Foyle's War - Overview

Overview

The programme is set during and after the Second World War in Hastings, England, where Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen) attempts to catch criminals who are taking advantage of the confusion the war has created. He is assisted by his driver Samantha "Sam" Stewart (Honeysuckle Weeks) and Detective Sergeant Paul Milner (Anthony Howell).

Foyle, a widower, is quiet, methodical, very sagacious, and scrupulously honest, yet he is frequently underestimated by his foes. Many of his cases concern profiteering, the black market, and murder. Foyle often comes up against high-ranking officials in the British military or intelligence services who would prefer that he mind his own business, but he is tenacious in seeking justice.

The stories are largely self-contained. There are some running strands, mainly involving the career of Foyle's son Andrew (played by Julian Ovenden), a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force, or Foyle's continuing relationships with cameo characters.

Each episode runs for about 95 to 100 minutes, filling a two-hour time slot on ITV when commercials are included. To fit its PBS 90-minute time slot in the United States (originally part of the Mystery! series – now called Masterpiece Mystery), the episodes, particularly in Series 1–3, were shortened by several minutes each. Former PBS affiliate KCET in Los Angeles, now an independent station, started re-broadcasting the series in the fall of 2011. In this incarnation, each episode was aired in two parts, each in a one-hour time slot (usually separated by a week) – with each part running about 50 minutes. To fill out the time slot, the station aired excerpts of interviews of the Series Creator and some cast members (but, notably, not Michael Kitchen) which were recorded starting in 2002.

In a newspaper article and in his interview that accompanies the first series DVD set Anthony Horowitz was asked why he named the main character Christopher Foyle. He explained that he was seeking a name that evoked the early 1940s and thought of Foyles bookshop in London's Charing Cross Road, once known for its archaic practices and its owner Christina Foyle. Christopher was the nearest male name to Christina, but from 1999 following the death of Christina Foyle, control passed to her nephew Christopher Foyle, who was given a small walk-on cameo part in the episode "Bad Blood".

After five series the show was abruptly cancelled by Simon Shaps, who was ITV's director of programmes at the time. This forced Horowitz to throw out scripts set during most of 1943 and 1944, resulting in time jumps of nine months to a year between episodes (whereas previous series had gaps of a month at most). In April 2008, the presumed final episode "All Clear," during which the end of the war is announced, was aired. However, on 9 April 2008 ITV announced that it was in talks with Horowitz and Greenlit Productions to revive the series, continuing Foyle's adventures beyond VE day, and some media observers saw high viewing figures for the penultimate episode (28% audience share) on 13 April that year as strengthening the case for a continuation. At the time the audience figures for the final episode were released (28% and an average of 7.3 million), ITV confirmed that it had entered and was continuing "early discussions" with Horowitz and Greenlit. These negotiations eventually led to the series being recommissioned for a further three episodes.

Series 7 commenced filming in February 2009 and premiered on UK television 11 April 2010. Production on series 8 commenced late August 2012, and is expected to end December 2012. Filming for the series has moved to Ireland, which will be used as a post-war setting for London.

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