The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn
Encyclopedia
The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn is a crime
Crime fiction
Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...

 novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

 by Colin Dexter
Colin Dexter
Norman Colin Dexter, OBE, is an English crime writer, known for his Inspector Morse novels which were written between 1975 and 1999 and adapted as a television series from 1987 to 2000.-Early life and career:...

, the third novel in Inspector Morse
Inspector Morse
Inspector Morse is a fictional character in the eponymous series of detective novels by British author Colin Dexter, as well as the 33-episode 1987–2000 television adaptation of the same name, in which the character was portrayed by John Thaw. Morse is a senior CID officer with the Thames Valley...

 series.

Synopsis

The Oxford Foreign Examinations Syndicate runs school exams in the Persian Gulf
Persian Gulf
The Persian Gulf, in Southwest Asia, is an extension of the Indian Ocean located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula.The Persian Gulf was the focus of the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq War, in which each side attacked the other's oil tankers...

 and other places with a British connection. The Secretary Dr Bartlett and Mr Roope, a chemistry don and a member of the committee, disagree about the appointment of a new member of staff. Roope gets his way and Nicholas Quinn, a deaf man who lipreads, gets the job.

When Quinn is found murdered in his maisonette all the staff are under suspicion. There is Bartlett, his deputy Ogleby and the attractive Monica Height, who has liaisons with some of the others - especially young Donald Martin. Strangely, nearly all of them, including Quinn, appear to have tickets for The Nymphomaniac at Studio 2 in Walton Street on the afternoon of the murder. When later Ogleby is himself found murdered, a neat drawing of Quinn’s ticket is found in his diary.

Morse tries to deduce which of the others is the murderer but keeps getting it wrong. An intrigue involving wealthy Arabs and prior knowledge of exam papers is clearly the cause, and Quinn had found out about it and paid for it with his life.

Colin Dexter's stylistic device of introducing each chapter with either a genuine or fabricated literary quotation was first used in this book and was maintained throughout the rest of the series.

Television adaptation

The novel was adapted as the second episode of the Inspector Morse TV series
Inspector Morse (TV series)
Inspector Morse is a detective drama based on Colin Dexter's series of Chief Inspector Morse novels. The series starred John Thaw as Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis. Dexter makes a cameo appearance in all but three of the episodes....

 in 1987, guest starring Barbara Flynn
Barbara Flynn
Barbara Flynn is an English actress. She first became known for her appearance in the ITV drama A Family at War, that followed the fortunes of a lower middle class family living in Liverpool from 1938 and through World War II.During the 1980s Flynn's acting skills led to her being cast in several...

 as Monica Height, Michael Gough
Michael Gough
Michael Gough was an English character actor who appeared in over 150 films. He is perhaps best known to international audiences for his roles in the Hammer Horror films from 1958, and for his recurring role as Alfred Pennyworth in all four movies of the Burton/Schumacher Batman franchise,...

 as Philip Ogleby, Clive Swift
Clive Swift
Clive Walter Swift is an English character comedy actor and songwriter. He is best known for his role as character Richard Bucket in the British television series Keeping Up Appearances. He is less known for his role as character Roy in the British television series The Old Guys...

 as Dr Bartlett, Anthony Smee
Anthony Smee
Anthony Smee is an English theater producer, writer, and actor who has worked in radio, theatre, television, and film since 1972.-Partial filmography:*You're the Stranger Here *Hilary and Jackie *Parting Shots...

 as Roope, Roger Lloyd Pack
Roger Lloyd Pack
Roger Lloyd-Pack is an English actor known for his roles in the TV shows The Vicar of Dibley, Only Fools and Horses and The Old Guys.-Career:...

 as Donald Martin and Phil Nice
Phil Nice
Phil Nice is a British Actor who has been active in television and films since 1984.He has appeared in TV serials including Who Dares Wins, South of the Border, Inspector Morse, Mr. Bean, Goodnight Sweetheart, The Bill, EastEnders, Heartbeat, The Inbetweeners, Coming of Age, Moving Wallpaper, Love...

 as Nicholas Quinn. The adaptation remained faithful to the source material, the only noticeable changes being the omission of much of the material prior to Quinn's murder (the television version begins with him already employed by the syndicate) and a subplot concerning Bartlett having a schizophrenic son and the film the characters viewed being changed to Last Tango in Paris
Last Tango in Paris
Last Tango in Paris is a 1972 Italian romantic drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci which portrays a recent American widower who takes up an anonymous sexual relationship with a young, soon-to-be-married Parisian woman...

.

Radio play

In 1996 the BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

 play The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn dramatised from the novel by Guy Meredith had John Shrapnel
John Shrapnel
John Shrapnel is an English actor.Shrapnel was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire, the son of Mary Lillian Myfanwy and journalist/author Norman Shrapnel....

 playing Morse and Robert Glenister
Robert Glenister
Robert Lewis Glenister is a British actor known for his roles as con man Ash "Three Socks" Morgan in the British TV series Hustle, and Nicholas Blake in the BBC spy drama Spooks.-Career:...

 as Lewis, with Richard Pasco
Richard Pasco
Richard Edward Pasco, CBE is a British stage, screen and TV actor.-Early life:Pasco was born in Barnes, London, the son of Phyllis Irene and Cecil George Pasco. He was educated at the King's College School, Wimbledon...

 as Dr Bartlett, Meg Davies as Monica Height, Stephen Critchlow
Stephen Critchlow
Stephen Critchlow is a popular and versatile British actor, notable for his work in the theatre and appearances on radio series such as Truly, Madly, Bletchley, The Way We Live Right Now and Spats, along with radio episodes of Torchwood and Doctor Who...

 as Donald Martin, David Timson as Philip Ogleby, John Hartley as Dr Roope and Chief Supt. Strange, Lyndam Gregory as Sgt Dixon, and Roger May as Nicholas Quinn. The play was directed by Ned Chaillet
Ned Chaillet
Edward William "Ned" Chaillet, III is a radio drama producer and director, writer and journalist.Ned Chaillet, American by birth, was born in Boston, Mass. but is a "native of Washington" according to the New York Times. He has lived in Britain since 1973.His newspaper career began at the...

.

Sources, references, external links

  • Bishop, David, The Complete Inspector Morse: From the Original Novels to the TV Series London: Reynolds & Hearn (2006) ISBN 1905287135
  • Bird, Christopher, The World of Inspector Morse: A Complete A-Z Reference for the Morse Enthusiast Foreword by Colin Dexter, London: Boxtree (1998) ISBN 0752221175


The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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