The Funk Hole

Foyle is accused of sedition when a man who was in a bombing raid uses his name. He is immediately removed from his position and a zealot from the head office investigates. There is more to the story than meets the eye, but Foyle cannot act on his own, leaving his young assistant and his driver to their own designs. They are bullied by this guy, Sam being sent to the old motor pool from whence she came. When a suspected suicide occurs, this man leaps to the conclusion that murder was not the cause of death. Eventually, word of what is going on and a bit of chicanery gets our wonderful policeman back in the game. The villainy that is taking place is the centerpiece of this episode. The strength of this series is that the war is a central character. Foyle's son has been injured and is unable to rejoin his unit. This leads to a relationship between he and Sam.

This episode of Foyle's War was a perfect blend of heart and brain.

The "heart" is the emotion on display in this episode, from so many angles, and from so many characters, regulars as well as secondary characters..

The "brain" is the complexity of the plot, the several mysteries intertwined in this episode.

Both characteristics are often on display in Foyle's War, but rarely blended together so seamlessly.

A really excellent episode of this very interesting mystery series

Foyle has been put on suspension for sedition. Allegedly he said the wrong sort of things on a visit to London. To make matters worse his son, Andrew has been injured on a flying mission.

Chief Inspector James Collier has been sent up from London to take his place. He and Milner investigate the death of a young man stealing food to sell on the black market. They want to find his associates.

Their investigation leads them to a country mansion, where some rich people pay to live in the country. Away from the bombings in London.

Soon one of the new resident turns up dead. It looks like suicide by cyanide poisoning.

There are a lot of things happening in this episode. Andrew Foyle suffering trauma over his injuries and finding affection with Samantha who herself has been sent back to her army unit and hating it. Collier does not need a driver and was upset by one of her remarks.

Milner himself has to get used to a new superior officer and show loyalty to Foyle.

Writer Anthony Horowitz goes through lots of issues relating to the blitz. The constant bombing of London. Dogs that were put down as they were abandoned or their families looking after them died and there was no food for them. Rich people being able to escape to the country. More importantly people ended up being dead due to administrative oversight or plain simple mistakes.

The resolution of the mystery is actually a bit left field, a bolt out of the blue but it works well and rather refreshingly different.

Foyle is discredited, when he's deemed too clever for a sensitive investigation.

It's a very different format, Foyle so forthright and noble, it's almost offensive for the viewer to see him suffer any form of attack. It does allow Milner to take centre stage.

There has never been a bad or even average episode of Foyle's War, and The Funk Hole is another terrific example of why this show is so loved, and why people are desperate for its return.

Masses of research must have been done, as the show explores all of the many different crimes that went on, as the country was at war. It's informative as well, I had no idea what a Funk Hole was up until seeing this, what a fascinating story, the idea of people living in relative comfort in areas away from the war.

This episode is awash with terrific actors, Nicholas Farrell is a monster as Collier. Joanna David and Phoebe Nicholls both give us great characters.

Excellent. 9/10

Loved 'Foyle's War' and was immediately hooked when first getting into it. Love it even more now, on re-watches things that didn't quite make sense at first are clearer and things that were not noticed or appreciated before are and much admired. Everything that came over as brilliant on first viewings still are brilliant on re-watches.

Previous to this episode, none of the 'Foyle's War' episodes were bad, all of them actually being great or more. The same applies with "The Funk Hole", the second best to me of the Season 2 episodes after "Fifty Ships". Like with many 'Foyle's War' episodes, on re-watch there was much more appreciation had for how well established the character development, tone and themes are for so early on and things that didn't quite connect entirely at first made more sense on re-watches.

Have always admired the visual detail that went into 'Foyle's War' and how high quality the production values are, with beautiful costumes, the evocative way the characters are made up, the look of the houses and cars, pretty locations and authentic-looking scenery. The music is in keeping with the mood and doesn't overpower the drama while still making an impact.

Writing is intelligent, sophisticated and thought-provoking, establishing Foyle's personality with so much depth already and providing some tense and heart-tugging moments. The story is complicated, with a lot of strands that requires full attention, but clever and from start to finish intriguing. It paces itself deliberately but with so much going on it's never once dull and the twists and turns that slowly unfold keep coming. All the conflicts and how the period is portrayed are handled beautifully and tastefully and there is a real sense that war itself is a central character (a real strength of 'Foyle's War' in general with "The Funk Hole" being one of the stronger examples).

One thing that wasn't picked up by me but now is and admired hugely is the tackling of what was seen as truths but some really misconceptions and seeing British during the war in a new light. This was a bold move and dealt with a lot of honesty and tact. The background information is so well researched and is every bit as interesting as the mystery itself. The character tensions were also handled very well and added a lot of intrigue. Andrew is becoming more interesting with every episode.

Michael Kitchen is truly superb as Foyle, subtle, intensely determined, commanding and above all human. One of the most interesting television detectives there's ever been and Kitchen has rarely been better. Honeysuckle Weeks is charming and loyal, with some nice touches of subtle humour as ever, and Anthony Howell is wonderful. Julian Ovendon and his chemistry with Weeks gives the episode a lot of heart.

All the supporting cast, with the likes of Richard McCabe, Joanna David and Adrian Lukis, are hard to fault.

In conclusion, wonderful. 10/10 Bethany Cox