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Starring: Michael Kitchen, Anthony Howell, Honeysuckle Weeks $44.99 Features:
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Editorial Review:
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.
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
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 5.0 / 5.0 
Great Period Detective Stories:
FOYLE'S WAR involves great plotting, great characterization, and great evocation of WWII England. The only apparent concession to modern PC-ness is that our heroes smoke very little and DC Foyle himself is decidedly 2000-ish in his feminist attitude. Happily, his driver Sam (for Samantha) is not made into some sort of proto-feminist harpy; if anything she is more like a gung-ho Girl Guide whose enthusiasm and curiosity gets her into scrapes from which she must often be rescued by (gasp!) men. It's also...
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Foyles war series:
The Foyle's War series (5 seasons) is about the best DVD viewing available. The acting, writing, directing are all excellent. You can view WWII history in England with all the shades of grey. The characters were believable and well rounded. The story lines explored aspects of how lives of all classes of people were affected by the war, "the good, the bad and the ugly". I wish I could purchase more of this type of quality drama. Foyle's War is one of the few drama's that I will view again, enjoying and...more info
Excellent WWII Mystery:
This is Series 5 of a PBS Masterpiece Theatre Mystery series, excellently done in the UK. I fell in love with this series on TV and wanted to own the set. Was thrilled that part 5 came out. Done in the same classic style as the Merchant and Ivory films. I down't own many DVDs, but started collecting good classics that I love like this. The acting is superb, the English country-side divine, the suspense thrilling, and the overall experience world class. I highly recommend.
John Queue on Foyle's War:
The entire groop is very interesting. It gives a point of view that I have seen nowhere else.
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