Home » Castle Coop News » Friday Night Foyle’s War Club: a War of Nerves!

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A War of Nerves:

 

 

 

Club notes:

I am delighted to report that  The Graf von Blommehön (Chairman),Lady Sebright and Colonel Pyncheon have returned safe and sound from their skiing holiday in Verbier with no broken bones.

Tonight the Actual Members of the Friday Night Foyle’s War Club will be watching together again.

HURRAH!

 

 

Club Minutes:

Apologies: None

Attendees: (Virtual): Martha from America, MohairMK, Kitchentease, C. Nelson, Digby D and ayresorchids.  (Actual): The Graf von Blommehön (Chairman),Lady Egality (Treasurer) Lady Liberty (Club Secretary) Lady Sebright and Colonel Pyncheon

Venue:  Castle Coop and various international locations.

Announcements:

1. To toast the happy reunion of Actual Members, we shall be drinking  a small glass of Berry Bros ‘Good Ordinary Claret’

good ordinary red

and ….eating Crumpets with butter (yum) and marmite or jam if liked (yuk ) while watching tonight’s episode. 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

How to make Crumpets:

This recipe ( www.about britishfood.com) yields 24 crumpets.

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

To foam the batter : 2 hours

Total Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

Yield: 24 crumpets

Ingredients:

  • 12 fl oz/350ml semi-skimmed milk, warmed but not boiling
  • 1 lb/450g all purpose or plain flour
  • 1/8 oz/5g dried yeast
  • 2 tsp sugar
  • 12 fl oz/350ml finger-warm water (approx)
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 1tsp baking powder
  • Vegetable oil for cooking

Preparation:

  • Whisk together the milk, flour, yeast and sugar. Once combined add half the water and beat into the batter, continue to add more water until the batter is thick and smooth. Stop adding water once it reaches the consistency of thick cream. Cover with cling film and leave in a warm draft free place until foaming – about 1, up to 2 hours.
  • Whisk the salt and baking powder into the batter then heat a heavy based frying pan on the stove to hot but not smoking.
  • Dampen kitchen paper with a little oil and grease the base of the pan and a crumpet (or pastry) rings measuring 3″x 1 ½” (8 X 3.75cm) approx. If you don’t have any pastry or crumpet rings then use a small, washed food can to the same measurements.
  • Place one ring in the heated pan, add enough batter to fill just below the top of the ring. Cook for five minutes when there should be many tiny holes on the surface and the crumpet is setting. Flip the crumpet over and cook for another two – three minutes.
  • Repeat with the remaining batter until used up. Rest the crumpets on a wire rack until cool and reheat in a toaster or under the grill before serving. Serve with lots of butter and/or jam.
  • NOTE: If the batter seeps from under the ring it is too thin, whisk in more flour. If the crumpet is heavy and without holes, the batter is too thick, add more water.

N.B. With the approval of our Treasurer, I bought ours from Tesco (8 for under £1.00)

 

2. A reminder to all Club Members – virtual and actual: don’t forget to place a Foyle’s War picture in the room where you are attending the meeting.

 

How I love DCS Foyle, Sergeant Milner and Sam Stewart!

 

Tonight the International Friday Night Foyle’s War Club will be watching:

 Episode 4, Series 3

“A War of Nerves”

war of nerves

 

 

 

 

Plot:

DCS Foyle and Sgt. Milner investigate what they believe is a black market operation in the docks area. They set up a dummy company, with Milner at the head, to see what they might find and soon enough, they are approached by someone working at Talbot’s shipyard. By chance, the station desk sergeant’s daughter works at Talbot’s and has important information for Foyle. When her boyfriend, a sapper with the Royal Engineers, is called out to Talbot’s to disarm an unexploded bomb, he and his mates find something else that leads to one of them being murdered. Throughout all of this, Foyle is hounded by Assistant Commissioner Rose who insists that Foyle drop everything and investigate the activities of Raymond Carter a so-called communist agitator who is staying in Hastings. (http://www.imdb.com) 

Historical context:

The shipyard racket is based on a real case of fraud by Frederick Porter of Liverpool in 1942, whose ship scaling business embezzled over £300,000 from the government.Writer Anthony Horowitz based the story of embezzlement at a wartime shipyard on an actual case of a Liverpool Shipyard owner who shot himself in January 1942. The Leftist convention alluded to actually did take place on January 12, 1941. (Wikipedia)

Filming Locations:

The Chatham Dockyards provided the perfect location for the shipyard in ‘A War of Nerves’, featuring both HMS Ocelot and HMS Cavalier  (Wikipedia)

 

 The Blitz Detective?

‘ When I first conceived the idea of Foyle’s War, it was actually called The Blitz Detective and was meant to be set in the capital, but we very quickly realised that it would be prohibitively expensive and insanely difficult to film there. That was why we moved it to Hastings: a very good idea as it turned out. Being so close to the action, with people dying just 50 miles away on the other side of the English Channel, gave the series a sense of urgency and underlined the whole point – that murder has almost no significance in a time of war’.  

Anthony Horowitz (interviewed March ’13 for the ‘Radio Times’)

I’m so glad the Powers That Be jacked in the name ‘The Blitz Detective’ in favour of ‘Foyle’s War’.

I.M.O

  1.   It sounds too much like ‘The Singing Detective’.
  2. ‘The Blitz Detective’ sounds like cheap television to me whereas ‘Foyle’s War’ has more gravitas.

What do you think?

 

 

Yours critically,

 LLH signature

8 Comments

  1. A small glass of wine?
    Wonderful! 🙂 X

    • A very, very large glass of fizz is on its way & you certainly deserve it 🙂 Many congratulations on your beautiful new piece of virtual real estate and I’m off to subscribe straight away! Housewarming?

  2. Missed the Friday night showing of “War Of Nerves” due to a family reunion…but made up for it on Monday night! Next week will try making the crumpets!

    • I wondered whether or not you’d been able to make it; I hope the reunion was wonderful. Re the crumpets – you are braver than I am for I bottled out of baking and bought ours!

  3. Meant to say Diggy in tribute to Sir P’s comment last week. I do note that he can skip the Ox for hitting a little ball with sticks but not for the stimulating conversation, entertainment and refreshment provided by the IFNFWC.

    • It must have been a prior engagement.

  4. So the question that is keeping us all up is whether the additional refreshment led the agent and Sir P. to stop in?

    • Ah… Sir Plym is playing golf at Muirfields in East Lothian. The Agent had to consult the Chairman of the Village Hall about the feedback from the post-Village Clear-Up Barbecue (in the Ox and Moose).
      Why are you feeling dizzy?

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