I love all things British. Or most things, anyway. I'm especially interested in Britain during and after the Second World War. So when my sister mentioned Foyle's War a year or so ago, it stuck in my mind, and I've finally got round to watching it. Foyle is a police detective in a small English town during the war. Last week I watched the series opener and last night the second episode.
I love this series. Love it, love it, love it. The characters, the acting, the pacing, the atmosphere, the period details. And the fact that the story is actually about values, about morality, about things that matter. The protagonists are real people, but above all they are decent people in a world that's full to overflowing with indecency.
There, that's my review.
Not really. First, I want to mention that one of the reasons I love the series is the cast. The star, Michael Kitchen, is absolutely brilliant. He does that understated English thing perfectly. And I like his driver, Samantha, played by Honeysuckle Weeks (what a name!). I like the character and the actress. (Can we still say "actress," or is everyone an "actor" now?) She's fresh-faced and plucky.
So, Britain during the War. Toward the end of the episode, one of the suspects is released from jail temporarily to help evacuate retreating British soldiers from the beach at Dunkirk in France. Apropos of nothing, I want to mention two other works which feature this famous incident of the War: the movie Mrs. Miniver, and the book The Snow Goose. I have some affection for both these works, but each is also problematic in interesting ways. If you haven't seen/read them, do so now.
One more thing. So...Foyle's War is ostensibly a police procedural / murder mystery. In last night's episode, for instance, there are two murders, lots of suspects and clues, even uncertainty about who was the intended victim. At the end, our hero Foyle solves the mystery with his brilliant mind, confronts the killer, blah blah blah. All very satisfying, I suppose, to people who like that sort of thing. But I don't. It seems to me the mystery is just a framework on which is arranged the fascinating and compelling stuff I mentioned above. So it's a mystery in which the actual mystery element is just an excuse to give us something more, something better. In this, Foyle's War reminds me of my current favorite book, An Instance of the Fingerpost, by Iain Pears. Buy it, read it, love it. Trust me on this.
