Endeavour Filming Returns to Oxford
Parts of the second series of ITV’s Morse prequel Endeavour shot outside the Ultimate Picture Palace.
Scroll down for video of the shoot
Cinephiles hoping to see a film at Cowley’s Ultimate Picture Palace last Sunday would have instead found it closed as it became the star of filming itself.
Endeavour, set in 1960s Oxford, follows the earlier career of Colin Dexter’s hero Endeavour Morse.
Sent down from Oxford without a degree having been thrown out of St Johns he joins the Criminal Investigation Department of Oxfordshire Police and is thrown into the murky underworld of Oxford, and no we don’t mean cellar on a week night.
Permission for filming a large production such as Endeavour would have cost £315 for the day according to Oxford City Council.
However, given Endeavour is watched by 7 million and received rave reviews, ITV can probably rest easy.
While the Ultimate Picture Palace is the oldest cinema in Oxford and recently celebrated its 100th birthday it’s unlikely Morse himself would have been around to catch a flick there. The cinema lay empty as a furniture warehouse between 1917 and 1976.
Catching filming around Oxford is something of a rite of passage for young undergraduates, with Oxford having appeared in Harry Potter, the Golden Compass, X Men First Class, Saving Private Ryan and the original Italian Job.
The second series of Endeavour will be hitting screens in 2014.