FOYLE'S WAR

EAGLE DAY

REVIEWED BY CHARITY BISHOP

Our rating: 4 out of 5

Because of: strong abuse of deity, mature thematic elements

Rated:

August, 1940. England is being bombarded with random German bombings. One such attack has leveled a house in Hastings and would have killed the occupant of the house... had he not already been dead. His body is discovered with a kitchen knife buried to the hilt in his chest. The man was Graham Davies (Tom Bowles), an art transporter for a wealthy London museum. Since the war's beginning, famous pieces of art have been transported to a little-known mine in Wales, where they will weather out the attacks in safety. The day before his untimely death, Davies drove a lorry full of priceless artifacts for the Whittington Gallery, owned by an aging American art collector, to safety. Detective Chief Superintendent Foyle (Michael Kitchen) is called in to investigate and believes the man's death has to do with the delivery. 

The museum's curator (Anton Lesser) assures him nothing is missing, and their system of cataloguing the pieces as they went into the lorry was foolproof. The only unusual item found on the body was a woman's gold locket enclosed in the dead man's hand. Milner (Anthony Howells) begins an investigation. Meanwhile Foyle's driver Sam (Honeysuckle Weeks) is expecting a visit from her father, a cleric in the south of England. With her mother's failing health and his demands at the parish, he wants his daughter to give up her ridiculous notion of being a WAF and come home. 

Unhappy with this choice but also respectful of his wishes, Sam gives Foyle notice of her retirement, but pleads with him to talk some sense into her father. Andrew Foyle (Julian Ovenden) has returned home from RAF training to become a pilot. He is assigned to run secret missions test the new radar system. His fellow trainees all seem on edge around the senior officers, Commander Keller (Anthony Calf) and Captain Graeme (Roger Allam). He is romantically interested in one of the girls, who confides that her friend Lucy died some months earlier. When Andrew begins digging for the truth, his life is placed in danger. His father soon must solve a case of double murder, uncover dark dealings in the military, and struggle to hold onto his friendly driver. Sam will also make an attempt at undercover work, and Milner gets a lesson in art from a clergyman. Combine these unusual elements and you have an intriguing mystery with a surprising conclusion. It all boils down to man's sin nature and the desire to cover up wrongdoing, with a couple of astonishing twists along the way.

The plot begins as two separate events, then evolves into three, and finally ties together by the ending credits. There's a little romance, a great deal of irony, and a few downright comical moments. It's a fine conclusion to the four-part first season and gives lesser characters the opportunity to get screen time. We've been waiting for many of these revelations... about Sam's home life, her parents, why she joined up, and more importantly, Foyle's interest in the earlier war, his own wife's death, and his feelings about the necessity of self-defense. In one poignant scene his son worries about killing people and asks his father if he was ever forced to shoot anyone. Foyle makes a thoughtful, honest response. I like his character for how open he is, willing to stand behind his son but not take any guff, also his feelings about abusive situations. After Sam has been insulted by having her bottom pinched by a suspect, he's willing to go have a "talk" with the man responsible. (She tells him not to worry about it, since it would confirm the man's suspicions about her being a spy.)

There are a few indelicate references to women and sex. Sam jokes with her father about the state of women in wartime, saying it's not likely she'll get "PWP" -- "Pregnant Without Permission." Her father -- and others -- allude to sexual misconduct among military ranks, and men taking advantage of the girls in the department. It's revealed a young woman was forced "to have relations" with an officer against her will. While Sam is trying to gain information from a man, he pinches her backside. (We see her startled reaction.) There is some violence -- bodies shown with knives stuck in their chests, a flashback showing the murder as it happened, and bombing raids. There are numerous mild profanities and two muffled abuses of Jesus' name. For older viewers willing to sit out some brief talk of rape and other wartime crimes, this is yet another exciting adventure in the case files of Foyle.