8.4 /10 1 Votes
8.8/10 TV No. of episodes 3 Program creator Anthony Horowitz | 8.4/10 IMDb 4/5 The Telegraph First episode date 27 October 2002 Writers Anthony Horowitz | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Cast Michael Kitchen, Honeysuckle Weeks, Anthony Howell, Julian Ovenden | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series 7 of the ITV programme Foyle's War first aired in 2013, beginning Sunday 24 March; comprising three episodes, it is set in the period from August 1946 onwards. Series Seven was broadcast in the United States on PBS stations on Masterpiece Mystery! as Foyle's War VII on 15, 22 and 29 September 2013, and on Netflix as of April 2014.
Contents
Character and plot development
The episode reintroduces the recurring character Hilda Pierce, played by Ellie Haddington ("War Games", "The French Drop" and "All Clear"), turning her into a regular character. It also introduces the regular character of Arthur Valentine, played by Tim McMullan.
The episode also reintroduces Adam Wainwright, now Sam's husband, though he is played by a new actor (Daniel Weyman, as opposed to Max Brown in the previous series).
Foyle returns from a trip to America, during which he pursued former industrialist and "inventor", now a United States Senator, Howard Paige (Episode 1/Series 2, "Fifty Ships"), whom Foyle vowed to bring to justice for a murder which Paige committed while in England. It is revealed that Paige committed suicide, allegedly after being hounded by Foyle, although Foyle was unaware of Paige's suicide.
Historical context
Much of this story is loosely based on the real "Tin Eye" Stephens who successfully ran Camp 020, an interrogation centre near London during the Second World War. After the war he ran another in Bad Nenndorf in Germany but was tried for the maltreatment of prisoners, some of whom died. He was tried in a German court and found not guilty, but others involved were not.
References are made, in the episode, to ongoing housing and food shortages, food rationing, the Lend-Lease programme and abuses of the Official Secrets Act. Women's multi-style coupon busters shoes, fashionable at the time, serve as a plot point.
Historical context
The Americans use as leverage with MI5 the 1943 BRUSA Agreement and loan terms the US has extended the UK. Mortain was an important battle site, but the massacre bears traits with Malmedy. Operation Sunflower happened in Africa in 1941.