08:35PM
FOYLE'S WAR: FIFTY SHIPS

Foyle's War returns to the ABC with this repeat series screening Fridays at 8:35pm from December 14, 2007.

September 1940. American industrialist Howard Paige (Henry Goodman) has arrived in London to give a major talk on the efforts of the pro-English lobby in America to aid the British war effort....

A bomb decimates Sam's (Honeysuckle Weeks) boarding house and Foyle (Julian Ovenden) is prevailed upon to investigate the looting of some valuable items belonging to Sam's battle-axe landlady, Mrs Harrison. When he uncovers a system of organized looting around the Hastings environs, the signs all point to a gang of pilfering AFS (Auxiliary Fire Service) volunteers. Then, one night, a local man Richard Hunter (Tom Georgeson), the father of one of the suspected looters, dies on the beach from a single gunshot to the head. Many think his death is suicide - he was, after all, a hopeless, bitter alcoholic. But Foyle isn't so sure.

The deeper Foyle digs however, the more intriguing the clues become. Could there possibly be a link between the miserably failed Englishman Richard Hunter, and the eminently wealthy and successful American industrialist Howard Paige? Ultimately, the answers seem to lie buried deep in the past, in a supposedly more innocent age, amidst Oxford's dreaming spires. They involve a close friendship, a terrible betrayal and a strange cone-shaped piece of metal.

In his efforts to bring a surprising murderer to justice, Foyle enters increasingly murky waters and must rely on the integrity of a German spy. Ultimately, highpowered political forces (over which Foyle has no control) wade in when this small town murder investigation puts at risk the vital donation of American aid and the crucial start of Lend-Lease in the war.