Endeavour Season 6 Gets a Trailer, Will Air on ITV Next Month

The trailer for Endeavour Season 6 reveals a few changes for the new season - including a new decade, a new office and a new mustache for Morse.

When fans last left Endeavour, our young Morse (Shaun Evans) was standing in front of Joan Thursday (Sara Vickers), throwing caution to the winds after the Cowley Police Station had closed for the last time as part of the Oxford City Police folding into Thames Valley Constabulary. It was the end of both 1968 and a supersized fifth season which ran an expanded six-episode order to cover all the changes the show was undergoing.

Season 6 will pick up in 1969, a time which represents the end of many eras, including the close of the Swinging Sixies and the break up of the Beatles. But for Morse, the changes are already here, even if the calendar hasn't ticked over to 1970 yet. WPC Shirley Trewlove is gone, transferred to London with plans to become the star of her own version of Prime Suspect. George Fancy, the young detective partner from Oxford City, is dead, but his unsolved murder case is traveling to Thames Valley along with Morse and Jim Strange (Sean Rigby). DI Fred Thursday (Roger Allam) has also moved to the new digs, despite his best efforts to retire last season, since his savings were lost by his gambling brother.

This time around, however, Endeavour's season will once again comprise just four episodes. The new season will begin airing on ITV this February, much as Season 5 did in 2018. So hopefully this means another mid-to-late summer premiere here in the States. (Fingers crossed and all.)

Here's the synopsis for the upcoming season:

The show’s sixth season is set in 1969 and picks up following the dissolution of Oxford City Police, and the merging with Thames Valley Constabulary, with the team dispersed as they find their feet in their various new roles. However, despite their separation, the tragic murder of DC George Fancy still hangs over them both collectively and individually, with the case remaining unresolved. Thursday must adjust to working with new boss DI Ronnie Box (Simon Harrison) and junior DS Alan Jago (Richard Riddell). Meanwhile, Joan has settled back in Oxford and is training to work in social services under the mentor of new manager Viv Wall (Alison Newman).

Check out the brand new trailer, which gives hints of how all these storylines are playing out in the new year.

I know, we should by rights, be squealing over Joan and Morse, finally together after all these years, even if we know it won't last. We should be worrying about Thursday and whatever he might be getting into with crooked DI Ronnie Box (Simon Harrison) who fans may remember from last year's episode "Passenger," when he sexually harrassed Trewlove. We should be asking what's up with PCS Bright (Anton Lesser), who was not planning to continue to Thames Valley, but who is still clearly in uniform somehow. 

But seriously, how is anyone supposed to get past those mustaches?

I know, the 1970s were a time when facial hair went mainstream after being seen as a sign of rebellion in the prior decade. And the look isn't here to stay since, by the late 1980s, John Thaw's version of the character is blessedly back to clean shaven. But fans are going to struggle to get used to Evans wearing it and Morse musing with it. Of all the things to survive Season 6, let us all fervently hope this grooming choice isn't one of them.

Endeavour Season 6 will air in the U.K. next month, with a PBS release date to be announced later this spring.