Series Two of the ITV programme Foyle's War

Foyle's War

Foyle's War is a British detective drama television series set during World War II, created by screenwriter and author Anthony Horowitz, and was commissioned by ITV after the long-running series Inspector Morse came to an end in 2000. It has aired on ITV since 2002...

was first aired in 2003. It comprised four episodes. It is set in Autumn 1940. Series Two was broadcast in the United States on PBS on Mystery!

Mystery!

Mystery! is an episodic television series that debuted in 1980 in the USA. It airs on PBS and is produced by WGBH...

on July 18, 25, and August 1 and 8, 2004 as Foyle's War II.

"Fifty Ships"

Writer: Anthony Horowitz Anthony Horowitz Anthony Craig Horowitz is an English novelist and screenwriter. He has written many children's novels, including The Power of Five, Alex Rider and The Diamond Brothers series and has written over fifty books. He has also written extensively for television, adapting many of Agatha Christie's... , Matthew Hall	Director: Giles Foster Giles Foster Giles Foster has been a British television director since 1975. He specialises in television dramas. He has also directed in Australia and more recently in Germany. He wrote some television dramas in the 1970s....	Airdate: 16 November 2003	Set: September 1940	Episode 5 (2:1)
Guests: Clive Merrison Clive Merrison Clive Merrison is a Welsh actor of film, television, stage and radio. He trained at Rose Bruford College.- Television :... , Amanda Root Amanda Root Amanda Root is an English stage and screen actor and a former voice actor for children's programmes.Root known for her starring role in the 1995 BBC film adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion and the British TV comedy All About Me, as Miranda, alongside Richard Lumsden in 2004 and when she was a... , Janine Duvitski Janine Duvitski Janine Duvitski is an English actress, known for her roles as Jane Edwards in Waiting for God and Pippa Trench in One Foot in the Grave. She also created and played the role of Angela in Mike Leigh's play Abigail's Party.-Personal life:Duvitski was born in Nottingham. Her father was Polish... , Tom Georgeson Tom Georgeson Tom Georgeson is a British actor, known for his television and film work. His most notable credits have been supporting parts in Between The Lines and in three dramas by Alan Bleasdale; Boys from the Blackstuff Scully and G.B.H.... , Geoffrey Chater Geoffrey Chater Geoffrey Chater is a British actor who was born in Barnet, Hertfordshire. He has starred in both film and television projects... , Nicholas Le Prevost Nicholas Le Prevost Nicholas Le Prevost is an English actor. He was educated at Shaftesbury Grammar School, Shaftesbury, Dorset from 1957 to 1961 and at Kingswood School, Bath from 1961 to 1964... , Henry Goodman Henry Goodman Henry Goodman is a British theatre actor. He trained at RADA in London alongside Jonathan Pryce.In 1988, he played George Green's brother-in-law Cyril in London's Burning. He played character roles in episodes of the popular UK police drama The Bill... , Guy Henry
Foyle investigates the apparent suicide of an alcoholic handyman, who has university ties to a visiting American millionaire. Complicating matters, the handyman's son appears connected to a gang of volunteer firefighters secretly stealing from bombed-out houses, and the only eyewitness to the man's death turns out to be a German spy who is condemned to execution.

Historical context

The title refers to the Destroyers for Bases Agreement

Destroyers for Bases Agreement

The Destroyers for Bases Agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom, September 2, 1940, transferred fifty mothballed destroyers from the United States Navy in exchange for land rights on British possessions...

, under which the United States traded fifty U.S. Navy destroyers to the United Kingdom in exchange for land rights in certain British colonies. The agreement was a reversal of the U.S.'s isolationist policy, and a precursor to the much more substantial Lend-Lease

Lend-Lease

Lend-Lease was the program under which the United States of America supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, China, Free France, and other Allied nations with materiel between 1941 and 1945. It was signed into law on March 11, 1941, a year and a half after the outbreak of war in Europe in...

 program.

"Among the Few"

Writer: Anthony Horowitz Anthony Horowitz Anthony Craig Horowitz is an English novelist and screenwriter. He has written many children's novels, including The Power of Five, Alex Rider and The Diamond Brothers series and has written over fifty books. He has also written extensively for television, adapting many of Agatha Christie's...	Director: Jeremy Silberston Jeremy Silberston -Early life:Silberston was the son of economist Professor Aubrey Silberston, and his mother, Dorothy, was a founder member of the National Schizophrenia Fellowship. He attended The Perse School, Cambridge....	Airdate: 23 November 2003	Set: September, 1940	Episode 6 (2:2)
Guests: Damian O'Hare Damian O'Hare Damian O'Hare is an Irish film actor. He is best known for his role as Lt. Gillette in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.-Film:... , Christina Cole Christina Cole Christina Cole is an English actress known for portraying Cassie Hughes in the Sky One supernatural television series Hex.-Background:... , David Troughton David Troughton David Troughton is an English actor, best known for his Shakespearean roles on the British stage.- Biography :David Troughton was born in Hampstead, North London. He comes from a theatrical family: he is the son of Doctor Who actor Patrick Troughton, elder brother of Michael Troughton, and father... , Sean Baker
Foyle uncovers a black market gasoline racket. Two of the girls working at the local depot are seeing Andrew and his best friend from the unit. Sam goes undercover at the depot, but when one of the girls is found murdered, Andrew becomes a suspect.

"War Games"

Writer: Anthony Horowitz, Michael Russell	Director: Giles Foster Giles Foster Giles Foster has been a British television director since 1975. He specialises in television dramas. He has also directed in Australia and more recently in Germany. He wrote some television dramas in the 1970s....	Airdate: 30 November 2003	Set: October, 1940	Episode 7 (2:3)
Guests: Alan Howard Alan Howard Alan MacKenzie Howard, CBE, is an English actor known for his roles on stage, television and film.He was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1966 to 1983, and played leading roles at the Royal National Theatre between 1992 and 2000.-Personal life:Howard is the only son of the actor... , Emily Blunt Emily Blunt Emily Olivia Leah Blunt is an English actress best known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada , The Young Victoria , and The Adjustment Bureau . She has been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, two London Film Critics' Circle Awards, and one BAFTA Award... , Christopher Benjamin, Ian Redford Ian Redford (actor) Ian Redford is a British actor who has featured on stage, in film and on television in various roles, including that of pensioner Keith Appleyard in Coronation Street during 2005 and 2006... , Tim Preece Tim Preece Tim Preece is an English actor, prominent in 1970s television.He played the politically correct Tom Patterson in two series of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin and The Legacy Of Reginald Perrin and also had a role in Doctor Who in 1973... , Laurence Fox Laurence Fox Laurence Fox is an English actor best known for his leading role as Detective Sergeant James Hathaway in the British TV drama series Lewis...
A young secretary falls to her death from the high-rise London headquarters of a food manufacturing company, and a young member of the Home Guard is shot dead during exercises. The unreported burglary of the country house belonging to Sir Reginald Walker, the company's owner, piques Foyle's curiosity. The situation is muddied by the involvement of a barrister friend of Foyle's, Stephen Beck (a native of Germany secretly working for British intelligence), and an old colleague, Jack Devlin. With evidence collected by local children as salvage, Foyle confronts Walker and his son, uncovering trading with the enemy and the Walker's links to Nazism.

Character and plot development

This episode marks the first appearance of the recurring character Hilda Pierce, played by Ellie Haddington

Ellie Haddington

Ellie Haddington is a British actress who had a starring role in 2005 and 2006 as Governing Governor Joy Masterton in the ITV1 prison drama Bad Girls....

 (later appearing in the episodes "The French Drop" and "All Clear").

"The Funk Hole"

Writer: Anthony Horowitz	Director: Jeremy Silberston Jeremy Silberston -Early life:Silberston was the son of economist Professor Aubrey Silberston, and his mother, Dorothy, was a founder member of the National Schizophrenia Fellowship. He attended The Perse School, Cambridge....	Airdate: 7 December 2003	Set: October, 1940	Episode 8 (2:4)
Guests: Joanna David Joanna David Joanna David is a British actress, best known for her television work.She was born in Lancaster, England. Her first major television role was as Elinor Dashwood in the BBC's 1971 dramatisation of Sense and Sensibility followed a year later in War and Peace, in which she played Sonya... , Nicholas Farrell Nicholas Farrell Nicholas Farrell is an English stage, film and television actor. His early screen career included the role of Aubrey Montague in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire. In 1983, he starred as Edmund Bertram in a television adaptation of the Jane Austen novel, Mansfield Park... , Jonathan Tafler
A robbery of a food warehouse leads the police to question the residents of a local "guest house." At the same time, Foyle is temporarily suspended from duty when he is reported to have made seditious remarks during an air raid in London.

Character and plot development

Andrew is temporarily invalided home after a crash in his plane. After some misunderstandings, he and Sam begin seeing each other.

Historical context

• In the first year of the war, the British government made dire predictions of the amount of bombing in major cities that would occur, and moved large numbers of people out to the countryside. After a while, they reversed these predictions, but certain people preferred to stay in their temporary lodgings, out of danger, which they could do if they could afford to pay. Such hotels and guest houses became known as "funk holes" because their residents' actions were regarded as cowardice.
• Sam and Andrew attend a 6.00pm screening of Gone with the Wind
  Gone with the Wind (film)
  Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American historical epic film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel of the same name. It was produced by David O. Selznick and directed by Victor Fleming from a screenplay by Sidney Howard...
  
  , which is nearly four hours long, but when they emerge from the cinema, it is still broad daylight. Although daylight saving time was in force at the time, it would still be dark long before the film finished (and pitch black, since the blackout was still in force).