Broken Souls (20 Jul. 2008)

Foyles hones in on two murders: an unpopular psychiatrist in a trauma facility and a low security German POW on work release to a local farm.

Director:

Simon Langton

Writers:

Anthony Horowitz (creator), Michael Chaplin

Stars:

Joseph Mawle, Jonathan Forbes, Louis Nummy

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Joseph Mawle	...	Fred Dawson
Jonathan Forbes	...	Johann
Louis Nummy	...	Daniel Dawson
Natasha Little	...	Rose Dawson
Michael Kitchen	...	Christopher Foyle
Nicholas Woodeson	...	Josef Novak
Danny Worters	...	Tommy Crooks
Jay Simpson	...	Sgt Brooke
Honeysuckle Weeks	...	Samantha Stewart
Anthony Howell	...	Paul Milner
Duncan Bell	...	Iain Campbell
Alexander Gilmour	...	Peter Phelps
Sally Leonard	...	Joy Phelps
Phyllida Law	...	Lady Muriel Sackville
Graham Crowden	...	Sir John Sackville

Storyline

Foyle has a number of apparently unrelated investigations under way. The most serious is the murder of Dr. Julian Worth who worked at a nearby hospital for mentally disturbed soldiers and airmen. He is found in his office stabbed in the chest with a letter opener. Worth was much disliked by his colleagues and was about to leave for a new job. The police also search for a 15-year old boy who has run away from his London home and may have returned to the area to where he was evacuated. Finally, they investigate the murder of a German POW who spent his days working on a local farm but who was no longer welcome when the owner returns after spending five years as a German prisoner of war.

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Plot Keywords:

pow | farm | letter opener | psychiatrist | sheep | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | War

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English German

Release Date:

20 July 2008 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Paddock Productions, Greenlit Productions

Technical Specs

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Quotes

Josef Novak: Violence never achieves anything.
Peter Phelps: [laughs] That's a good one, doctor. Where have you been these last five years? And how many people in the world have been killed while we've been sitting here having this cosy little chat?

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Connections

References Going My Way (1944)

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Soundtracks

"Horst Wessel Song"
(uncredited)
Lyrics Horst Wessel (1929)
Music Peter Cornelius (1865)
Sung by marching german POWs

User Reviews

One of the best episodes

It's now fall of 1944, and the war is winding down -- people are hoping it will end any day (although it was another six months before it did, and many more casualties resulted). In this episode, possibly the saddest in the series, several lives come together, all victims of the war or other unpleasant human circumstances, resulting in two deaths, neither premeditated; both due to anger, but one very generalized, one very specific. The upshot is a series of lives ruined, lives of people who were good people, perhaps, but like others in a war-torn environment, the boundaries between good and evil are lost. All in all, even the joy that anyone in this episode can feel is tainted with unbearable sadness and the possibility that all could be lost at any moment. Life is frail.