Customer Reviews
DCI Foyle returns in season two of this excellent WWII home-front mystery series - By: C. O. DeRiemer, 19 Aug 2007 
Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen) returns in the second season of Foyle's War, & the series remains as well-written & gripping as the first season was. Foyle is a British cop based in the southern part of England. It's Autumn, 1940. Britain, woefully unprepared, is at war with Germany. Foyle is a taciturn man, even sad. He has lost his wife & his only child has signed up with the Royal Air Force & is a fighter pilot. Foyle knows his son is going to be at high risk every time he takes off. Foyle desperately wanted to join up, too, but was told by his superiors that his talents are far better utilized where he is. He has reluctantly accepted that reality. Foyle is a dedicated, no-nonsense cop. He's respectful to authority & the rich, but he isn't intimidated. If a person has committed a crime, especiallly one which could damage Britain's war effort, Foyle will never let up until the crime is solved & justice -- by the book -- is done.
This series is effective for several reasons. The production values are high. A great deal of effort has been placed in evoking the look & style of England at the start of WWII. The cast which backs up Kitchen is first rate. These include the ongoing characters of Samantha Stewart played by Honeysuckle Weeks (a great name) as Foyle's driver. Stewart is an energetic, curious young woman, brave when she needs to be, who graduallly earns Foyle's respect. Paul Milner is played by Anthony Howell. Milner, who lost a leg in the Norway campaign, is assigned to Foyle as his detective sergeant. Milner has to build back his confidence & Foyle can't give him much time to do so. Showing up in one-time roles this season are such accomplished actors as Alan Howard, Amanda Root, Nicholas Farrell, Corin Redgrave & Henry Goodman.
Most of alll, the series works so well because of Michael Kitchen & the mysteries themselves, alll of which are drawn from issues of the early war period. Kitchen is an excellent, subtle, versatile actor whose long career includes the amusing & reprehensibly egoistic doctor in Reckless, the well-intentioned but naive king utterly outmaneuvered by Francis Urquhart in To Play the King & the unprincipled charlatan who finds himself facing Inspector Morse. Inspector Foyle is a serious, thoughtful man of high principles, who keeps most of his deepest feelings to himself but who is not without a sense of wry humor. Kitchen captures the man perfectly. The mysteries this season involve an illicit fuel racket, a genteel hotel out of harm's way with very good food that attracts the wealthy who don't like bombs, an organized ring of looters, a highly-placed American up to his eyes in murder & Lend Lease & how money tries to influence murder investigations as well as government contracts. The series was conceived & is researched & written by Anthony Horowitz, who consistently turns out literate & complex scripts.
Each of the four stories is approximately 1' 40" long. The four DVDs in the set have excellent pictures & audio. Extras include interviews with Weeks & Howell & cast filmographies.
