Friday, January 23, 2015

Favourite Discoveries of 2014 (5)

Today's instalment of favourite discoveries of 2014 comes from Terry Halligan.

Terry Halligan's Favourite Discovery of 2014

My favourite discovery of 2014 was Foyle's War, which I have already watched intermittently since it was first broadcast in 2002 but my wife hadn't seen it before and was very impressed with the exceptional quality of its plotting and we obtained the full series to watch them in sequence. The series is set during and after the Second World War in Hastings, Sussex, England, where Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen) attempts to catch criminals who are taking advantage of the confusion the war has created. He is assisted by his driver Samantha "Sam" Stewart (Honeysuckle Weeks) and Detective Sergeant Paul Milner (Anthony Howell).
The creator and main writer of the series is Anthony Horowitz, who was given special permission to use the name of the present owner of London's Foyles Bookshop, Christopher Foyle for his main character. Each programme, broadcast on ITV in the UK and PBS in the USA lasts about two hours including adverts and in all there have been 25 episodes broadcast. It was expected that the programme would finish at the end of the Second World War with the nineteenth episode entitled "All Clear" but enthusiasm for the series both in the UK and the US persuaded the producers to extend the story to include the aftermath of the War when Foyle is asked to work for MI5. So a further nine programmes, including three which will be released on DVD on 19 January 2015 have been prepared which will bring the total number of episodes up to 28.

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