Everything To Know About 'Endeavour' Before Season 7

Endeavour returns to PBS this August for its seventh season. The 1960s-set Inspector Morse prequel series, which began in 2012, has now been on the air so long, it's become the 1970s-set Morse prequel. Season 7 will also probably feel surprisingly short after last year's banner year of six episodes, the most extended season any of the shows set in the Morse-universe (the Morsiverse?) have run. (The original Morse ran five installments for a couple of seasons in the early 90s, but Lewis has never run for longer than four at a time.)

Fans will be pleased to know the core cast is back once more. Season 7 stars Shaun Evans as Inspector Endeavour Morse and Roger Allam as his DCI Fred Thursday. Also back for the new season: Anton Lesser as Superintendent Reginald Bright, Sean Rigby as DS Jim Strange, and James Bradshaw as Dr. Max DeBryn, now all settled in their Castle Gate station at Thames Valley Police. Caroline O'Neill is also back as Fred's long-suffering wife, Winifred, but fans may be disappointed to learn that his daughter Joanie, Morse's will-they-or-won't-they love interest has finally moved on, Sarah Vickers will not be in this season.

It was not all that clear who would be back as Season 6 progressed. One of the reasons Endeavour's Season 6 ran so many installments was the need to fit in a massive narrative shift. When Endeavour first premiered in 2012, it did so with a 1962 setting, deliberately placing the show in a time before the Thames Valley Constabulary (where both Morse and Lewis were set) existed. But having run through the 1960s, the series found itself having to move the cast back to Thames Valley, founded in 1969.