Inspector Morse deserved to die, says his creator

Inspector Morse, played by John Thaw (right), has met his end in books and now will die in the TV series. Author Colin Dexter said he'd "run out of ideas"

In this story: Out of ideas Emotional final episode RELATED SITES

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Inspector Morse, Britain's most famous detective since Sherlock Holmes, deserved to die because he never looked after himself, his creator said on Saturday.

The grumpy detective with a passion for whisky has proved a worldwide television hit, attracting 750 million viewers in 50 countries.

He is to meet his end in the last episode on Wednesday and 70-year-old author Colin Dexter has no regrets.

Dexter, who has sold three million copies of his Morse books and made a five million pound ($7.2 million) fortune, said: "By killing Morse now, I am ending it while the show is still a success."

"I could have gone on doing it but it would have become repetitive," he told The Mirror tabloid.

The author of 14 Morse novels felt the curmudgeonly sleuth had to pay the penalty for his unhealthy lifestyle amid the dreaming spires of the academic city of Oxford.

"Morse deserves to die. He's not looked after himself -- he is diabetic and drinks too much. So it is no wonder he keels over. It happens to us all one day so why should Morse be any different," he said.

Dexter confessed that after 33 television shows he felt he had run out of ideas for Morse in the fictional murder capital of Britain -- he investigated 81 murders in Oxford.

"Writing is a lonely, silent and difficult existence and I don't feel I have the ideas, the imagination or the patience any more."

For John Thaw, who played the disheveled sleuth, the wrench has been painful. He adored his fallibility. "It's one of the things I loved about him, the way he got things wrong but was so convinced he was right," the 58-year-old actor told the magazine TV Times.

"Sometimes he would be chasing the wrong man for three quarters of an episode. He was never Sherlock Holmes."

He confessed that the last scene of the final episode was very emotional. His long-suffering sidekick Sergeant Lewis, played by Kevin Whately, plants a farewell kiss on Morse's forehead in a chilly, cheerless mortuary.

"I found it very sad doing that last scene. I really shouldn't have. It's only a part but Morse has been part of my life for so long and I was a bit emotional," Thaw said.

Morse's loneliness made playing the part very poignant, especially one scene he recalled when Morse ended a case in Australia and went to a Sydney Opera House performance alone.

"I felt so sad for this man. For a moment I didn't know which was Morse and which was me," said Thaw.

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