Foyle’s War – Season 9: Murder at Christmas (2025 Christmas Special)

Genre: Crime / Mystery / Historical Drama Written by: Anthony Horowitz (in spirit) Directed by: Stuart Orme Runtime: 98 minutes Setting: Christmas Eve to Christmas Day, 1947 – London and Hargrove Manor, Kent Main Cast:

• Michael Kitchen as Detective Chief Superintendent Christopher Foyle
• Honeysuckle Weeks as Samantha “Sam” Wainwright (now Stewart)
• Ellie Haddington as Hilda Pierce
• Tim McMinn as Glenvil Harris
• Guest stars:
  • Tom Goodman-Hill as Sir David Rathbone (American diplomat)
  • Olivia Williams as Lady Eleanor Hargrove
  • Rupert Graves as Major Alistair “Ali” Blackwood
  • Hermione Norris as Baroness Irena Kovács
  • Samuel West as Dr Victor Lane

COLD OPEN

EXT. SNOW-SWEPT KENT COUNTRYSIDE – CHRISTMAS EVE 1947 – NIGHT A lone Austin Princess battles through drifting snow toward the lighted windows of Hargrove Manor. Inside, a wireless plays Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas” – the irony heavy.

TITLE SEQUENCE – Classic Foyle’s War theme over black-and-white newsreel footage of post-war ration queues, demobbed soldiers, and the new sign “MI5” being quietly painted over an old SOE building.

ACT ONE

INT. HARGROVE MANOR – DRAWING ROOM – EVENING Forty guests in evening dress pretend the war is over. A huge Norwegian spruce dominates the room. LADY ELEANOR HARGROVE, elegant but brittle, greets SIR DAVID RATHBONE, the loud American guest of honour clutching a bulging briefcase.

FOYLE stands by the fireplace in a dinner jacket that has seen better days, watching everything. SAM, in a dark green cocktail dress, hands him a glass of warm white wine.

SAM (quietly) Merry Christmas, sir. Though I’m not sure anyone here believes in merriment any more.

FOYLE I ceased believing in 1940, Sam. I’m here for the same reason you are – Hilda Pierce asked us to be.

Across the room, MAJOR ALISTAIR BLACKWOOD – scarred, handsome, dangerous – raises a glass to HILDA PIERCE, who pretends not to see.

Suddenly – a choking cry from the library. Guests rush in. Sir David Rathbone is on the carpet, face purple, foam at the lips.

FOYLE (kneeling, two fingers to neck) Cyanide. Less than three minutes. Someone in this room just murdered him.

Snow begins to fall heavily. Telephone lines are down. The house is cut off.

ACT TWO

Foyle takes command with quiet authority. Local police cannot reach them. He seals the manor.

Interrogations in the library, fire crackling.

Suspects:

1. LADY ELEANOR HARGROVE – hostess; her late husband’s steel firm supplied the Germans via neutral Sweden until 1944.
2. MAJOR ALISTAIR BLACKWOOD – former SOE, court-martialled and cleared in suspicious circumstances. Hates Rathbone.
3. BARONESS IRENA KOVÁCS – glamorous Hungarian refugee; rumoured to be passing industrial secrets to the Soviets.
4. DR VICTOR LANE – young doctor treating half the guests for “nerves”; has access to poisons.
5. SIR DAVID’s briefcase – contains the “Petroleum Papers” proving certain British and American firms kept selling oil to the Reich through Spain until late 1944.

Sam discovers the briefcase has been forced open. Two pages are missing.

Midnight Mass in the village is cancelled because of the blizzard. Instead, the house guests gather uneasily round the Christmas tree while Foyle continues his quiet, relentless questioning.

ACT THREE

Christmas morning. Grey light, deep snow.

Foyle gathers everyone in the drawing room beneath the tree.

FOYLE Potassium cyanide was in the brandy decanter – but only Sir David’s glass was laced with enough to kill instantly. Someone knew exactly which glass he would take.

He reveals the missing pages: they implicate not only British firms, but a highly placed SOE officer who deliberately betrayed an arms drop in France to protect a profitable neutral pipeline. That officer’s initials appear in the margin: H.P. – Hilda Pierce.

Gasps. Hilda stands pale but composed.

BLACKWOOD (bitter laugh) You protected your husband Glenvil by sacrificing twelve of my men, Hilda. Rathbone was going to expose you in Washington. I couldn’t allow that.

He admits adding the fatal dose – to silence Rathbone and protect the woman he still loves.

But Foyle is not finished.

FOYLE You supplied the cyanide, Major. You even chose the decanter. But you didn’t know Lady Eleanor had already replaced Sir David’s personal hip flask with one containing an even deadlier solution – thallium – because she needed the Petroleum Papers to blackmail the Americans into a new steel contract. Sir David never drank from the decanter at all. He took a swig from his flask in the library. You both killed him – independently, each believing you were the only murderer.

Lady Eleanor tries to run. Sam blocks the door. Snowlight glints off handcuffs.

EPILOGUE

EXT. HARGROVE MANOR – CHRISTMAS AFTERNOON Police vans finally struggle up the drive. Blackwood and Lady Eleanor are led away.

Hilda, shaken, offers Foyle her resignation. He refuses it without warmth.

FOYLE We none of us emerge clean, Mrs Pierce. The war saw to that. Our job is to keep the dirt from spreading.

Sam brings two cups of tea to the front steps. A small boy – her son Peter – runs out waving a wooden Spitfire.

PETER Uncle Christopher! Father Christmas came after all!

Foyle manages something close to a smile, ruffles the boy’s hair.

FOYLE Did he now? Well then… perhaps there’s hope for us yet.

He looks out over the white fields as church bells begin to ring in the distance.

FOYLE (softly, to Sam) Merry Christmas, Sam.

SAM And to you, sir. Truly.

FADE OUT on the manor, peaceful under snow, hiding its secrets once again.

THE END