| Foyle's War: Set 5 | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 41 reviews)
Sales Rank: 725
Category: DVD
Actors: Michael Kitchen, Anthony Howell, Honeysuckle Weeks
Publisher: Acorn Media
Studio: Acorn Media
Manufacturer: Acorn Media
Label: Acorn Media
Format: Box Set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 277 minutes
Number Of Items: 3
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.9
MPN: 8108
UPC: 054961810895
EAN: 0054961810895
ASIN: B001A33ZHG
Release Date: August 5, 2008
Theatrical Release Date: February 2, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Description
Combining uncompromising historical accuracy with compelling mysteries, this acclaimed PBS series continues with three feature-length episodes. Michael Kitchen (Out of Africa) stars as DCS Christopher Foyle, investigating wartime crimes in an English coastal town. With the end of World War II slowly but inevitably approaching, Foyle and his fellow citizens learn the price of victory and face a peace that will transform their lives in unexpected ways. Also starring Anthony Howell and Honeysuckle Weeks, and featuring Nicholas Day, Malcolm Sinclair, Nicholas Woodeson, Duncan Bell, Julian Ovenden, Mark Bazeley, Julian Wadham, and Phyllida Law. THE MYSTERIES: PLAN OF ATTACK?With the Hastings police force suffering attrition and low morale, Foyle comes out of retirement to probe the mysterious death of a cartographer from the Air Ministry office. BROKEN SOULS?The murder of an ambitious young doctor at the local psychiatric clinic produces no shortage of suspects among the staff and patients, many of whom still experience the war?s horrors. ALL CLEAR?With final victory expected any day, Hastings looks ahead to a radically different post-war life. But the end comes too soon for two men?one a murder victim, the other an apparent suicide. DVD SEPCIAL FEATURES INCLUDE making-of documentary, cast member reflections, notes on a real-life Foyle, and cast filmographies.
Amazon.com
No one was unhappy when World War II ended, but the demise of Foyle?s War is something else entirely. For fans of this first-rate British murder mystery series, set against the backdrop of that epic conflict, Set 5 represents something of a reprieve; although Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen) retired at the end of Set 4, circumstances force him to return to action in "Plan of Attack," the first of three 90-minute episodes (each on its own disc) offered here. But by the end of this set, the war is over and Foyle has eased back into retirement. That?s lamentable. Smartly conceived and often quite masterfully executed, this show will certainly be missed. "History meets mystery" has been the concept from the beginning, as the low-key (like Peter Falk?s Columbo, he knows much more than he lets on), unfailingly decent Foyle and his assistants, Sgt. Paul Milner (Anthony Howell) and driver Samantha "Sam" Stewart (Honeysuckle Weeks), solve murders and various other crimes in and around bucolic Hastings, England, while WWII rages on at home and abroad. But this time out, the war provides much more than context, as the murders tend to be directly related to it. What?s more, Set 5 affectingly deals with combat?s heavy emotional psychological toll. It?s a burden we see carried by the cartographer who can?t bear knowing that his work is helping to kill innocent German civilians (in "Plan of Attack"); by the maimed former POW struggling to readjust to life at home, the teenager whose job it is to deliver bad news telegrams to soldiers? families, and the Jewish doctor, a refugee from Poland, whose survivor?s guilt leads him down a very dark path (all three in "Broken Souls"); and even by Foyle?s own son (Julian Ovenden, in "All Clear"). OK, so the mysteries may not be all that mysterious--perceptive viewers will have little difficulty identifying the culprits. But with its multi-layered storytelling (the scripts were written by creator Anthony Horowitz) and fine production values (the cinematography, editing, and music are all excellent), Foyle?s War is a whodunit that?s both a prime example of its genre and thoroughly successful on its own unique terms. Bonus features include a brief "making of" featurette and cast filmographies. --Sam Graham
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| Customer Reviews: Read 36 more reviews...
Fascinating Series September 29, 2008
This is a really good series. Learned a great deal about secret doings during WWII that was recently declassified stuff. Michael Kitchen is a fabulous actor and the ensemble cast truly worked.
Good Bye Old Friend at least for now September 22, 2008
Foyle's War continues with the last 3 episodes to the conclusion of the War in Europe. This period Series continues with its accurate historical background and props. I know it must be very expensive to produce these episodes. But with all their popularity, they must be making money in its production.
Foyle comes out of retirement in the first episode entitled "Plan of Attack" in which Sergeant Milner's investigation sets a series of things to happen and it brings Detective Superintendent Foyle back into the game. Foyle probes the death of a young cartographer from the Air Ministry. Foyle's back, and he probes like a bulldog. The multilayered piece of cinematography is the very essence of what makes this series so good.
In the second episode of the 5th series entitled "Broken Souls" again we find Foyle pursuing justice in his investigation of a Doctor's murder. I have to laugh because in a rather Foyle like move he picks up an object quite randomly and finds the major clue. It reminded me of the comic Pink Panther Detective.
The final episode finds us in May, 1945. Entitled "All Clear"
which means the end of the War in Europe. Christopher Foyle's son Andrew returns from the RAF and gets back with Samantha. This story can go on. Will it? I don't know, I can only hope. It has been a well written and an historically accurate series. We need more television such as this. 5 Stars!! Riight!!!
More good stuff for Foyle fans September 21, 2008
I have purchased all 19 DVD's of the Foyle's War series, and have written to the Guardian asking them to push for a new post war Foyle series. What a great series, and the book is like adding hot fudge to a chocolate sundae. The background contrasting the stories with real life are convincing and fun, and the author manages to weave in more facts about the great characters and even small part actors who are also superb in the book so we are constantly immersed in our Foyle lore, fiction and fact. I would love to visit the sets in the restored and marvelously old section of Hastings. This must remain a dream for awhile - it's a long and expensive flight to WW2 England from Massachusetts. I lived through all those war years here in the US doing the things we were supposed to do - Red Cross work, letter writing. I'm 82 years old, but the war seems like yesterday - the most important years in the history of my generation, and as Tom Brokaw says, "We are the greatest generation." And aren't Michael Kitchen and Honeysuckle Weeks and young "Andrew Foyle" and the young and funny Sargant Brooks in the later series absolutely
marvelous. The pictures in this colorful book are also great reminders of
the series. The children, many of them, portrayed in the Series and the book are very special. This is a very reasonably priced book wonderful from cover to cover including the covers. I am Bettie Magee of Natick
Massachusetts. Thank you editors.
Five stars, but the series ends oddly September 17, 2008
Great stuff, as usual. By all means, buy. I did, and am very pleased. But I must remark that just three segments to this Part 5, while outstanding, seemed quite skimpy compared to the other parts. Not their quality, but just that there were only three. The others parts had five per segment, I recall. Then, when you see comments about the ending of the series in the special features by two of the three players, it makes me wonder if maybe Michael Kitchen was the one that said, "enough." I own all five parts, happily. Each slowly covers the years. However, Part 5 seems to me to jump out of nowhere from 1944 to May 1945 almost overnight. Hey! What happened to the rest of 1944? Somebody must've pushed it to end, so they threw in the concluding episode rashly. I think it was Kitchen that pushed. Anybody know?
 Readjustment for Soldiers & Civilians Alike as the End of War Nears. September 11, 2008
"Foyle's War" Series 5 (Series 6 in Britain) occupies itself less with the unique institutions of wartime England than with the psychic toll the War has taken on its participants, at home and on the front. This series contains 3 100-minute episodes, covering the last year of wartime life in Hastings, as World War II comes to its conclusion in the European theater. Two of the episodes were written by the series' creator, Anthony Horowitz, but "Broken Souls" was written by Michael Chaplin. At this point in the series, there is less depth of character, and the three principle roles seem more a collection of mannerisms than three-dimensional people. Of course, anyone who has followed the series will know DCS Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen), DS Paul Milner (Anthony Howell), and their spunky driver Sam Stewart (Honeysuckle Weeks) well. "Foyle's War" is still entertaining, and Series 5 stresses that victory and a return to "normal" will be as great an adjustment as those changes brought by the war.
It's April 1944 and a year since DCS Christopher Foyle resigned his post in frustration. Britain has commenced night-bombing Germany, and the resulting civilian casualties have raised some objections in "Plan of Attack". Foyle occupies his time dictating a history of the Hastings Conservatory to Sam Stewart, who was a better driver than she is a typist. Sam now works at a nearby Air Ministry facility. Sergeant Milner is still on the job with the Hastings police, but he's finding it difficult to fight crime under the new leadership of DCS Meredith (Nicholas Day). When a young man named Henry Scott (Martin Hutson), who made top-secret aerial maps for the Air Ministry, is found dead, and an attempt on Milner's life kills a senior officer, Foyle is asked to return to his job to solve the killings.
"Broken Souls" looks at the emotional toll it has taken on soldiers as they return home in October 1944. Fred Dawson (Joseph Mawle) has been in a German POW camp for 5 years and arrives home to find that his wife Rose (Natasha Little) has become friendly with Johann Schultz (Jonathan Forbes), a German POW assigned to help out on the family farm. DCS Foyle has been receiving chess lessons from Dr. Josef Novak (Nicholas Woodeson), a Polish psychiatrist who narrowly escaped being sent to a concentration camp with his family. Novak works at a psychiatric hospital for soldiers who are having trouble readjusting to society. When an unpopular and dishonest colleague (Oliver Kieren-Jones) is stabbed to death, patients and staff make up the list of suspects.
Five and a half years of war are finally coming to an end in "All Clear". It's May 1945. Soldiers are coming home changed men to families who have also changed in their absence. Sam is feeling at loose ends and volunteering at the SSAFA, assisting returning soldiers. DCS Foyle plans on retiring, and Sergeant Milner awaits a promotion to another station. Plans for a V-E Day celebration are underway in Hastings, hosted by aspiring politician Martin Longmate (Mark Bazeley). Foyle is serving reluctantly on the committee to coordinate the festivities, along with an old acquaintance, American Major Kiefer (Jay Benedict). When fellow committee member Dr. Ziegler (John Ramm) is stabbed and another member commits suicide, it looks like that little group held a surprising number of secrets.
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