A farewell to 'Foyle's War' on Acorn TV
It's time to say goodbye to Christopher Foyle. One of the most popular characters on British TV, the eponymous hero of the World War II mystery series Foyle's War will hang up his trilby for the last time Feb. 16, when the series' 28th and final episode will be posted by online TV provider Acorn TV. (It also is available on iTunes.)
It's time to say goodbye to Christopher Foyle.
One of the most popular characters on British TV, the eponymous hero of the World War II mystery series Foyle's War will hang up his trilby for the last time Feb. 16, when the series' 28th and final episode will be posted by online TV provider Acorn TV. (It also is available on iTunes.)
The finale will be the last of three new Foyle mysteries to be posted by Acorn weekly, beginning on Monday.
Detective Chief Superintendent Foyle, created by the prolific novelist and screenwriter Anthony Horowitz and played to laconic perfection by Michael Kitchen, began his career as a senior police detective stationed during the war on the southern coast of England. While the overall storyline has some continuity, each Foyle's War mystery is self-contained and runs for a good 90 minutes.
Over six seasons, the detective caught murderers, pilferers, and black marketeers with help from his battle-scarred sergeant Paul Milner (Anthony Howell) and his devoted driver, Samantha Stewart (Honeysuckle Weeks), a vicar's daughter whose ferocious intelligence is often undone by an aimless heart.
Horowitz wrote each Foyle mystery off reports of real World War II-era crimes. The show's felicitous use of costumes, scenery, language, and cultural references drove critics mad with adulation.
Foyle's War was supposed to end after the sixth season, which brought the storyline to the fall of 1945. Fan pressure and the discovery of several new cases convinced the writer to continue. Foyle, who had clashed several times with British Intelligence during the war, was convinced at the opening of Season 7 to join MI5. In a lovely, ironic twist, he works under Hilda Pierce (Ellie Haddington), the very person who torpedoed several of his murder investigations in the name of national security.
Sure, it can be tiresome to listen to Anglophiles bleat on about the greatness of some costume drama, dour mystery, or obscure Brit-com (we mean well), but Foyle's War deserves the adulation it has received. And then some.
TELEVISION
Foyle's War
Final three 90-minute episodes posted at www.acorn.tv on consecutive weeks beginning Monday. Also available from iTunes and other online outlets. EndText
215-854-2736