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Real History Behind Foyle's War: The True Stories That Inspired the Series
A comprehensive guide to the popular TV show, giving evidence the vast amount of historical research conducted prior to the writing of every episode This fascinating book provides an intriguing insight into law and order on the home front between 1939 and 1945, comparing the Foyle's War storylines and characters with real crimes and real people from the war years. It offers a wealth of background information on the living and working conditions for ordinary people during this time period, as well as on the role of the police in wartime and the multitude of crimes on which the plotlines of Foyle's War are based. Complete with an introduction from the writer and creator of Foyle's War himself, this is the ultimate companion guide for fans of the show, as well as anyone with an interest in military history.
176 pages, Hardcover
First published October 2, 2006
About the author
Rod Green
69 books14 followersRod Green is a children’s writer who has worked with many publishers, including Puffin and HarperCollins. With Templar, he has written books in the Mean Machines series.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 26, 2016
Description: The first six series are set during the Second World War in Hastings, Sussex, England, where Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen) attempts to catch criminals who are taking advantage of the confusion the war has created. He is assisted by his driver Samantha "Sam" Stewart (Honeysuckle Weeks) and Detective Sergeant Paul Milner (Anthony Howell). From Series 7, it sees a retired Foyle working for MI5, navigating the world of Cold War espionage.
WATCH HERE
May–August 1940:
01:01 - The German Woman
01:02 - The White Feather
01:03 - A Lesson in Murder
01:04 - Eagle Day
September–October 1940
02:01 - Fifty Ships
02:02 - Among the Few
02:03 - War Games
02:04 - The Funk Hole
February–June 1941
03: 01 - The French Drop
03:02 - Enemy Fire
03:03 - They Fought in the Fields
03:04 - A War of Nerves
March–August 1942
04:01 - nvasion
04:02 - Bad Blood
04:03 - Bleak Midwinter
04:04 - Casualties of War
April 1944 – May 1945
05:01 - Plan of Attack
05:02 - Broken Souls
05:03 - All Clear
June–August 1945
06:01 - The Russian House
06:02 - Killing Time
06:03 - The Hide
August–September 1946
07:01 - The Eternity Ring
07:02 - The Cage
07:03 - Sunflower
October 1946 - January 1947
08:01 - High Castle
08:02 - Trespass
08:03 - Elise
June 19, 2021
My wife and I were pondering our all-time absolute favourite television program. This is a difficult question because we can watch an awful lot of television over the decades and one’s judgement is affected by the times, changing personal circumstances and the subtle influence of nostalgia.
The first nominee to pop into my head was the X-Files (early series) followed by Dr Who (especially the Tom Baker era); Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly from Joss Whedon and Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing. Plus Cheers (Shelley Long episodes). In my younger days I adored The Avengers and Callan. But of programs I have viewed recently Foyle’s War stands out.
I came late to Foyle’s War after the program had finished its run. I happened upon an early episode (Fifty Ships) and thought it was quite good: an intriguing story of a murder on a beach involving former business partners: one a naïve scientist and the other an unscrupulous American businessman in Britain to negotiate the Lend–Lease deal (50 American destroyers for Britain plus further aid). I was hooked by the authentic production, the thoughtful central character, Foyle, and the complexity of the issue. The crucial witness turns out to be a German spy. Captured and certain to be hanged, he nevertheless volunteers his account of the events on the beach, in the interests of justice. However, the American gets away with murder, for now, because Foyle is obliged not to jeopardise the coming deal with the United States. Tellingly though, Foyle warns the American as he boards his plane: one day the war will end and I will seek you out and bring you to account.
My mother had long recommended the program and she let me borrow her treasured box set, with the imprecation: ‘You’ll be careful with it, won’t you son.’ The box set is beautifully styled like an old timber filing cabinet with a manila folder for each DVD. Quite lovely. And I did take care of it.
Detective Chief Superintendent Foyle is in charge of Hastings police at the outbreak of World War Two. Within sight of the French coast, Hastings is a likely invasion location and therefore ripe with criminal activity. With Foyle is his driver, Sam, the daughter of a vicar, serving in the Mechanised Transport Corps and Sergeant Milner, once again a policeman after losing his leg as a soldier during the disastrous British foray into Norway at the beginning of the war. Foyle and his team have the difficult task of maintaining the rule of law in wartime, when the opportunities for illegal activity increase enormously. The beauty of the series is that the stories go behind the war effort and into the social, economic and political issues which surfaced during this time.
This is well identified by Anthony Horowitz, the creator and writer of the program, in his forward to Rod Green’s book. He sums up many of the concerns of the program: ‘Anti-Semitism, conscientious objectors, funk holes, the development of biological weapons, illegal gambling, homosexuality in the armed forces, the creation of the SOE, the first developments in plastic surgery, saboteurs, the arrival of the Americans, convoys, land girls, munitions workers, the bouncing bomb and so on…’ He might have added trading with the enemy, spies, people engaged in contraband, internees, slackers, fraud and covert operations. Underlying all of this is the impact of the war on families, especially the effect on wives and girlfriends, mothers and fathers when men return wounded, burned or psychologically damaged. Or do not return at all. Foyle deals with all of this with a phlegmatic style, asking his neutral questions, never flapping, adding the pieces of evidence to put together the truth of what has happened. But these are often grey areas when individual justice gives way to the greater good, sometimes willingly, but often reluctantly as political influence is brought to bear.
The series reflects meticulous research by the creators and commendable verisimilitude achieved by the producers. Rod Green has a written a beaut book delving thoroughly into these issues, providing copious information about the state of Britain during World War Two and relating this information to the Foyle stories. It is an industrious effort sustained by the information he has assembled.
One of the surprises to me was that the real crimes Green details often exceed the scale and scope of the events portrayed fictionally in the show. For example in the episode War of Nerves, Foyle investigates a murder at a ship yard. The investigation uncovers a huge cache of cash and a fraud whereby the owners claimed for 400 workers when they actually employed only half that number. But the conspiracy upon which the story is based involved a Liverpool city councillor, a naval officer in the Ministry of War Transport, and directors and staff at a ship yard who diverted materials intended for the repair of ships, skimmed petrol and charged the admiralty for 2,000 workers when they were actually paying only 800. When the crime was uncovered the chief architect of the fraud shot himself.
One particularly poignant story A Lesson in Murder concerns evacuees. A young boy is evacuated from London to a country estate, where his inquisitiveness gets him killed, murdered by the host trying cover his illegal activities. Green tells us that around 1.5 million children and mothers were evacuated from cities in 1939, but by early 1940 over half of them had drifted back home.
From the outbreak of war extra crimes were added to the 300,000 existing arrestable offences: they rose to 480,000 by the end of the war. Green provides telling examples of the changes wrought by the onset of war:
• There were 400 cases of looting in the first two months of the blitz
• 115 spies infiltrated Britain during the war, but all were identified and usually quickly
• Local defence volunteers (later the Home Guard), was rapidly established with 1.5 million men by July 1940.
• 90,000 women between ages 18 and 40 joined the Land Army during the course of the conflict labouring on farms where men had enlisted
• Pre-war food imports were 55 million tons in 1939 but this had dropped to 30.5 million tons in 1941. This puts into perspective the enormous problems generated by rationing, shortages of all kinds, gouging by profiteers and fraud in relation to scare commodities.
In addition to these interesting statistics, there were several things I did not know about at all. One was that part of the British Isles was occupied by the German forces for the entire duration of the war - the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey – but not before half the population had been evacuated, including woman and children and all Jewish citizens (30,000 in all). I did know about the Lend-Lease deal, but not the part requiring the British to provide leases on land throughout the British Empire for the Americans to build military bases, to operate during the course of the conflict. I knew about the destroyers and the aid to Britain, but did not know about the bases. There were a number in Australia, but I wonder if we were consulted.
The book adds significantly to our understanding of wartime in Britain and enriches the television program. It is certainly a strong contender for my favourite program ever. My wife’s choice? The 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle). And who can argue with that?
The first nominee to pop into my head was the X-Files (early series) followed by Dr Who (especially the Tom Baker era); Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly from Joss Whedon and Aaron Sorkin’s The West Wing. Plus Cheers (Shelley Long episodes). In my younger days I adored The Avengers and Callan. But of programs I have viewed recently Foyle’s War stands out.
I came late to Foyle’s War after the program had finished its run. I happened upon an early episode (Fifty Ships) and thought it was quite good: an intriguing story of a murder on a beach involving former business partners: one a naïve scientist and the other an unscrupulous American businessman in Britain to negotiate the Lend–Lease deal (50 American destroyers for Britain plus further aid). I was hooked by the authentic production, the thoughtful central character, Foyle, and the complexity of the issue. The crucial witness turns out to be a German spy. Captured and certain to be hanged, he nevertheless volunteers his account of the events on the beach, in the interests of justice. However, the American gets away with murder, for now, because Foyle is obliged not to jeopardise the coming deal with the United States. Tellingly though, Foyle warns the American as he boards his plane: one day the war will end and I will seek you out and bring you to account.
My mother had long recommended the program and she let me borrow her treasured box set, with the imprecation: ‘You’ll be careful with it, won’t you son.’ The box set is beautifully styled like an old timber filing cabinet with a manila folder for each DVD. Quite lovely. And I did take care of it.
Detective Chief Superintendent Foyle is in charge of Hastings police at the outbreak of World War Two. Within sight of the French coast, Hastings is a likely invasion location and therefore ripe with criminal activity. With Foyle is his driver, Sam, the daughter of a vicar, serving in the Mechanised Transport Corps and Sergeant Milner, once again a policeman after losing his leg as a soldier during the disastrous British foray into Norway at the beginning of the war. Foyle and his team have the difficult task of maintaining the rule of law in wartime, when the opportunities for illegal activity increase enormously. The beauty of the series is that the stories go behind the war effort and into the social, economic and political issues which surfaced during this time.
This is well identified by Anthony Horowitz, the creator and writer of the program, in his forward to Rod Green’s book. He sums up many of the concerns of the program: ‘Anti-Semitism, conscientious objectors, funk holes, the development of biological weapons, illegal gambling, homosexuality in the armed forces, the creation of the SOE, the first developments in plastic surgery, saboteurs, the arrival of the Americans, convoys, land girls, munitions workers, the bouncing bomb and so on…’ He might have added trading with the enemy, spies, people engaged in contraband, internees, slackers, fraud and covert operations. Underlying all of this is the impact of the war on families, especially the effect on wives and girlfriends, mothers and fathers when men return wounded, burned or psychologically damaged. Or do not return at all. Foyle deals with all of this with a phlegmatic style, asking his neutral questions, never flapping, adding the pieces of evidence to put together the truth of what has happened. But these are often grey areas when individual justice gives way to the greater good, sometimes willingly, but often reluctantly as political influence is brought to bear.
The series reflects meticulous research by the creators and commendable verisimilitude achieved by the producers. Rod Green has a written a beaut book delving thoroughly into these issues, providing copious information about the state of Britain during World War Two and relating this information to the Foyle stories. It is an industrious effort sustained by the information he has assembled.
One of the surprises to me was that the real crimes Green details often exceed the scale and scope of the events portrayed fictionally in the show. For example in the episode War of Nerves, Foyle investigates a murder at a ship yard. The investigation uncovers a huge cache of cash and a fraud whereby the owners claimed for 400 workers when they actually employed only half that number. But the conspiracy upon which the story is based involved a Liverpool city councillor, a naval officer in the Ministry of War Transport, and directors and staff at a ship yard who diverted materials intended for the repair of ships, skimmed petrol and charged the admiralty for 2,000 workers when they were actually paying only 800. When the crime was uncovered the chief architect of the fraud shot himself.
One particularly poignant story A Lesson in Murder concerns evacuees. A young boy is evacuated from London to a country estate, where his inquisitiveness gets him killed, murdered by the host trying cover his illegal activities. Green tells us that around 1.5 million children and mothers were evacuated from cities in 1939, but by early 1940 over half of them had drifted back home.
From the outbreak of war extra crimes were added to the 300,000 existing arrestable offences: they rose to 480,000 by the end of the war. Green provides telling examples of the changes wrought by the onset of war:
• There were 400 cases of looting in the first two months of the blitz
• 115 spies infiltrated Britain during the war, but all were identified and usually quickly
• Local defence volunteers (later the Home Guard), was rapidly established with 1.5 million men by July 1940.
• 90,000 women between ages 18 and 40 joined the Land Army during the course of the conflict labouring on farms where men had enlisted
• Pre-war food imports were 55 million tons in 1939 but this had dropped to 30.5 million tons in 1941. This puts into perspective the enormous problems generated by rationing, shortages of all kinds, gouging by profiteers and fraud in relation to scare commodities.
In addition to these interesting statistics, there were several things I did not know about at all. One was that part of the British Isles was occupied by the German forces for the entire duration of the war - the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey – but not before half the population had been evacuated, including woman and children and all Jewish citizens (30,000 in all). I did know about the Lend-Lease deal, but not the part requiring the British to provide leases on land throughout the British Empire for the Americans to build military bases, to operate during the course of the conflict. I knew about the destroyers and the aid to Britain, but did not know about the bases. There were a number in Australia, but I wonder if we were consulted.
The book adds significantly to our understanding of wartime in Britain and enriches the television program. It is certainly a strong contender for my favourite program ever. My wife’s choice? The 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle). And who can argue with that?
February 21, 2016
I was so delighted when they decided to re-print this book so I did not have to pay 50 pounds for a copy from second hand sellers. This book really is a must for all "Foyle's War" fans. In a newspaper article, I read that some people had criticized the series for not being authentic like at all. But I beg to differ. And reading this book, you really see how much the production team did to make it as realistic as possible. Great pain was made to have characters dress and talk and act the way they did in the war years. To their help they had experts from the Imperial War Museum. And for the storyline in each episode, they used true stories found in the Archives but sometimes altered a little bit.
After an introduction chapter talking about the three main characters of the series and how believable they are, there is a chapter on the role of police in warfare. Both their methods of solving crime is described but also problems of recruiting, communication and so on. The next chapter is about crime and punishment. Crime rates went up since there were more laws to break but criminals also took advantage of the black out, rationing and bombing.
The next chapter describes the characters of DCS Foyle, DS Miller, Driver Samantha Stewart and RAF pilot Andrew Foyle and what about them is true and what is pure fiction. In the 4th final chapter that is a long one, called Truth & Fiction, the author goes through all available episodes, one by one. First a brief summary is given and then the truth is described, sometimes to great extent.
The book is really informative and a great companion to the TV series. It can be read on it's own for all the war information it gives. As an extra bonus, it is filled with wonderful photos from the series but also from all the topics touched. A real pretty book.
After an introduction chapter talking about the three main characters of the series and how believable they are, there is a chapter on the role of police in warfare. Both their methods of solving crime is described but also problems of recruiting, communication and so on. The next chapter is about crime and punishment. Crime rates went up since there were more laws to break but criminals also took advantage of the black out, rationing and bombing.
The next chapter describes the characters of DCS Foyle, DS Miller, Driver Samantha Stewart and RAF pilot Andrew Foyle and what about them is true and what is pure fiction. In the 4th final chapter that is a long one, called Truth & Fiction, the author goes through all available episodes, one by one. First a brief summary is given and then the truth is described, sometimes to great extent.
The book is really informative and a great companion to the TV series. It can be read on it's own for all the war information it gives. As an extra bonus, it is filled with wonderful photos from the series but also from all the topics touched. A real pretty book.
December 12, 2022
The history of events I was unaware of during WWII in England made this book interesting. Events such as how crime increased, particularly theft from both bombed property as well as from the government or how United States companies were still secretly doing business with Germany. The book also included overviews of various episodes of Foyle's War which I admit I skipped having watched every series.
May 15, 2024
Foyle's War is the best series of any kind that I've seen. It was originally a PBS Masterpiece Theatre mystery series, but I watch it on Acorn. I've watched it over and over, and often wondered which parts are the true history in each episode. This companion book to the series explains some of the most interesting, intense and sobering situations to happen during WWII, and then with MI5 and Cold War espionage.
January 15, 2023
Excellent history behind the Foyle's War series. I loved that series and have watched and re-watched it many times. This book rounds out what life really was like during the WWII years and how important those at home were in addition to those who were in service.
November 25, 2021
It was very nice to read this book and watch again “ Foyle’s war “
January 21, 2013
Foyle's War is an extraordinary television program, and not just because of Michael Kitchen's thoughtful, compassionate, understated performace as Christopher Foyle. The WWII era period setting is captured with meticulous attention to detail. It's not just a matter of getting the clothing and cars right, small details of how people lived and worked on the home front during those years turn up in every episode.
This book is more than a "making of" the show. It's about the entire infrastructure of British home life during the war, and the many stories large and small which made their way into the plots. You'll be amazed at the amount of narrative detail backing up the wonderful episodes of the series, which is hard not to rate as one of the most outstanding of all time.
Beautifully illustrated throughout.
This book is more than a "making of" the show. It's about the entire infrastructure of British home life during the war, and the many stories large and small which made their way into the plots. You'll be amazed at the amount of narrative detail backing up the wonderful episodes of the series, which is hard not to rate as one of the most outstanding of all time.
Beautifully illustrated throughout.
March 3, 2012
D and I just finished watching this entire series in order. This book follows the series and documents the "real history" that each episode's plot is based on. I learned a lot about WWII reading this and watching the series at the same time. It really is remarkable how true to life the tv show is...it's probably my favorite British drama. (Which is saying ALOT!)
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews