Overview: Shaun Evans charms audiences with his portrayal of the younger version of Inspector Endeavour Morse in this highly successful prequel.

Season 7 finds Endeavor and his team solving crimes at the dawn of a new decade — the socially progressive 1970s.

DVD Verdict: Endeavour and his colleagues are entering a new decade and era of change. Opening on New Years Eve 1969, normal order has been resumed and the team reunited at Castle Gate CID, with Chief Superintendent Bright back in charge.

However, the events of the past year have left their mark. Old friendships will be challenged, and new relationships will blossom.

Simply put, if you think that you could enjoy a slightly repetitive show, albeit a very good, engrossing, well acting with interesting characters one set in the late '60s, and now early '70s, and one that lends it's charm and beauty to those periods to perfection, then this is, without a shadow of a doubt, the show for you, my friends!

Sure the general length of the episodes requires you make time for them (here in the seventh season we get 3 episodes spread over an amazing 4.5 hours!), but perhaps the shortness of the seasons compensates for that. Personally, I would rather have slightly shorter episodes and more of them, but that's just me, perhaps.

Moving on and none of these cases are perfectly sensible, logical or anywhere close to being grounded in todays reality, but therein lies the rub as they do suit perfectly the early, heady, and more simplistic days of the '70s.

In a series that uncompromisingly sticks to the rules and customs of the setting things out, layering them, never giving things away, never even bringing you close to guessing the culprit before the last 15 minutes or so, we also get strict tracking continuity from shot to shot.

Add to that characters' motivations from scene to scene seem to gel spotlessly, seamlessly, and yet, yes, admittedly getting to the main point, the crux of the storyline can take a dozen or so red herrings and some misdirects, I'll give you that!

But here in 'Masterpiece! Mystery – Endeavour, Season 7,' indeed with every season thus far (ok, sure, there have been a couple of fillers), this is television at its best.

Cerebral, intricate, yet simple, and efficient, this is excellent production and storytelling from tip to toe. Shaun Evans is just perfect for this role as the older John Thaw version of Morse. His body language, facial expressions, tone, basically everything is finessed to conjure up Thaw's spirit to perfection.

Furthermore, there could not have been a better choice for DI Fred Thursday as Roger Allam, a fine actor and together he and Evans make solid duo.

In closing, we need more TV such as this! A lot more! Highly recommended, especially if you like old school detective stuff - like myself! This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.78:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs.

Official PBS DVD Purchase Link