Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Michael Kitchen, Honeysuckle Weeks, Ellie Haddington, Tim McMullan, Jeremy Swift, Daniel Weyman, Tom Beard, Jonathan Hyde, Rupert Vansittart, Laura Way, Lucy-Ann Holmes, Simon Coury, Radoslaw Kaim, Rufus Wright, Alexandra Clatworthy.

With the erstwhile Christopher Foyle, perhaps one of the most reliable and honest detectives to have graced the television screens in over a decade, being at the beck and call of the shadowy world of MI5, it is no wonder that he finds himself having to stoop to a low level to get the information he needs in order to tie up, not just one small mystery that he would have relished in his Hasting days but seemingly an overabundance of inter-related murders, abduction and covertness that must be making his level-headed swim in the aptly titled episode of Foyle’s War, The Cage.

Michael Kitchen and Honeysuckle Weeks have continued their great work as Detective Chief Superintendent Foyle and Samantha Stewart, even though life has moved on for the population of Britain after a brutal and harrowing war, the consistency that these two colleagues work is a cheer and a huge slap on the back for those within the I.T.V. network who argued in favour of letting this unfailingly decent drama continue despite the war finish.

With the country about to have the first general election since before the Winston Churchill took over as Prime Minister during the dark days of 1940, the mood is all for change especially with the far right having caused the problems and social injustice throughout Europe. However nobody ever said it was going to be easy, as the background story of Samantha Stewart’s private life attests with her husband running for the position of a labour M.P. It is these little touches that make Foyle’s War interesting and socially relevant. The main body of the story is centred round the notion that two parts of the same Government can keep secrets from each other; with the counter espionage area of MI5 trying desperately to find out what is going on inside the secretive world of military intelligence and just who exactly is the biggest dog in the playground. Thankfully Foyle is more than capable of cutting through both departments and finding out the truth of the matter, even if it does come too late for several Russian defectors who are brutally murdered.

With a slight raise of an eyebrow, a hint of darkness that is never too far from his open honesty, it is no surprise that Michael Kitchen, although a very private person, relishes playing this detective who is committed to the law but who finally after six years of horror heaped upon him by a world that has moved on is finally fighting back on his terms.

The final part of this season’s Foyle’s War returns next Sunday.

Ian D. Hall