Daily Mail - 01.08.2019

(Jacob Rumans) #1

Daily Mail, Thursday, August 1, 2019 Page 19


A


UTHOR 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.

B


UT 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

by Christopher


Stevens


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...


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 independ-
ence, 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 philo-
sophical 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 recommis-
sioned, 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 wil-
ful 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 unal-
tered. 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.

Lights in Britain’s darkest hour: Honeysuckle
Weeks and Michael Kitchen as Sam and Foyle
Pictures: ITV
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