That company was first mentioned on Endeavour all the way back in Series 1 episode ‘Home’. It was the firm behind Oxfordshire’s 1966 Booth Hill property development (the debate over which featured one of several Endeavour cameos by Inspector Morse creator Colin Dexter).
According to the articles of association Morse dredged up in that episode, Landesman Construction was owned jointly by gangster shareholders Vince Kasper (the son of an old hood from Fred’s London days) and the Fletcher Brothers (a fictionalised version of The Krays). Vince Kasper was arrested for bribing public officials in the Housing Department, but Landesman Construction lived on thanks to its public face: Josiah Landesman.
In Series 2 episode 4 ‘Neverland’, we met Josiah Landesman, played by Richard Dixon. Landesman was introduced as a wealthy pillar of the community whose company donated £1000 to the Police Widows and Orphans Fund. He was later revealed to have been part of a child abuse ring operating in the late 1940s and early 1950s at the now-derelict Blenheim Vale Boys’ Home – the site of which Landesman Construction planned to redevelop as the new police Divisional HQ. The company had put a stop to an archaeological dig on the grounds of the former residential home, fearing what might be dug up there after the disappearance of a young boy years earlier. In the Series 9 opener, the site remained undeveloped.
Blenheim Vale
Residential boys’ home Blenheim Vale was first mentioned in Series 2 episode ‘Sway’, when stabbing victim and Burridge’s employee Norman Parkis was said to have lived there as a child. It was “a place for, well, the ones that ain’t quite right,” said Parkis’ colleague. As Series 2 finale ‘Neverland’ horrifically showed, it was the place itself that wasn’t right.
After a prison escapee was found beaten and drowned, in ‘Neverland’ Morse and Thursday uncovered the historic child abuse scandal centred on Blenheim Vale. The escapee had been one of six boys (though there were likely many more) known to have been sexually and physically abused during their time at the correctional institute. One, “Big Pete” disappeared as a child – believed to have been murdered by the abusers and buried on the grounds, another hanged himself on a tree in the grounds, one went to prison, one became a clerk, another a ventriloquist, and another became a police sergeant. That was DS Peter “Little Pete” Jakes, who left Endeavour in Series 3 and emigrated to the USA to start a family with his girlfriend.
Four men had colluded in the historic child abuse at Blenheim Vale: Assistant Chief Constable Clive Deare, town hall Alderman Gerald Wintergreen, Josiah Landesman and Dr Fairbridge, the home’s doctor who was well aware of the abuse and not only helped to cover it up but also allowed the sexual abuse of his young daughter Angela. That daughter grew up to murder her father, Wintergreen and Deare, but Josiah Landesman escaped. In Series 9, Fred describes him as “the one that got away.”
ncG1vNJzZmhqZGy7psPSmqmorZ6Zwamx1qippZxemLyue8yoraKdXa%2B8r7GOnqWdnZGrvLa%2BjK2fnmWSobKvtMSipGaukaGybq3BrqqeZaOYrq%2BwwKVkpZmembK0ucCnZJynnqjBs8HCraCopl2lvK21wp5knKeip8KxwMiopWg%3D