OXFORD will travel back in time to the 1960s when filming starts on the second series of the Inspector Morse prequel Endeavour.

The ITV drama made its debut in 2012 starring Shaun Evans and Roger Allam, and the full first series was screened earlier this year.

This month Endeavour II will continue the tradition of Oxford-based TV detective series, which launched with Inspector Morse after Oxford author Colin Dexter wrote Last Bus To Woodstock, the first Morse novel, in 1975.

They’ll be filming Oxford later this month then in October, December and late January.

Executive member for city development Colin Cook said: “Morse is the series that likes to keep on giving. Once these new episodes are shown in the UK they could be broadcast around the globe and that will inevitably bring visitors to Oxford.”

One of the episodes will feature John Thaw’s daughter, Abigail Thaw, starring as Oxford Mail editor Dorothea Frazil, a role she played in the pilot episode.

The pilot gained eight million viewers and the Oxford Mail had a starring role in the plot, with its crossword clues leading to a murder location.

Shaun Evans will return in the lead role of young Morse.