No Friends Like Old Friends

Plays her part so good well foyals war part helped. The American star is fun but like she is from the white house in like air forse one. Her investigater frend is good fun

I agree in general with all the other reviewers (up to date!). Although I find that I'm not really interested in why Frankie is in the UK. Does it matter? Another mild clash with other comments is over her hairstyle: I agree that the style really doesn't match our current (2020ish) aesthetics, but, come on, this is set a hundred years ago! Some production researcher has perhaps put dozens/hundreds of hours into researching hairstyle variations in 1920/30s Toronto, and we know such styles change abruptly, without notice and often. Having got these mild gripes about reviews out of the way, this was a great story. It allowed us to see back into Frankie's wartime experience, rescued her friend and kept us anchored in Toronto with some research requests and a (fairly silly third) storyline about plumbing leaks. It also indicated that Frankie's wartime CO had subsequently been knighted, leaving the way open for him to return in future episodes, with the ethical and emotional conflicts between the two being obvious. But this was a team effort. (Apart from the director, producer, cinematographer, makeup artist, etc, etc...!) Keeping her end up as ever was Lauren Lee Smith, of course. Honeysuckle Weeks was the other part of what was, for this episode, clearly a team. She glows in any part she attempts (as does her sister Perdita - there must be something in families!). Her portrayal of the development of Sam Stewart's character in Foyle's War deserves lasting honour. But the biggest flag given to this episode is for avoiding the catastrophe of the regrettable North American showrunner "Oh, we gotta have an episode in Inglund!" impulse. Probably because that is an American (USA) impulse, not Canadian at all. So the Hollywood ignorance that infected such excrescences as "Bones:The Yanks in the UK" did not reach this production. The actors (at least the main ones) are Canadian, not American, and the actors and production team have a Canadian background, not USA. So my closing is "Hurrah again for Lauren Lee Smith, and hurrah for Honeysuckle Weeks'!

Unless I missed something at the end of the previous season. it is not really clear why Frankie Drake is in England. For holiday? To meet up with old friends? To sort out the troubling aspects of her under-cover work during the war?

Whatever the reason for Frankie being in England, it makes for an enjoyable episode.

What makes it special is the early appearance of a relatively young Agatha Christie, played by an actress, Honeysuckle Weeks (whose name is almost as interesting as the character she plays!).

I found the Agatha Christie character to be one of the more interesting historical figures to have popped up on the show. Much more interesting, for instance, than I found Ernest Hemingway to be..

At the point that Agatha appears here, she has published a couple of mysteries already that have been popular., But she is not sure if she wants to continue writing that "foreign detective" she created.

As an amateur detective, Agatha proves valuable in several ways. And as a writer interested in people, Agatha proves able to "open Frankie up" a bit, so that we learn some about what is haunting Frankie Drake about her work during the Great War.

All in all, this was an well done episode, and would not be surprised to see Agatha Christie show up again on future episodes.

Is the most unflattering on her. This hairstyle is sooo unsuitable for her facial features and long neck. Absolutely not for her. One would expect that whomever is doing hair and makeup would notice this stuff...