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| “ | McGryffin: Well, Detective Sergeant Morse, Thames Valley, let me tell you something. Construction site's no place for small boys with soft hands and clean shirts. It's dirty work. Dangerous work. Man's work. Accidents happen. Morse: That sounds like a threat. McGryffin: Advice, son. |
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| ~ McGryffin warned Morse not to investigate about his company. |
George McGryffin is a supporting antagonist in the Series 6 of Endeavour, appearing only in the season finale "Degüello".
He was portrayed by Ian Burfield, who previously portrayed Jeffery from Lewis.
Biography[]
McGryffin was a construct magnate who worked with Clive Burkitt to graft money from the expenses of building the Cranmer House. He is also a member of Oxford's Freemasonry and a partner of Alan Jago.
According to the research of Dr. DeBryn, as well as the later discovery of Morse, the Cranmer House was built with concrete that contained unwashed sea sands within it. The sodium within the sand had been corroding the structure itself, causing the wall to crack before it finally gave away a year after its construction was completed. It was revealed that McGryffin used cheaper and less firm materials to build the construction, so that he and Burkitt could graft money from them.
During the construction of Cranmer House, the local borough surveyor Hollis Binks discovered this scam and attempted to expose McGryffin and Burkitt. However, McGryffin sent his minions and buried Binks alive in the foundation with cement, so that there would be no one would expose their secret.
A year later, as the controversy of Cranmer House arose, Burkitt only tried to keep his good name and disregarded the early alarming informed by Mrs. Reynolds. Meanwhile, Osbert Page, a chief librarian who was a close friend to Binks, began to investigate Binks' disappearance, but he was stabbed to death by McGryffin's henchman.
Eventually, the House Cranmer partially collapsed, killing sixteen men, women, and children, and injuring many others, including Mrs. Reynolds and her daughter. Soon, all kinds of media and press, including Dorothea Frazil from the Oxford Mail, immediately gathered around Burkitt. When Frazil questioned on the Cranmer House's potential danger prior to its collapse, Burkitt was evasive towards it and made a flimsy explanation that it was caused by a gas explosion.
Later, the corpse of Hollis Binks was discovered from the demolished building's foundation, still in perfect condition. Morse went to ask Burkitt about who Binks was, but again, Burkitt was evasive to such question and claimed that Binks resigned from his post. Burkitt merely gave Morse a false promise that he would check about Binks' identity. Afterwards, Morse went to McGryffin, who was far less "amenable" than Burkitt. He directly quarreled with Morse and threatened him to stay away from it.
Seeing Morse as an obstacle, Burkitt and McGryffin did everything to stop him. First, McGryffin tried to persuade Strange to turn on Morse in exchange for Strange being promoted to an inspector. Later, they tried to use their own connection in the city police, the seemly righteous ACC Bottoms, to persuade Bright into joining their business in exchange for leaving the traffic division. When Bright rejected, McGryffin sent his henchmen in an attempt to kill Bright in the street. Fortunately, this was foiled when a flock of children gathered around Bright, all being fans of him thanks to his "Pelican Man" persona in traffic ads, and asked for his autograph.
After that, Burkitt and McGryffin discovered from Ronnie Box, who was secretly working for them to share their profits, that Thursday quitted their business. Burkitt and McGryffin made Box to take Thursday to him. They informed that they already knew that Thursday's unscrupulous brother Charlie was in debt, and Thursday was forced to pay a cheque and paid the debt for him. They blackmailed Thursday that they would cease such records for him if he could stop Morse from digging further into the investigation.
Thursday was forced to comply, although he warned the duo that Morse wasn't so easy to give up. Much later, Thursday tried to persuade Morse to give up in order to prevent any repeat on what happened to him in the Blenheim Vale, but Morse insisted on the investigation and called out Thursday for protecting Box, making Thursday making up his mind and reconciling with his wife eventually.
However, Burkit and McGryffin later sent their minions to beat up Dr. DeBryn and had him kidnapped, not long after he had discovered the possible identity of Page's killer, who was revealed to be McGryffin's henchman. To save DeBryn, Morse had gathered the rest of the Cranmer boys - Thursday, Bright and Strange - all the way to an abandoned quarry to rescue DeBryn.
In the quarry, McGryffin and his henchmen were there, alongside Alan Jago, who revealed himself to be the mastermind behind such a series of crimes as well as George Fancy's murderer. McGryffin showed disappointed over Strange for siding with Morse, and revealed that DeBryn was still alive and would be killed alongside other Cowley Boys. However, before Jago could kill Morse, McGryffin heard police sirens and warned Jago about it. Turned out, Bright gathered police force from the traffic division, somewhere that Jago could not interfere, forcing Jago and his minions to retreat back into the factory.
After Jago's death and downfall, McGryffin was arrested alongside his henchmen, and Burkitt agreed to testify against him in return for a reduced sentence.
Trivia[]
- The collapse of Cranmer House is clearly suggested by the real-life tragic collapse of Ronan Point, a London tower-block in the Canning Town district. It partially collapsed in May 1968, about eighteen months before the events in this Endeavour story take place. Four people died and another seventeen were injured in the collapse.
- Like Cranmer House, the Ronan Point collapse was initially ascribed to a gas explosion, but later its chief cause was found to be alarming structural deficiencies. As a result of the Ronan Point tragedy, laws were changed and made more stringent.
- The actors of both Burkitt and McGryffin were previously cast in Lewis.
- McGryffin's role in the Series 6 finale is equaivlant to that of Josiah Landesman. Both of them were corrupt landlords and businessmen who took part in criminal activities and corruption, and both of them sent their minions and partners to finish off whoever that was on their way.
External Links[]
- George McGryffin on the Pure Evil Wiki
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 Villains
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