Trespass

Going into this episode, I had been tipped by another Foyle fan that it was a bit slow-moving. So I had limited expectations.

Turns out, just like Foyle himself in this story, I was given misinformation. This episode has a nice slow burn that ends in a wonderful climax. Very satisfying. On all levels.

To say that the ever-talented Horowitz never misses a chance to add an ethnic flavor to his stories somewhat misses the point. You should write about what you are passionate about, and if Horowitz wants to re-imagine racism in post war Britain, and does it with flair and gusto, then more power to him.

What I really noticed is how cynical this series has become over time. This is not a bad thing. Quite the contrary.

Superb.

It's easy to think about the Holocaust as an aberration, the Nazis wiping out six million people. Surely when the war was over, things went back to normal. Because a huge number of people blamed the Jews for virtually every eventuality, the bad economy, lack of jobs, lack of opportunity, things hardly ended. Foyle, once again finds himself embroiled in a case where people display their hatred and do some of the things those Germans did. It shows how easy it is to sway a population that is hurting. It was Hitler's greatest "strength." In this one, a conference is going to be held, and there are terrorist groups around (or are there). A young woman is at the center of much of this as well as a bigoted drum beater with no moral sense whatsoever. It makes that old case for free speech versus hatred spilling into the streets. Sam gets involved again, much to her husband's utter shock. Very good episode as the series winds to a halt.

An attack on a young Jewish boy at College raises Foyle's interest, particularly when the Boy's father decides not the take the matter seriously, soon after Foyle returns to the family on a very serious matter.

The second story from the end reminds me of the second story in, The White Feather, in that one we had Charles Dance playing the central character, a prominent, charismatic racist, in this one we get Richard Lintern in a similar role. It's wonderful to see how the show has changed since those days.

This is a very slick episode, beautifully produced, dramatic, engaging and thought provoking. Kitchen is awesome here. Very interesting take on the origins of The NHS.

We've gone from Nazism to anti semitism, Horowitz manages to deal with the subject very well. It's a very tricky and difficult subject, credit to him for tackling it.

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.

Not everybody was enamoured with the change of pace 'Foyle's War' took when it was revived three years after its initial cancellation. Didn't mind it generally myself but execution was not perfect and few of the episodes from this two-season period were show high-point. "Trepass" however is the closest this period gets to prime 'Foyle's War' and to me it is the best episode since "The Hide". It's much better than the previous episode "High Castle", which was decent still. 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 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. The story is well-paced, suitably complicated without being convoluted and is nice and twisty. Much better storytelling and quality than "High Castle" in that the denouement is unexpected, the storytelling feels more complete, Adam is not so much of a problem here (still don't care for him though), there are no overtly evil characters and there are no terrible accents. The sick boy plot strand is quite heartfelt.

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 Britain after 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, while the difficult subject of ant-Semitism has none of the heavy-handedness it could have done, much better handled than the handling of racism in "Killing Time".

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 and have really appreciated her development, while Hilda and Arthur have proved to be worthy regular characters.

The supporting cast are strong all round.

All in all, a wonderful episode and one of the best of the episodes from the revival/post-war period. 10/10 Bethany Cox

A young Jewish man is beaten up by two men coming out of his school. He ends up in the hospital and no one calls the police. Foyle goes to the parents home and talks to Mr and Mrs Wolf the boys parents. They want to keep things quiet. They seem scared. Soon after Mr Wolf is murdered. Foyle investigates and finds out Mr Wolf's ship was blown up as it was bringing supplies to the Jewish people in Palestine.

There are lots of things that go on in the Foyle's War series. Things before the war that England and other countries are in and after it.

This one has to do with secret operations run by a secret part of the English government who is helping people from other countries that are enemies of Jewish people. It is the leaders of this group that work for the government but not endorsed by the heads that did not know what they were doing.

Foyle is not a policeman anymore but he works for MI6 a government security group. He had a meeting with someone who gave him information and he passed it on to his supervisor. The information gets him in trouble and he resigns. He was being spied on by the people that work for the government and they tipped off the Arabs that were in the hotel.

This episode is kind of like things today. The secret agencies wanted to stay friendly and have meetings with the countries it supports but the people involved were anti-Semitic and allowed meeting to be help to push their agenda. They blamed poverty, lack of food and everything bad that was happening in England on the Jewish people.

It is a good example of how propaganda is spread by certain people and how it ignites others that hear it to start to protest and attack the houses of people they think are the cause of their problems.

It has a good ending or at least one with some justice for the innocent and Foyle's gets his job back. There is a lot of anti-Semitism today even in our country. This is really sad.