Policing the People’s War: Foyle’s War and British Television Drama

Abstract

Foyle’s War, a fictional drama series following the wartime experiences of a police detective in the town of Hastings on England’s south coast, has been one of the outstanding successes of recent British television drama.¹ It has regularly attracted audiences of 10 million viewers in the competitive Sunday evening primetime slot and has been sold to over 20 countries. Its first series in 2002 won the Lew Grade Audience Award from BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts), and its second series in 2003 was nominated for BAFTA’s Best Television Drama Series Award. At a time when many new drama series fail to make any sort of lasting impression on the popular imagination, the success of Foyle’s War represents a significant achievement. The production discourse of the series attributes its success to the quality of writing, acting, direction and period detail. In the words of executive producer Jill Green, ‘We’re really proud of the way they combine complex and meaty storylines with real historical detail from the war. We’re very grateful to our fantastic cast and crew for the talent, care and attention they bring to the series.’² This chapter, however, argues that the success of the series should also be understood in relation to the way in which Foyle’s War effectively merges two of the most popular genres of British television drama: the Second World War drama (the paradigmatic example would be A Family at War) and the police/detective series with ‘heritage’ characteristics (paradigmatic example: Inspector Morse).