Foyle's War (series 8)

Series 8 of the ITV programme Foyle's War, comprising three episodes, aired in January 2015 on ITV. Though most episodes were broadcast at 8:00 pm on ITV, the final one was transmitted at 9pm.[1]

Foyle's War
Season 8
No. of episodes3
Series chronology

Episodes

"High Castle"
Writer: Anthony HorowitzDirector: Stuart OrmeAirdate: 4 January 2015 (UK)Net duration: 88 minutesSet: October 1946Viewers: 6.16 million
Guests: John Mahoney, Nigel Lindsay, Jaime Winstone, Vincenzo Nicoli, Hermione Gulliford, Joseph Drake, Amanda Lawrence
As the Nuremberg trials begin wrapping up, a prominent translator, professor William Knowles from University College London is found murdered in Hyde Park. Foyle is brought in to investigate when the address of Clayton Del Mar, a prominent American oil tycoon, is found on the body. As with other episodes, it is clear to Foyle that political, business, and intelligence machinations are at play. Knowles' connection to a German businessman on trial in Nuremberg, Hermann Linz, deepens when Linz is found murdered in his high-security cell. Foyle tours Linz's workplace in Monowitz concentration camp as part of his investigation, finding clues to Global American Oil and the illegal export in 1940 of tetraethyllead (disguised in barrels of High Castle whisky) from the UK via Tenerife to Germany for use by the Luftwaffe. The Soviets, now fearful of post-war American interference in the oil politics of Iran, assassinate Del Mar to prevent him influencing the current negotiations.

Cast and characters

Adam Wainwright is forced, on two fronts, to address the issue of women who went to work during wartime and do not want to give up their jobs postwar. One of his constituents does not want to be demoted to accommodate a returning soldier whose job she had filled, competently, in the soldier's absence. Meanwhile, at home, the Wainwrights struggle over his desire for her to quit her job to become a stay-at-home mother. While Foyle investigates the deaths of Knowles and Linz, Sam Wainwright decides to volunteer for a risky undercover job to find a "Friends of Himmler" photograph (taken by Knowles from the university archive) incriminating Del Mars' father and his Nazi sympathies. Foyle, unaware of her pregnancy, agrees. Foyle also seems to strike up a mutual intellectual appreciation with Dr. Elizabeth Addis, a colleague of Knowles at UCL.

Background and production

The story takes place shortly after the Nuremberg trials, which ended on 1 October 1946. Linz and others like him were on trial because his firm, IG Farben, had during WWII hired Monowitz concentration camp inmates from the SS. Del Mar and his father, who own Global American Oil, represent war profiteers who, like Linz (and Strasser in the previous episode), should also have been tried during the Nuremberg trials. However, MI5 had a history of looking the other way and of protecting influential people like him because, in this case, the government desired his influence to help the UK build a presence with the Shah of Iran and ultimately, a countervailing presence to the Soviet Union in the Middle East.

"Trespass"
Writer: Anthony HorowitzDirector: Stuart OrmeAirdate: 11 Jan 2015 (UK)Net duration: 87 minutesSet: Nov 1946Viewers: 5.86 million
Guests: Richard Lintern, Alexander Arnold, Alex Jennings, Finbar Lynch, John Heffernan, Matilda Ziegler, Jonathan Tafler
A young man, Daniel Woolf, the son of Sir David Woolf, a high-profile wealthy Jewish businessman, is assaulted in the grounds of a university and Foyle begins to wonder if the attack is racially motivated. Tensions between intelligence agencies are also mounting, in particular with the Foreign Office, whose operatives are running a fictitious organisation, “Defenders of Arab Palestine”, who are bombing transport ships in France in order to reduce Jewish immigration pressure to Palestine. Tensions are also starting to run high in London with a charismatic right-wing leader, Charles Lucas, head of the International Unity Party, agitating anti-immigrant, anti-Slavic, and anti-Semitic sentiments leading to a riot. Foyle also helps to uncover a bomb threat to the proposed Palestine conference in London, a product of the increasing tensions between competing Arab and Jewish interests in the region.

Cast and characters

Adam Wainwright continues serving as an MP, while Sam Wainwright continues helping Foyle with his work. She also takes interest in a local boy suffering from whooping cough. Foyle briefly resigns after being set-up while trying to meet members of an Arab delegation, and it is revealed at the end of the episode that Addis is working for Pierce.

Background and production

The episode opens with newsreel coverage of the King David Hotel bombing in Jerusalem on 22 July 1946, which acts as a background to later tensions over the Palestine issue in London. References are also made to graffiti depicted symbolising Perish Judah ("PJ"), and a Right Club type of organisation which agitates Londoners in Adam Wainwright's electoral district. The show also references the early stages of the formation of the NHS.

"Elise"
Writer: Anthony HorowitzDirector: Andy HayAirdate: 18 Jan 2015 (UK) Net duration: 89 minutesSet: Jan 1947Viewers: 5.55 million
Guests: Katherine Press, Emma Fielding, Tony Clay, Leo Gregory, Daniel Peacock, Conleth Hill
Foyle examines Pierce's top-secret role during the war within the SOE when she is shot outside MI5 by a man stating "For Elise". Pierce survives and is visited by an ex-SOE colleague, Sir Ian Woodhead (the current director of MI6). Foyle discovers that "Elise" was the codename of Sophie Corrigan, an SOE agent during the war, and that it was her brother, Miles, who shot Pierce, blaming her and others for the death in May 1944 of his sister behind enemy lines in France. Foyle suspects the shooting may be connected to the hunt for a traitor within SOE, code-named Plato, who could have been behind the deaths of eight other British SOE agents in France. He is aided by Addis, who shortlisted Plato suspects, and manages to track down Corrigan and the top three on her list. However, Pierce realises it was Woodhead all along, and she murder-suicides with a hand-grenade in his office after confronting him about the deaths of the operatives.

Cast and characters

A major subplot in the show is that of racketeer Damian White, a man wealthy from illegal clubs, bars, goods, thefts, and more recently, the sale of state secrets to Russia. Sam Wainwright, still showing no signs of her pregnancy, is faced with a dilemma when her husband is persuaded to crack down on the black market and police collusion (headed by Chief Superintendent Usborne) in East Peckham, resulting in his arrest when some contraband cigarettes are planted in their home. The series ends with her telling Foyle of the pregnancy (i.e. technically being PWP - "pregnant without permission") and asking him to be the godfather.

Background and production

According to letters found in Pierce's apartment, the story takes place a few days after 3 January 1947. Real events which influenced this episode include Operation NordPol, a successful German intelligence operation in Holland in 1942 and 1943.[2] Other ongoing themes include issues surrounding the black-market and post-war food, goods, and building material shortages, and one scene shows a Happy and Glorious film poster starring Tommy Trinder.

International broadcast

It was broadcast in the United States as Foyle's War VIII, on PBS' Masterpiece and on Acorn TV.

References
  1. Eames, Tom (19 January 2015). "Call the Midwife returns with 8.3m, Foyle's War ends with 3.5m". Digital Spy. Retrieved 1 February 2016.
  2. "London Calling North Pole". Truth. Sydney. 1 November 1953. Retrieved 1 February 2016 – via National Library of Australia.
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