Maybe I missed something. Why did the professor send letters through Jennifer to give to Mary? How did the professor know Jennifer? Why did he send letters to Mary through Jennifer?

I don't know. A lot of you think this is the best Inspector Morse episode ever, so I must be missing something.

The quality of Morsey is not strained, but he is coping here with an extra silly plot. Not one but two very attractive young women turn out to be having affairs with men who are not just much older, not just married, but also both singularly unattractive. One is certainly more than double the age of the nurse with whom he is having the affair, a musty old college fellow specialising in mediaeval poetry, which might have some appeal to the nurse's student housemate, but not to her. The other is the best part of a generation older than his lover, and a creepy stick-insect with all the charisma of an insurance broker. And as if that were not stretching credibility, the old academic tries to communicate in code with his lover when sending her money, but this is intercepted by an 18-year-old woman whom she just happens to know as a hospital patient, and whom she also then happens to encounter at a bus stop and then tries to hitch a lift. And who is it that just happens to be passing at the time? Yes, it's old lover boy. "Suspend disbelief" is written in huge capital letters all over this one.

No idea why the insurance company was called "St Aldgate's". St Aldate's (no G in it) is a main street in central Oxford, and I don't think there has ever been a saint named Aldgate.

And then, for an Australian, encountering a character named Clive Palmer was extra weird. This one was a lot thinner.

I'll give it 8/10, because Morse is great as always, especially as his confidence gets seriously eroded in solving this mystery. And we get a really good long look at Colin Dexter too!

Well, I applaud the adapters of this episode because -- at last -- I was able to follow the tortured twists of plot and motive and event. Morse is his usual dyspeptic self and Lewis the good-natured recipient of Morse's verbal blows. The narrative itself follows a course that's typical for the series and maybe, after viewing five or sex episodes in sequence, I'm finally able to anticipate some of it.

The body of a young student is found in the parking lot of a saloon. She's been beaten about the face AND run over by a car. She's identified as a hitch hiker who was picked up during a rain storm at night on the road to Woodstock.

Morse and Lewis investigate in their usual, somewhat sluggish way, uncovering all sorts of secrets along the way, most having nothing of importance to do with what appears to be a brutal murder.

Here's part of what I'm beginning to discern as a pattern. The character most responsible for the death is introduced briefly near the beginning, then disappears from the story, only to pop up again at the very end in order to explain what really happened. We see almost as little of the OTHER person involved in the death.

But the viewer must be alert to the veiled hints, if there are any hints at all, because the trail is so contaminated by red herrings. If it's found, for instance, that the young victim was relieved of a great deal of money she was carrying, is robbery the motive? Nah. It was just some guy who stumbled across the dead body and decided to pocket the cash.

Morse adds to the confusion by suggesting, in all seriousness, that he and Lewis may be dealing with a serial murderer. He's dead wrong. And I'm glad, because if I have to face another serial murderer either in a feature film or a TV movie, I'll go berserk and start offing strangers myself.

There are a couple of plot holes along the road. The individual most responsible for the death claims to have merely "hit" the victim. Yet the victim is lying unconscious on the asphalt with scratches and bruises on her face and forehead. How do you scratch a person into unconsciousness? The person who ran over the unconscious body and squashed it had no idea he was bumping over anything more than a curb -- or kerb, as he would have called it. The driver had just had a row in his car with the victim, true, but only because the victim had made vulgar advances and the driver was "out of my league" and wanted to get rid of his passenger. In other words, the driver was completely innocent of any wrong doing. He wasn't even guilty of leaving the scene of an accident. All he did was offer a ride to someone hitching in the rain. Yet, instead of immediately informing the police, he and his wife go to great lengths to get rid of any physical evidence linking him to the event, and they lie to the cops.

Those are small problems, niggling ones, compared to the rush of triumph I felt when I realized I could keep the story and the characters straight for a change.

Don't get me wrong, Last Bus to Woodstock is a very good episode, but I will confess I do prefer the book. The episode does have a credible cast, such as Jill Baker, Holly Aird and Terence Hardiman, and John Thaw and Kevin Whately maintain the high standard of acting they have kept all the way through the series. There is some nice camera-work, and the script is intelligent and well put across. The clever plot concerns the death of a young woman, and shows the consequences of gambling and drinking and what have you. The characters are also very well done on the whole. However, I will say the episode isn't completely faithful to the book. My only flaw with the episode is the character of Mary Widdowson; she is called Sarah in the book, and in the book, she and Morse have a more-than-friendly-terms relationship, which ends in heartache when she is revealed as the murderer. The part when she asks Morse whether he still cares for her, reduces Morse to tears, and it reduced me to tears as well. Unfortunately, that was missed in the episode. I don't think it is as complex as Last Seen Wearing or The Wolvercote Tongue, but I will say I did enjoy the episode mainly for the cast and the plot. 8/10 Bethany Cox.