The greatest Foyle mystery of all? His own disappearance
It’s the show viewers most miss from the past 20 years, with a message as relevant as ever. That’s why our TV critic says...
Author Anthony horowitz puts it succinctly: ‘Why would anyone be interested in one solitary murder on the English South Coast, when 50 miles away, just across the Channel, thousands of people are being slaughtered?’
It’s a fascinating paradox. And it’s one that has lost none of its appeal in the 20 years since he first turned that idea into a gripping detective serial, Foyle’s War — voted this week as the tV show from the past two decades we would most like to see revived.
the drama, starring Michael Kitchen as Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle and set on the home Front during World War II, was unexpectedly cut short in 2007 after a five-year run — a victim of its high production values and huge budget.
ratings were strong: 7.3 million people had tuned in to the last episode, and the show was syndicated to 30 countries.
horowitz, 64, has never hidden his disappointment that the axe fell at such an awkward moment for his characters in 1943: ‘We hadn’t even won the war!’
under a barrage of complaints, ItV brought back Foyle’s War for three episodes in 2010, to reveal what happened to the characters at the end of the conflict. that wasn’t nearly enough for fans, and six more were aired before bosses pulled the plug again in 2015.
It’s unsurprising that viewers remain hungry for more: Foyle is a perfect detective. In a world where morals and traditions shift with disturbing speed, he is steadfast.
the lives of people around him fluctuate — his driver Sam, played by honeysuckle Weeks, and his sergeant, DS Milner (Anthony howell), suffer their own private dramas.
But Foyle, a widower with a grown-up son who is a fighter pilot in the rAF, remained true and constant through 28 two-hour episodes. Like Morse or Maigret, audiences never seem to tire of watching him.
ItV scarcely understood what they had. Perhaps they supposed the programme was just another murder mystery show that happened to be set in Britain’s ‘darkest hour’. they may have thought its appeal was primarily nostalgic: horowitz, after all, is the man who, in 1997, took a little-known crime novel, the Killings At Badger’s Drift by Caroline Graham, and turned it into the English bloodfest Midsomer Murders.
But Foyle’s War is nothing like Midsomer. For a start, many of its plots incorporate real wartime events and news stories, such as the raid on a Ministry of Food depot by blackmarket crooks in 1940, the sometimes brutal treatment of German internees or, in an episode broadcast after the programme’s initial cancellation, the trial of German industrialists for war crimes in 1945.
‘It isn’t all nostalgia,’ horowitz insisted when we spoke yesterday. ‘We never viewed those years through rose-tinted spectacles — we were realistic about the era, telling stories of cowardice and fascism, of betrayal and greed and stupidity. We’re not painting a perfect England.’
So what is the true secret of the show’s enduring appeal to the thousands of viewers who have voted to demand Foyle’s return and the millions who watch repeats around the world?
I believe it is the pride shown in our national character. Foyle is the epitome of British independence, decency and doggedness.
his determination to do his job and stand up for what is right, even at a time when the world is in flames, is reassuring and noble.
his fight for justice mirrors the country’s fight for its survival. ‘I was writing about what brought
us through the war,’ horowitz says, ‘not the “stiff upper lip” but the resilience of ordinary people, and a nation that pulled together. togetherness — that’s one of the reasons people like the period so much.’
It’s about humility, too. Foyle knows his work is insignificant compared with the horrors ongoing on the Continent. Given the option, he would rather be pouring his efforts directly towards Britain’s victory, for example by working at the War office.
But that is not his role — so he sticks to his job and does it as well as he can.
of course, these weighty philosophical notions are hardly at the forefront of every viewer’s mind when he or she sits down to enjoy a repeat on ItV3, where it’s currently shown at 10pm daily. What counts for more are the rich attention to period detail and the superb performances.
honeysuckle Weeks was just 22 when she took on the role of Foyle’s loyal, impulsive driver, a young woman who is sometimes too sharp for her own safety. Anthony howell came from the royal Shakespeare Company where he had been playing in the Comedy of Errors in Stratford opposite David tennant, later better known as Doctor Who.
But it was Kitchen’s quiet authority that gripped viewers’ attention. the star says he’d spent 30 years striving to avoid being typecast before finding the role that would define his career.
‘We were incredibly lucky with Michael Kitchen,’ says horowitz. ‘You can’t imagine Foyle without him.’ And if the show is recommissioned, it would be unthinkable to cast another actor in the role. Fortunately, his face never seems to age . . . one more thing about Foyle that is immune to change.
Fans would be desperate to see honeysuckle Weeks return, too. She hasn’t acted on tV for three years, following a worrying incident when she disappeared from her home in West Sussex for several days before being found safe by police at a relative’s house.
Earlier this year, however, she announced a return to the small screen, playing Agatha Christie in the 1920s detective serial Frankie Drake Mysteries. It’s these characters, Foyle and Sam, that viewers long to see again: the wilful daughter of a surrogate father.
And it’s strong characters that are the common theme on the list of other most-missed shows — a mixed bunch, including costume dramas (Downton Abbey and home Fires), gentle comedies (Detectorists and Count Arthur Strong) and crime (the Bill, Life on Mars and happy Valley).
Foyle’s creator is eager to write a Christmas special, or even a full series. the drama was special to him, not least because his wife Jill Green produced every episode. ‘It was a family show in every sense,’ he says. he and his son Nicholas even appeared as extras.
And if it does return, every viewer will expect one detail to be unaltered. the opening credits must be the same, three searchlights probing the darkened screen.
‘that’s what the show is — three spotlights, three good people,’ says horowitz. ‘Foyle, Sam and Milner, trying to keep the light shining in a time when it seemed to be going out on civilisation.’
Let’s hope those lights can dazzle once again.
John MacLeod – Page 21