Foyle’s War – Nostalgia Central

2 0 0 2 – 2 0 1 0 (UK)
22 x 90 minute episodes
2 0 1 3 – 2 0 1 5 (UK)
6 x 90 minute episodes

Widely celebrated for its meticulous historical accuracy, this highly acclaimed British detective drama was set during and shortly after World War II.

Created by Midsomer Murders screenwriter and author Anthony Horowitz, the series aired on ITV from 2002 to 2015, spanning 8 series and 28 feature-length episodes.

Set in the coastal town of Hastings, Sussex, the series tracked the progression of WWII from 1940 to the declaration of peace in 1945.

Detective Chief Superintendent (DCS) Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen) desperately wanted to join the military war effort but was repeatedly refused permission because his policing skills were deemed vital to the home front.

While the war raged across the English Channel, Foyle fought his own war against domestic chaos. He investigated murders, wartime profiteering, black-market smuggling, espionage, and treason, while episodes used the murder-mystery format to explore niche historical realities like the internment of German aliens, corporate collaborators, British fascism and raw material shortages, and some darker, complex historical truths – such as a British government plot to limit Jewish emigration to Israel and Churchill’s secret-army scandals.

Foyle – intelligent, enigmatic, and unfailingly polite, even to his enemies – was assisted by Detective Sergeant Paul Milner (Anthony Howell), a former Hastings policeman who rejoined the force under Foyle’s guidance after losing his lower left leg in the Norwegian Campaign, and Samantha “Sam” Stewart (Honeysuckle Weeks), a bright, enthusiastic member of the Mechanised Transport Corps who served as Foyle’s official driver.

Christopher’s son, Andrew (Julian Ovenden), was an idealistic RAF fighter pilot whose military assignments occasionally intersected with his father’s cases.

Following cancellation in 2010 (by a new team brought in to run ITV) – and subsequent revival in 2013 due to intense viewer uproar – the show shifted focus, with a retired Foyle recruited into MI5, transitioning the series into a post-war espionage thriller dealing with Soviet threats, atomic secrets, and the realities of a fractured post-war Britain.

DCS Christopher Foyle
Michael Kitchen
Samantha Stewart/Wainwright
Honeysuckle Weeks
Sergeant Paul Milner
Anthony Howell
Hilda Pierce
Ellie Haddington
Andrew Foyle
Julian Ovenden
Sergeant Ian Brooke
Jay Simpson