Foyle's War

Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Foyle was voted the nation's most beloved detective in 2011.

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ITV, looking for a replacement for the successful Inspector Morse (1987) series, asked for ideas and chose Foyle's War (2002) from among 300 submissions.

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Despite considerable surprise and irritation from Anthony Horowitz (writer) and the cast, ITV's former Director of Television Simon Shaps lasted only eighteen months in the role and announced in 2007 that he would end this respected and profitable series after the final season of episodes was made. Horowitz had to abandon many scripts for episodes set in 1944 and jump to episodes covering the end of the war in 1945. However, in February 2009, with Shaps having left his post as TV executive, it was announced that the decision had been reversed and that three more episodes would be filmed. The peacetime-set Russian House (2010) was the first of these episodes.

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In a newspaper article and an interview accompanying the first series DVD set, Anthony Horowitz explained that he was looking for a name that evoked the early 1940s. He thought of the Foyles bookshop on London's Charing Cross Road, once known for its archaic business practices, and its owner Christina Foyle; Christopher was the male name closest to Christina. After Christina Foyle's death, control of Foyles passed to her nephew Christopher in 1999. Christopher Foyle played a small role in the episode "Bad Blood (2006)", but his scene was cut from PBS broadcasts in the US.

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The series stands out for its attention to historical detail, and the historical events of World War II are frequently depicted in it. Anthony Horowitz believed it was important for the details to be accurate in order to honour war veterans.

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In most of the events of the war years, many people on the street can be seen carrying small cardboard boxes hung from a string over their shoulders. These are the gas masks issued to every man, woman and child in Britain.

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Christopher Foyle has a real-life parallel in the person of Charles Banks, who spent 33 years in the police, rose to the rank of sergeant and then to patrol inspector, and then served another eleven years as a civilian. Like Foyle, he wrote a book covering the war years in Hastings and the region's history going back a century: The History of the Hastings County Borough Police from 1935 to 1967.

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The series was nominated for the 2004 BAFTA award for Best Drama Series.

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As the series progressed, Anthony Horowitz became more interested in the "murder mystery" format than in the depiction of history and the exploration of the Home Front. It is nevertheless stated that the Imperial War Museum had a consulting role on some episodes.

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ITV programme director Simon Shaps cancelled Foyle's War in 2007, but complaints and public demand led Peter Fincham (Shaps's replacement) to revive the programme after it received good ratings for the fifth series in 2008.

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A handful of major names were given only small parts in their first appearances, such as James McAvoy, Rosamund Pike, David Tennant, Peter Capaldi and Emily Blunt (in her first on-screen role).

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The black car in which Sam Stewart drives DCS Foyle is a 1938 Wolseley 14/60, notable for its rear-hinged doors, known as "suicide" doors. The vehicle registration number KVX757 is still on the road (as of 2020), and the UK Government's DVLA website shows the car was produced in 1946. Production of the model ran from 1938 to 1948, and post-war production resumed in 1945. The car is currently part of the Great British Car Journey museum in Ambergate, Derbyshire, and can be hired at the museum for supervised test drives as part of the Drive Dad's Car scheme.

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Foyle's War was nominated in the Best Production Design category at the 2003 BAFTA Television Awards and that year won the Lew Grade Award in the Best Entertainment Programme category.

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Filming each episode of this series took about five weeks.

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Andrew's "Spitfire" squadron was shown in Enemy Fire (2004). However, most of the aircraft shown are not Spitfires but Hurricanes. This can be told from their engine exhausts.

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On 9 April 2008, ITV announced that it was negotiating with Anthony Horowitz and Greenlit Productions to revive the series and continue Foyle's adventures beyond VE Day.

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The seventh series was filmed in Ireland and London from the end of August to December 2012 and aired in the United Kingdom in March and April 2013.

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The building used for the exterior shots of the "new" police station in Killing Time (2010) is adjacent to the building used for the exterior shots of the Sunshine Dessert Company in The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976). The buildings are located on Telford Way in Acton, London, United Kingdom.

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Michael Kitchen and several guest actors had appeared in James Bond films. Kitchen played Bill Tanner during the Pierce Brosnan era.

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After eight series, the final episode aired on 18 January 2015.

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In April 2008, the intended final episode, "All Clear (2008)" — the episode in which the end of the war is announced — aired.

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David Tennant appeared alongside Sophia Myles in A Lesson in Murder (2002). He was her boyfriend at the time, and the two would work together again on Doctor Who (2005). The couple split in 2007.

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The building used for exterior shots of the "new" police station in series 7 is next door to the building used for the exterior shots of the Sunshine Dessert Company in "The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin" (1976). The buildings are on Telford Way in Acton, London, United Kingdom.

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The eighth series, consisting of three two-hour episodes, aired in the United Kingdom in January 2015.

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Although they did not share screen time, the actors Roger Allam (Alastair Graeme) and Anton Lesser (Austin Carmichael) both appeared in Season 1, Episode 4; in "Endeavour" (2012-2021) they work together as DCI Fred Thursday and Chief Superintendent Reginald Bright respectively.

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Honeysuckle Weeks's role is that of a driver. In real life she committed so many driving offences that her licence was taken away for a time.

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Will Keen (Alan Deakin), Joseph Kloska (DC Perkins) and David Yelland (Sir Charles Devereaux) also worked together on The Crown (2016), as Michael Adeane, Porchey and Commander Vyner respectively.

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All civilian vehicles in Foyle's War display period-correct number plates with white lettering on a black background, but alongside vehicles with original plates onto which separate 3D letters have been affixed, many examples of modern reflective replacement plates can be seen.

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The series began airing on ITV in October 2002.

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In Ontario it airs on TVOntario.

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The series began airing in Africa in 2009 on DStv (broadcast from South Africa), a pay service on the Universal Channel.

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In Finland it airs on YLE1; the seventh and eighth series aired in 2015-2016.

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In Australia it aired on ABC, and repeats aired on the Seven Network.

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