Foyle’s War – Set Three (British TV Mystery)
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: C+ Telefilms: B-
Michael Kitchen is back for his third season as Detective
Chief Inspector Christopher Foyle in Foyle’s War, continuing Acorn
Media’s issuing of the telefilms four at a time, one per DVD. This time, we get:
1)
The French Drop
2)
Enemy Fire
3)
They Fought In The Fields
4)
A War Of Nerves
The thing that distinguishes this show, besides
intelligent teleplays and solid casts, is that it offers a series of mystery stories
that take place while Britain is fighting the Nazis in World War II. That becomes more interesting this time with
the detail of espionage in French Drop, further grounding the
show in the kind of reality it needs to continue on. Also, as the chronology gets into 1941, that means the war heats
up, so the show has to follow. Anthony
Horowitz created the show and writes its scripts still for the most part, which
is why the integrity of the overall storyline holds together so well.
Gavin Mellar joins Jeremy Silbertston in directing the
show, while Rob Heyland joins Horowitz in writing that gives the show a new
edge that keeps it from falling prey to the TV grid. Foyle’s War continues to be just ambitious enough to move
into enough new directions to remain interesting and for Kitchen, another
highlight in his long road of great work.
Strat with the earlier sets, and if you like the first, work your way to
this set. It’s the best way to watch
the show.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1/16 X 9 image is fair,
but not quite as good for whatever reason as it was on the previous two
sets. Things seem slightly fuzzier and
a tad brighter than they need to be. It
is shot in digital HD video. The Dolby
Digital 2.0 Stereo has some nice, healthy Pro Logic surround information to
match, so performance is no problem here.
Extras include text on the cast and crew for both sets, with notes on
the shows and cast reflections also in text form. This time, though, we get a nice Making Of produced to
promote the third season and it is one of the bets such shows we have seen for
a TV series in a while.
- Nicholas Sheffo
