Another splendid batch of World War II British home-front mysteries, with Michael Kitchen as the detective chief superintendent who would rather battle the Nazis than police the south coast. But he’s not only smarter than any criminal trying to take advantage of terrible times but smarter too than any foreign spy or domestic intelligence agent or government minister with an ulterior, usually careerist, agenda. Between a visit to an RAF burns hospital, a “suicide” by hand grenade, an unexploded bomb at an overworked shipyard, and the crash-landing of a German fighter plane, Foyle and his uniformed driver, Sam (Honeysuckle Weeks), make sense of, and exact justice for, everything from sabotage to murder. It is amazing what intelligence and talent can do on television without ever mugging or shouting.

Sundays through October 2
9 p.m. Channel 13

Related:

• Archive: “Television”
• Articles by John Leonard
• Table of Contents: Sep 19, 2005 issue of New York | Subscribe!