Series 6 of the ITV programme Foyle's War was first aired in 2010, beginning Sunday 11 April. Comprising three episodes, it is set in the period from June to August 1945.
Foyle is still chasing retirement after his resignation at the end of "All Clear," but his superiors are finding it hard to find a replacement. He gives them four weeks before stepping down for good. His former WWI CO, Brigadier Timothy Wilson, arrives from the War Office to enlist his help in the search of a German sympathiser and Russian POW. Milner, keen to step out of Foyle's shadow and prove himself, is now in Brighton with his new wife, Edie, and their recently born daughter, Clementine Elizabeth. Stewart has returned to civilian life and had just started as a domestic for the well-to-do artist, Sir Leonard Spencer-Jones. Another anti-communist Russian POW, who lives at the artist's house is a groundsman and a witness to the murder. While staying at the London hotel where Spiakov was captured, Stewart befriends Adam Wainwright, who is shot in the shoulder during the attempted hit on Foyle. When Sam visits him in hospital, she offers to help him at the Hastings guesthouse he recently inherited. Stewart brings Wainwright a bunch of bananas. However, the first shipment of bananas after the end of the war did not arrive in the U.K. until December 1945, five months after the events in the episode.
The main theme of this episode is the emerging Cold War in post-war Britain and the commencement of the repatriation of enemy combatants from the UK. The future is bleak for Russian combatants â particularly for enemy sympathisers, anti-communists and those with knowledge of atrocities. Part of the plot is about members of the Russian Liberation Movement (White Russians), who are seeking to avoid Operation Keelhaul, their repatriation to the USSR. In this context, mention is made of Almanzora, a ship used by the British to transport returnees to Odessa, during the repatriation of Cossacks (and in which ex-servicemen from the West Indies migrated to Britain in 1947). The show should not be confused with the 1989 novel, The Russia House, by John le Carré; it is also notable that Michael Kitchen starred in the 1990 film adaptation of Le Carré's novel.
Foyle continues to work at the new Hastings Police Station, where he opposes a racial segregation order at the town council, and continues fly fishing. He donates several trouts to Steward, who invisted him for dinner at the guesthouse. Foyle is supported by a new assistant detective, DC Hadley. Stewart and Wainwright slowly become closer as they help Dean and her baby.
The primary theme in the episode is segregation in the US military of its soldiers and in locations visited by soldiers near to its bases (as seen in incidents such as the 1943 Battle of Bamber Bridge in Lancashire and the 1944 Park Street riot in Bristol). Another theme is conscientious objectors (conchies) returning to civilian life along with demobilised soldiers as well as the social stigma against single mothers and the aversion among white US officers against interracial relationships.
It turns out that Caroline Devereux nursed Foyle after an injury in the First war and they had an affair, which ends when she discovers that she is pregnant and returns to he hhsband. After his resignation, Foyle plans to go to the US aboard the Queen Mary to "tie up some loose ends" — an oblique reference to his determination to bring Howard Paige to justice, since he was unable to do so in the episode "Fifty Ships". This episode sees the final appearance of Anthony Howell as Milner. Hastings council wants to pull down Hill House and build over the Green, but Foyle remembers archaeological finds that show a Roman cemetery existed on the site, and Wainwright uses this to oppose the plan. In the end, Hill House blows up, and Wainwright proposes to Sam among falling debris. In the last scene, they discuss their plans for marriage with Foyle.
The episode starts with the firebombing of Dresden in February 1945 and ends by highlighting the role of Queen Mary in repatriating US troops. It also introduces the MI9, whose primary role was to support European Resistance networks. The Devereaux estate, referred to as Whitefriars in the episode, is fictional but loosely based on the life of William Devereux. There was a three-year gap before the next series, aired in 2013.
Series Six was broadcast in Australia on ABC weekly from 9 May 2010, in the United States on PBS stations on Masterpiece Mystery! as Foyle's War VI on 2, 9 and 16 May 2010, and on Netflix as of April 2014.