The White Feather 

The arrest of a young girl on a sabotage charge brings Foyle into contact with a group of English Nazi sympathizers.

Director:

Jeremy Silberston

Writer:

Anthony Horowitz (written and created by)

Stars:

Lisa Ellis, Anthony Howell, Charles Dance

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Lisa Ellis	...	Edith Johnstone
Anthony Howell	...	Paul Milner
Charles Dance	...	Guy Spencer
Colin Tierney	...	Alan Fleming
Andres Williams	...	Isaac Woolton
Michael Kitchen	...	Christopher Foyle
Michael Simkins	...	Hugh Reid
Honeysuckle Weeks	...	Samantha Stewart
Maggie Steed	...	Margaret Ellis
Paul Brooke	...	Arthur Ellis
Rebekah Manning	...	Dorothy
Patrick Godfrey	...	Ernest Bannerman
Amanda Walker	...	Lady Bannerman
Rebecca Charles	...	Rosemary Harwood
Bernard Kay	...	Robert Woolton

Storyline

It's May 1940 and the war news is grim. The Germans are rolling across Europe and invasion fears are affecting everyone. Sgt. Paul Milner, who has been invalided out of the army, settles into his new job at the station. His wife is having difficulty accepting his disability, however. Foyle investigates the activities of Edith Johnson, a maid at the White Feather hotel, who was caught cutting telephone wires. When the owner of the White Feather, Margaret Ellis, is shot Foyle finds himself investigating a murder. The actual target was likely Guy Spencer, the leader of a fascist pro-Nazi movement known as the Friday Club. The case takes a particular twist when Foyle learns that Spenser may be in possession of a letter stolen from the Foreign Office and that Military Intelligence is actively monitoring Spencer and his group.

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Plot Keywords:

color in episode title | colour in episode title | hotel | military intelligence | fascist | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | War

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 November 2002 (UK)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Eleventh Hour Films, Paddock Productions, Greenlit Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The fishing boat that sails off to Dunkirk is called the Lady Rose. Thomas Wheatley, who plays Lawson, also played Saunders in The Living Daylights (1987), in which the Stradivarious cello owned and played by Maryam d'Abo's character, Kara Milovy, is also called the Lady Rose.

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Goofs

The uniformed Superintendent is seen wearing the ribbon of the Police Exemplary Service Medal. This medal was not instituted until 14 June 1951, eleven years after the events portrayed.

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Quotes

Samantha Stewart: [to DCS Foyle about the Day of Prayer service] I hope the vicar's sermon's are shorter than my father's!

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Soundtracks

Traumerei
[From Scenes of Childhood]
Written by Robert Schumann
Played at the first social gathering of the guests at the hotel. Rather appropriately, given their sympathies, it is a German tune.]

User Reviews

Free Speech, but at What Cost

This second episode presents the sickness underlying movements to make the British acquiesce to the wishes of the German invaders during World War II. Free speech is certainly precious, but when the underlying reason for it is anti-semitism and rolling over for a despot, one can easily see why someone like Foyle had a significant job to do.. The people who are holding meetings and welcoming such horrors are the lowest of the low. There is a wonderful sophistication to this show. Foyle is a man of great empathy who is able to look with great compassion at people who would be disenfranchised otherwise. The show avoids the simplistic. One of the major characters is a man who has lost his legs in Norway. There is a subplot where his wife seems to blame him for his infirmities. She is an ugly, spoiled woman, treating him like he is a little child, demeaning his work with Foyle. Another focus is a man who owns a fishing boat who, along with his son (a tragic figure), cross the sea to rescue British soldiers who have been maimed or abandoned in battle.