Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen) is a widowed middle-aged detective stationed on the south coast of England at the outbreak of the Second World War; Foyle has a son Andrew who is a student at Oxford before volunteering with the Royal Air Force.<br /><br />Due to wartime shortages in manpower amongst the Police, Foyle requests a driver and gets a uniformed civilian volunteer named Samantha Stewart (Honeysuckle Weeks). Foyle also recruits a disabled war veteran and former police detective Paul Milner from his hospital bed as his Sergeant.<br /><br />The series serves both as a good period piece drama with some very informative and interesting historical elements combined with some very good detective/mystery story elements.<br /><br />The series puts considerable emphasis on a number of social issues of the time and also paints a very evocative portrait of England during the war. The production values are very impressive especially when you consider this is a period television series with considerable scope and budget limitations.<br /><br />The standouts for me amongst the regular cast are Michael Kitchen who is incredibly effective in underplaying his role while still managing to make Foyle a very sympathetic character, and Honeysuckle Weeks who seems perfectly suited to her character. The interplay between these two characters is certainly a highlight of the series.<br /><br />The series has attracted some very impressive talent which has included such veterans as Edward Fox and Charles Dance as well as up and coming talent like James McAvoy and David Tennant (Doctor Who).