Foyle's War-The Complete Sixth Season (2008)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Drama	CD-Soundtrack? (Not Reviewed)
Rating
Year Of Production	2008
Running Time	276:45
RSDL / Flipper	No/No Multi Disc Set (4)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Jeremy Silberston Gavin Millar Giles Foster
Studio Distributor	Icon Entertainment	Starring	Michael Kitchen Honeysuckle Weeks Anthony Howell Julian Overden Geoffrey Freshwater
Case	?
RPI	$69.95	Music	Jim Parker

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

There have been many high-quality English mystery television series produced over the years including Poirot, Miss Marple, Midsomer Murders and many more. This series though, which started in 2002, is a cut above those as it not only includes entertaining mysteries but is also a revealing drama about life on the home front during wartime and contains fully-rounded and interesting leading characters. Unlike many of the sleuths involved in other series, the crime fighting team here are revealed more fully which makes them easier for the audience to engage with and feel empathy for.

This sixth season is set during 1945 in the lead up to V.E. day and follows the cases of Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen), an English coastal town's police chief and a frustrated man who would rather be more directly involved in the war effort. The first episode focuses on getting Foyle back into his old job after his resignation at the end of the previous season. He is a veteran of the First World War and an honest, composed and dogged detective who investigates crimes such as sabotage, murder, racketeering and treason. His team consists of his driver, Samantha 'Sam' Stuart (Honeysuckle Weeks), a young woman who has been transferred from another women's unit to be his driver and Detective Sergeant Paul Milner (Anthony Howell), a badly injured war hero who is slowly coming to terms with his missing leg. Sam started out as being just his driver but soon got involved in solving the crimes and sometimes working undercover. Another important recurring character is Foyle's son Andrew (Julian Ovenden), a fighter pilot.

The stories are woven around real life events from history such as the Luftwaffe raids over England and the rescue from France of British soldiers by small boats.

This sixth season of the show is made up of three movie-length episodes over three single layer discs. Currently, this is planned to be the final season of the show, however, there are some discussions underway. In total, 19 episodes have been made. This is an excellent season, possibly the best yet, with wonderful acting, excellent stories and character development.

The series is written by long-term English mystery television script writer Anthony Horowitz who has written episodes of Poirot and Midsomer Murders. In this series however, he created the stories and characters from scratch as well as writing the screenplays. The casting and acting are both fantastic especially Michael Kitchen in the lead role. This season is available either in standard edition four disc amaray case or a special edition fold-out digipak. Otherwise the editions are the same. The extra disc in both cases is a CD soundtrack.

The three episodes are:

1. Plan of Attack - When Milner's new boss gets shot, Foyle gets dragged back into his old job to solve the case. The person happiest about this new arrangement is Sam as she has her old job back.
2. Broken Souls - Foyle investigates a murder at a local psychiatric hospital where one of the suspects is his chess partner.
3. All Clear - Foyle is asked by a local councillor to represent the police on an organising committee for V.E. day celebrations. He is joined by a local doctor with an Austrian name, a US Army Major who appeared in a previous episode and a local political candidate. When people start dying things really get interesting. This episode neatly ties up a number of loose ends and is a fitting end to an excellent series.

The final excellent season of this high-quality English mystery series.

Video

The video quality is good.

The feature is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio which is the original aspect ratio. It is 16x9 enhanced.

The picture was fairly clear and sharp throughout without being crisp. Shadow detail is average. The picture exhibited quite regular grain although it was never terrible.

The colour was quite good accurately representing the fairly dull wartime colour scheme of khakis, greys and browns.

There was some minor aliasing.

There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

The audio quality is good.

This DVDs contain one audio option, an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack encoded at 224 Kb/s.

Dialogue was clear and easy to understand throughout.

The score of this series is by Jim Parker and includes a nicely done theme plus some other incidental music.

The surround speakers are not used.

The subwoofer adds some bass to the music, however this is a function of bass management rather than the soundtrack.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Unfortunately the only advertised extra, a CD soundtrack, was not included with the review discs, so I cannot comment on it.

Menu

The menu includes an intro but is still and silent once you reach it.

The Region 1 release (known as Set 5) includes a making-of documentary, cast member reflections, notes on a real-life Foyle and cast filmographies. The Region 4 version does not have these however does have the CD soundtrack which is hard to compare. Your choice.

The video quality is good.

The audio quality is good.

The retail set seems to include a CD soundtrack but no other extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall