Foyle's War

October 1944. D Day was four months ago. The liberation of the Continent is underway with the Allies making their way towards Paris.



In Hastings, Christopher Foyle plays chess with a Jewish psychiatrist from Poland. Dr. Novak was in Paris when Poland was invaded. He was unable to return, but learned his family was first send to the ghetto, then a concentration camp.



There is a doctor found dead at the mental facility where Dr. Novak worked. Nearby, a teenager evacuated from London is missing. Also, an injured farmer returns home from after being a POW for five years to find a German POW working on his farm.



The script combines the stories together in a cohesive manner that makes it impossible to look away. The spellbinding way the show mixes real historic events with murder mysteries is splendid. I will be very sorry next week to watch the series finale.

Another fine episode in a consistently well show. The pace is slow(ish) but the characterisation is brilliant, choice of actors is excellent. Plots are always interesting and challenging; set as it is during WW2 the morality of war is often challenged, particularly in this episode where three of the main characters are a German prisoner of war (working on day release), a British soldier (who has escaped from a German POW camp and returned to England) and a Polish doctor who hears that the Russians have liberated a concentration camp housing his family. All affer a different perspective on the war.

In many ways watching this series is not a pleasure, it requires a reaction.

Shown on ABC, Australia 27 July 2008