Monday , March 18 2024
"Foyle's War: Set 8" on Blu-ray marks the end of what was a magnificent piece of television.

Blu-ray Review: ‘Foyle’s War: Set 8’ – The Final Episodes

Although the end of WWII meant the end of war for the people of Great Britain, the period following was a time of incredible upheaval for the country. The war-time bombing had ruined the country’s infrastructure and manufacturing base, making everything, from basic necessities like bread to luxury items like whisky, scarce, leading to unrest. The British also had to deal with the slow dissolution of the country’s vast empire while coping with the emergence of a new enemy: Communist Russia. It’s against this backdrop the final three episodes of Foyle’s War play out. These episodes are now available as Foyle’s War: Set 8 in a new Blu-ray from Acorn Media.

In these the last three episodes of the series, former police Inspector Christopher Foyle, (Michael Kitchen), is still working for the British Domestic Intelligence Service, better known as MI5. Their remit is everything from chasing down suspected Russian spies to dealing with black marketers profiting from the shortages. There’s also the reality of Britain as a whole coming to grips with the fact they are no longer a major player on the world stage and their role as empire builder has been supplanted by the United States.
Foyle's War Set 8
Each of the feature-length episodes included in this set bring to life the problems facing Great Britain as Foyle goes about his job. In the first episode, High Castle, an American oil company with a shady past representing British interests in Iran have been receiving threats from unknown sources. Foyle is asked to investigate the matter and stumbles onto something with links back to the war, concentration camps and the illegal selling of oil to the Nazis. The American firm is a family owned business headed up by its patriarch, played by Frasier’s John Mahoney.

Foyle only discovers how out about the family when a war criminal is found dead in his cell in Nuremberg Germany. However, when he tries to further the investigation into the family’s potential wrong doings during WWII he runs into fierce objections from Britain’s foreign office. In the new post war realities, nobody wants to look too closely into anyone’s past, especially when they are useful.

In both the second and third episodes, Trespass and Elise respectively, Britain’s past, present and future collide in somewhat chilling fashion. In the former we watch as the country, and Foyle, not only deal with the fallout from the collapse of the old Empire, but the spectre of British Fascism raising its ugly head again. As is usual whenever there is want, people look for scapegoats. In the aftermath of WWII in England the easiest targets were refugees from Nazi Germany, mainly Jews. A local politician, recently released from an internment camp where he had spent the war for his fascist sympathies, tries to revive his career by whipping up hatred against them, for “stealing our jobs and being the cause of misfortune.”

At the same time England is trying to deal with the “Palestine question”. The British had occupied what is now Israel since the end of WWI and had been trying to find a way to extract themselves from the situation since the 1930s. Both Jewish and Arab terror groups were planting bombs and killing British civilians and soldiers in Jerusalem. Notably the Jewish terrorist organization, The Stern gang, had blown up the King David Hotel. London was to be host a high level conference about Palestine with both Arab and Jewish representatives and tensions are high within both the Foreign Office and the Intelligence community. When a noted Jewish businessman who is also a Zionist is found dead in his house, Foyle is asked to investigate.

In Elise the past comes back to haunt Foyle’s direct superior at MI5, Hilda Pierce (Ellie Haddington) after someone tries to kill her. It turns out the assassin was the brother of one Pierce’s “girls” from her days in the British Special Operations Executive (SEO) during the war. The “girls” were french speaking British subjects dropped into occupied France to help co-ordinate British and French efforts against German troops. Near the end of the war the girls were being arrested almost as soon as they landed in France leading everyone to suspect there was a traitor.

After Pierce is shot Foyle starts investigating all the loose threads and finds out more about the security service’s history than he really wants. Not only its sordid past but its rather nasty present as well. While he’s never found the realities of his new profession much to his liking, these three cases tip him over the edge. As usual Kitchen’s performance as Foyle is a masterpiece of understatement. However, this makes everything he does all the more powerful. Even his subtlest reactions are stronger than the emoting most actors splash across our screens.
Honeysuckle Weeks & Micael Kitchen in Foyle's WarAs he has been since the series’ opening episode, Foyle is still accompanied by his faithful right hand woman Samantha Stewart, now Wainwright. (Honeysuckle Weeks) She hasn’t let her marriage to a newly elected Labour Party Member of Parliament, Adam Wainwright (Daniel Weyman) slow her down and is as headstrong and impetuous as ever. However it’s through her and her husband’s work as an MP, we experience the social problems England was experiencing during this.

As ever with Foyle’s War the scripts and acting are exemplary. With each episode being an hour and half in length, there is time for plots and sub-plots to be developed carefully and intelligently. While there are points made about social inequalities within Britain at the time, there is none of the knee-jerk reactions you’d expect. Instead everything is placed in its appropriate context so we can see how and why things happened. Of course the quality of the show isn’t hurt by the consistent high level of the acting by all involved. From every episodes’ special guest to the recurring characters each actor is the perfect compliment for the script and the story.

As with all Bly-ray releases from Acorn, this set comes loaded with Special Features. There’s one which examines the history behind each of the episodes, another gives you a day in the life of shooting and another showing you how they recreated London of the late 1940s in 21st century Liverpool. Finally there’s also an interview with John Mahoney about his role and his personal acting experiences. They all make for fascinating addendums to the episodes in this set.

Foyle’s War: Set 8 unfortunately marks the end of what was a magnificent piece of television. Not only was it a well thought out and intelligent police procedural, it was also a wonderful history of both war time and post war England. If you’ve been a fan of the series all along you won’t be disappointed by this ending. For those new to the show, I’d recommend starting from the beginning. However, you can still watch these without having seen any of the previous episodes and not feel like you’re missing too much information. The only regret anyone will have is there won’t be any more after this.

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About Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of three books commissioned by Ulysses Press, "What Will Happen In Eragon IV?" (2009) and "The Unofficial Heroes Of Olympus Companion" and "Introduction to Greek Mythology For Kids". Aside from Blogcritics he contributes to Qantara.de and his work has appeared in the German edition of Rolling Stone Magazine and has been translated into numerous languages in multiple publications.

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