Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Cast: Michael Kitchen, Honeysuckle Weeks, Charlie Archer, Rupert Simonian, Nick Cornwall, John Waterhouse, Rupert Vansittart, Ellie Haddington, Tim McMullan, Daniel Weyman, Paul Barnhill, Jeremy Swift, Jamie Winstone, Vincenzo Nicoli, Nigel Lindsay, John Mahoney, Madeline Potter, George Lasha, Mark Chatterton, Hermoine Gulliford, Amanda Lawrence, Joseph Drake, Neil Fitzmaurice, Marianne Oldham, Pip Donaghy, Ollie Hancock, Joe Simpson, Ludger Pistor, Will Keen, Sean Cernow.
Christopher Foyle’s war is never ending and post war Britain must be thankful that there was at least one honest man around who was willing to go up against so called authority in which to get to the absolute truth.
Foyle’s War may have moved on from the cosy setting of the picturesque Hastings, the more familiar sounds of bombardment from the Second World War, but former allies are now the enemy and Christopher Foyle finds himself in a world that may have changed beyond recognition since before August 1939 but still seems strangely common as the only person he can only truly trust is that of his driver Samantha Wainwright.
The world of espionage may not be that far removed from the days of Detective work in which he was embroiled during the war but in High Castle, the world takes a nastier turn as Foyle realises just how close two ideologies can actually be seen to be in bed together, especially when it comes to making money and being in control.
With this new series benefitting from being filmed primarily in Liverpool, it is gratifying to see local actors being given the chance to shine in a much acclaimed television programme, even if it is in a supporting role. It is the type of acknowledgement to the area that makes programmes such as Foyle’s War such a generous spectacle in which to lose yourself in. Being arguably one half of the best writers of the annual pantomime around, Mark Chatterton does the impossible every year and in one scene with the consummate Michael Kitchen, Mr. Chatterton was able to steal the moment perfectly as the college porter.
Where the episode sort of falls apart is in its casting of main participants, to have John Mahoney, a stalwart of one of the great American comedies of all time, Frasier, playing against type was more than interesting but to have the otherwise reliable Nigel Lindsay play his son with one of the worst forced American accents was both grating and a disservice.
The episode was as always one in which delved not into the crime at hand but also into some of the more social issues that were dogging the nation at the time. With Sam being pregnant, the mirroring of the situation of women all the country losing their jobs as the troops came back from the war was one in which the episode excelled. With Jamie Winstone highlighting that social dilemma and Ellie Haddington offering the other side of the coin in which the establishment looked after their own, this was more than just a typical couple of hours in which the who and the why were asked, but instead more of a how could this happened to a generation of women who had answered the call of a nation to help preserve the order and keep the country going.
The war is over, but for Christopher Foyle, it really seems that the peace is a losing battle.
Ian D. Hall