It's never easy to play another actor's character. As another reviewer pointed out, every actor wants to make the character his own. That, however, must be tempered by a fair reference to the character as already known by the audience. I thought Shaun Evans did a very good job of capturing the attitude and body language of the older Morse as we knew him from John Thaw's work. One problem for me, a big one, is that Evans plays Morse with an accent wholly different from John Thaw's. (It seems to be a Liverpool accent but don't quote me.) What's surprising is that Shaun Evans is an accomplished voice artist and presumably could have duplicated Thaw's accent perfectly. I'd love to know what he was thinking.
Review of Pilot
