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Foyle's War is the rare mystery series that does more
than plop a good detective into the middle of a decorative and bygone era.
Created by writer Anthony Horowitz, Foyle's War makes profoundly resonant
use of British society in 1940, a terrifying time in which the threat of an Axis
assault on England disrupted ordinary life in often horrible ways, from the
resettlement of city children (into the care of rural strangers) to a spike in
xenophobia to a loss of personal freedoms. Against this heady backdrop is the
near-solitary figure of Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle
(Michael Kitchen), a London investigator who would rather be fighting Hitler
abroad but is stuck solving domestic homicides--generally sparked by wartime
fervor--with the help of a plucky driver (Honeysuckle Weeks) and a steadfast
assistant (Anthony Howell). Kitchen's magnificently measured performance and
Horowitz's masterful grasp of the moral and dramatic issues of his
battle-scarred milieu make Foyle's War a must.
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