Foyle's War Series Five
| Foyle's War (series 5) | |
|---|---|
| No. of episodes | 3 |
| Season chronology | |
Series 5 of the ITV programme Foyle's War was first aired in 2008; comprising three episodes, it is set in the period from April 1944 to May 1945.
Foyle has been in retirement after his resignation a year earlier at the end of Casualties of War. Stewart has ceased to be a police driver on being sacked by Foyle's replacement, Meredith, and is now working as a librarian in the Air Ministry's cartography facility at Beverley Lodge for the last six months, having been recommended for the job by her seniors at the Mechanised Transport Corps (where, as seen in "The Funk Hole", she never fitted in). She is also assisting Foyle in writing his book on the Hastings Constabulary by acting as his typist (even though she does not appear to be a capable typist). In addition, her uncle Aubrey Stewart (Brian Poyser), a priest, recurs from the episode "The French Drop" when he visits Hastings for the conference. Milner seeks Foyle's counsel after finding Meredith difficult to work with and considering leaving Hasting. However, by the end of the episode, the original team is reunited when Foyle and Milner decide to stay and Stewart quits to rejoin them.
The general setting mentions of increased troop movements down to the south coast and that "the end of the war is in sight", indicating an April 1944 setting, two months before D Day. The cartography activity at fictitious Beverly Lodge (filmed at Langley Park, Slough, Berkshire) is based on the activities of the secret mapmaking activities at Hughenden Manor during World War II, which was not known until two years before the shooting of this episode. Anthony Horowitz, based much of the story on the experiences of Victor Gregory, who was one of the mapmakers at Hughenden, and who was engaged as a consultant during the shooting of the episode.
Another theme is efforts by the English church to preach forgiveness of the enemy, to establish relations with the German church (such as the German Confessing Church), to grant Germany a conditional (rather than unconditional surrender) to prevent the unnecessary killing of innocents by indiscriminate bombing of German cities, and to oppose the bombing in itself. The efforts of Dietrich Bonhoeffer are mentioned, the fictional Francis Wood (holding the fictional bishopric of Cirencester) leads the movement (in place of the real-life George Bell, Bishop of Chichester).
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