Foyle's War: Set Five

Movie / Show Details

Product Description

Combining uncompromising historical accuracy with compelling mysteries, this acclaimed PBS series continues with three feature-length episodes. Michael Kitchen (Out of Africa) stars as DCS Christopher Foyle, investigating wartime crimes in an English coastal town. With the end of World War II slowly but inevitably approaching, Foyle and his fellow citizens learn the price of victory and face a peace that will transform their lives in unexpected ways.
Also starring Anthony Howell and Honeysuckle Weeks, and featuring Nicholas Day, Malcolm Sinclair, Nicholas Woodeson, Duncan Bell, Julian Ovenden, Mark Bazeley, Julian Wadham, and Phyllida Law.
THE MYSTERIES: PLAN OF ATTACK—With the Hastings police force suffering attrition and low morale, Foyle comes out of retirement to probe the mysterious death of a cartographer from the Air Ministry office. BROKEN SOULS—The murder of an ambitious young doctor at the local psychiatric clinic produces no shortage of suspects among the staff and patients, many of whom still experience the war’s horrors. ALL CLEAR—With final victory expected any day, Hastings looks ahead to a radically different post-war life. But the end comes too soon for two men—one a murder victim, the other an apparent suicide.
DVD SEPCIAL FEATURES INCLUDE making-of documentary, cast member reflections, notes on a real-life Foyle, and cast filmographies.

Amazon.com

No one was unhappy when World War II ended, but the demise of Foyle’s War is something else entirely. For fans of this first-rate British murder mystery series, set against the backdrop of that epic conflict, Set 5 represents something of a reprieve; although Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen) retired at the end of Set 4, circumstances force him to return to action in “Plan of Attack,” the first of three 90-minute episodes (each on its own disc) offered here. But by the end of this set, the war is over and Foyle has eased back into retirement. That’s lamentable. Smartly conceived and often quite masterfully executed, this show will certainly be missed. “History meets mystery” has been the concept from the beginning, as the low-key (like Peter Falk’s Columbo, he knows much more than he lets on), unfailingly decent Foyle and his assistants, Sgt. Paul Milner (Anthony Howell) and driver Samantha “Sam” Stewart (Honeysuckle Weeks), solve murders and various other crimes in and around bucolic Hastings, England, while WWII rages on at home and abroad. But this time out, the war provides much more than context, as the murders tend to be directly related to it. What’s more, Set 5 affectingly deals with combat’s heavy emotional psychological toll. It’s a burden we see carried by the cartographer who can’t bear knowing that his work is helping to kill innocent German civilians (in “Plan of Attack”); by the maimed former POW struggling to readjust to life at home, the teenager whose job it is to deliver bad news telegrams to soldiers’ families, and the Jewish doctor, a refugee from Poland, whose survivor’s guilt leads him down a very dark path (all three in “Broken Souls”); and even by Foyle’s own son (Julian Ovenden, in “All Clear”). OK, so the mysteries may not be all that mysterious–perceptive viewers will have little difficulty identifying the culprits. But with its multi-layered storytelling (the scripts were written by creator Anthony Horowitz) and fine production values (the cinematography, editing, and music are all excellent), Foyle’s War is a whodunit that’s both a prime example of its genre and thoroughly successful on its own unique terms. Bonus features include a brief “making of” featurette and cast filmographies. –Sam Graham

Review

And there’s always an absorbing whodunit (or mad bomber, or rogue pilot, or warped priest) and a psychological twist to keep things interesting. — EW.com (Entertainment Weekly)

History meets mystery and the results are astounding — Blogcritics magazine

One of the all-time great mystery series on television. — New York Sun

One of the best shows on British television…But what was best about Foyle’s War was that the mysteries were damned clever. — Vancouver Voice

This series boasts great camera angles, good television strategies, and extremely real and developed characters. — Blogger News Network

Well-made, truly compelling television show…Foyle’s War is one of the best shows on TV — Memorable TV