A former Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police is to join a festival celebrating Inspector Morse TV detective dramas.

The festival, organised by Jericho resident John Mair, is taking place today in Oxford, and is being staged to coincide with the end of the Endeavour TV series.

Speakers include Endeavour actors Anton Lesser and Abigail Thaw and former Chief Constable Peter Neyroud will also take part, alongside Chief Superintendent Katy Barrow-Grint of Thames Valley Police.

READ AGAIN: Second Endeavour actor joins Morse festival

Mr Mair said: "I am delighted to have a senior police officer chief superintendent Katy Barrow-Grint - the most senior woman in Thames Valley Police today, and a former Chief Constable of the force Peter Neyroud join in the salute to Morse in Oxford on saturday.

"Only they can assess just how good a copper Endeavour Morse was."

Festival events will run from 2pm.

Oxford Mail:

They will include a guided Morse tour starting at 2pm at Martyrs' Memorial, a drink in the Morse bar at the Randolph Hotel at 4pm, followed by talks in St Barnabas Church, Jericho, at 6pm. Entry is £10 and tickets were almost all sold out last week.

Then to conclude the event, there will be a meal in the Old Bookbinders Ale  House at 8pm.

Mr Neyroud was appointed Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police in 2002 before becoming CEO of the National Police Improvement Agency in 2006.

He retired from the NPIA in 2010.

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Mr Neyroud was awarded the Queen's Police Medal for services to the police in 2004, and was awarded the CBE in 2011.

Oxford Mail:

Mr Mair said earlier: "It really is a significant end of an era now that Endeavour is finishing - Morse has been on our screens for about 36 years.

"There will never be another Morse and I wanted to do something to recognise the legacy of Morse.

"People have great memories of the series, and I think the Morse franchise has done a lot for Oxford - it has also built the profile of certain colleges.

"Morse has been hugely popular in America and indeed all over the world."

The first episode of the final series of Endeavour was screened on Sunday on ITV1 and the third and final episode will be shown on March 12.

Oxford Mail:

Inspector Morse episodes ran from 1987 until 2000, and the Lewis series then followed between 2006 and 2015.

READ AGAIN: Morse author Colin Dexter 'killed off' detective series 

Endeavour starring Shaun Evans and Roger Allam was launched with a pilot episode in 2012.

Inspector Morse author Colin Dexter, who died in 2017, said in his will that he did not want another actor to play the role of the detective after Shaun Evans.

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This story was written by Andy Ffrench, he joined the team more than 20 years ago and now covers community news across Oxfordshire.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Andy.ffrench@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter @OxMailAndyF