They Fought in the Fields 

April 1941: Foyle questions three Land Army girls about a murder that occurs on a Hastings farm.

Director:

Jeremy Silberston

Writers:

Anthony Horowitz (created by), Rob Heyland

Stars:

Tom Frederic, Peter Stark, Jack Gustav

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Frederic	...	Sabartovski
Peter Stark	...	Schimmel
Jack Gustav	...	Kraus
Paula Jennings	...	Rose Henshall
Jenny Platt	...	Joan Dillon
Stella Gonet	...	Barbara Hicks
Nigel Terry	...	Hugh Jackson
Michael Kitchen	...	Christopher Foyle
Honeysuckle Weeks	...	Samantha Stewart
Anthony Howell	...	Paul Milner
Michael Cronin	...	Home Guard Captain
Trevor Cooper	...	Curling
Gus Gallagher	...	Soldier
James Wilby	...	Major Cornwall
Joe Armstrong	...	Tom Jackson

Storyline

DCS Foyle investigates the death of Hugh Jackson who is found sitting in his living room, shot to death. It has all of the earmarks of a suicide and it's confirmed that Jackson had lived a lonely life since his wife ran off with another man several years before. Jackson had recently had a quarrel with a neighbor. His son Tom also stood to inherit the man's farm and get a military deferment as well. Finally, there are three young women at the farm who may have reasons of their own to do him in. The night Jackson was killed, three German airmen were shot down in the area and while all were captured, Foyle believes one of them may have information relevant to the investigation.

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Plot Keywords:

murder of a witness | misandry | farm | death | land army | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | War

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English German

Release Date:

7 November 2004 (UK)

Filming Locations:

Braughing, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Eleventh Hour Films, Paddock Productions, Greenlit Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

While the friendly approach is used with prisoners of war in this episode, the most effective means used by the British was to combine the civilized approach with quite a few hidden microphones. By keeping the stress down. the prisoners were more likely to discuss things between themselves, which resulted in the gathering of a great deal of useful intelligence.

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Goofs

Major Cornwall's uniform jacket has extra holes in the shoulder straps where higher rank insignia had previously been fitted, probably a general's. This must be because the jacket was used in an earlier episode for a higher-ranking character's wardrobe.

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Quotes

DCS Christopher Foyle: Did you. uh, know Mr. Jackson?
Barbara Hicks: Not really. I've only been here a few days.
DCS Christopher Foyle: All right. First impressions?
Barbara Hicks: That he was not too different from most men... rude, lazy, lascivious, and ignorant.
DCS Christopher Foyle: Right... I see. Thank you very much.

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Soundtracks

Daisy Bell
Traditional
By Harry Dacre

User Reviews

They Fought in the Fields

Creator Anthony Horowitz likes to look at different aspects of the war in each new story. Here he looks at the role of the Land Girls, the treatment of German POWs and grieving the loss of a son.

Foyle is called out when a German paratrooper is found dead, his parachute failed to open because the cord was cut off. Two others who survived a plane crash look agitated.

Hugh Jackson is a farmer whose body, drunk and shoe in the chest. It is believed to be suicide, his son has been called up, his wife left him some years ago to go off with a labourer. However another German paratrooper was found nearby so Foyle just wants to make sure the German was not involved in any foul play.

Foyle's investigations are hampered by supercilious Major Cornwall who deals with the German POWs by killing them with kindness. Foyle tells him that the Major should find out first what game they are playing first.

Foyle, Samantha and Milner are in the midst of the action here with various story threads. Sam helps out the Land Girls, one of whom has spent her time demeaning Sam. Her involvement with the Land Girls leads to unearth something deeply buried many years ago.

The various stories flowed very well but something just seemed like padding to me make it look feature length. It all sorted itself out rather to neatly. The people working in the farms were not a likable bunch and Foyle's German seems to have been a lot better than he has let on in previous episodes.