Inspector Morse: An Oxford Trail

The series hints at Morse's student past rather than spelling it out, and the hint points to St John's College. He is said to have won a scholarship there, then lost it as the result of poor academic performance stemming from a failed love affair. The prequel Endeavour gives him the fictional Lonsdale College instead, which he leaves late in his third year without completing his degree. Treat the pin as the likely candidate, not a confirmed film site.

Location precision: The original series only hints at St John's, and Endeavour calls his college Lonsdale; the pin marks the real St John's College.

When Inspector Morse arrived on screen in 1987, the Randolph Hotel featured in the series several times, in particular in the episode "The Wolvercote Tongue". The cast stayed at the hotel during filming that year, and construction of the building itself had begun back in 1864. Today the hotel has a Morse Bar, so you can follow the detective's footsteps with a drink in hand.

Visitor guidance: The hotel has a Morse Bar.

The Alfred Jewel in the Ashmolean was the inspiration for the 1988 Morse episode "The Wolvercote Tongue", and the museum's interior was used as a set, so the episode links this stop with the Randolph Hotel. The Ashmolean, on Beaumont Street, is Britain's first public museum, and its present building was put up between 1841 and 1845. It is open to visitors as a public museum.

Visitor guidance: A public museum on Beaumont Street.

Morse's Oxford is also a world of books. In Colin Dexter's novel The Wench Is Dead (1989), Christine Greenaway, one of Bodley's librarians, is sufficiently taken with Morse to pursue research on his behalf, and the Bodleian is among the libraries she consults. The library itself was founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe.

Hidden at the end of a narrow winding alley, St Helens Passage, the Turf Tavern was featured in Inspector Morse, which aired between 1987 and 2000. The pub lies between Holywell Street and New College Lane, near the Bridge of Sighs, and one side of it runs along a remaining section of the old Oxford city wall. The source names no particular episode, so this stop marks the pub rather than a single scene.

Visitor guidance: A working pub reached through St Helens Passage.

Morse's last case was adapted from Colin Dexter's final novel, The Remorseful Day, in which Morse dies from a heart attack. The finale was filmed at Exeter College, in the college chapel and the Front Quadrangle, where Morse has his fatal heart attack. It closed a series that had run on ITV since 1987, and the quadrangle where the detective's story ends is the natural last stop on the trail.

Visitor guidance: Exeter College is a working college; check its visiting arrangements before going.