I like this show but Sam was really a victim of this show's era.

But I think this was set in 1939 onwards so your point would be - things have changed a bit.

Personally I prefer historical shows to portray how it actually was rather than how people think it should have been with the advantage of up to 80 years of hindsight. Modern Political mind-set has seeped into too many shows. Endeavour and Call The Midwife to name but two.

Foyle resists this and THAT is one of the many reasons this is the best show on TV. If Sam was shown running around disobeying orders or the prevailing "way things are" because she's a woman, it would be tiresome. In one episode she was shown opening an MI5 file that was above her grade. Yes, it shows a quirky intelligence that goes against the grain, showing a woman as a "doer", but it stood out like a sore thumb and, to me at any rate, was a weak point in that episode. Doing things you just cannot do because you are "a woman" is just wrong. Bear in mind that she wasn't disallowed from seeing that document because she was a woman but because she wasn't at that grade. And she wasn't barred from higher grade because she was a woman because Hilda made it to the highest level.

I like it when they keep it real, as it actually was.

'tler

I agree with keeping it real. It wasn't just Sam Season 5 episode 2 they had to call a brilliant female a secretary because the Admiralty would never allow a woman involved in important, top secret, scientific work.

One of my favourite things about Foyle is that it is such a beautifully accurate period piece. Vehicles, buildings, dress, attitudes, rationing.....its just magnificently done,

And Sam clearly was a friend, not just an employee, so her volunteering to look after his Godson was a human gesture of friendship.
In other episodes, she helps out a sick child, and does many other charitable, human things. It's just who she is.

And yes, sadly today that would never happen, because of some rule, law, practice or policy.

Oh for the love of... That's why the show is so good, because it is authentic to the times. That's the way it was. I suppose you watch American Civil War movies and say they would be better if there wasn't slavery in them and blacks were treated better. You can't revise history. You don't have to like it, but you can't rewrite it to fit the attitudes of today. Don't watch if it offends you.

Gotta have something to whine about eh? It is a tv show set in the 30s and 40s not a feminists rewrite of history like so many American shows

[deleted]

Foyle had nobody else to look after the child, it wasn't unreasonable for him to ask sam to do it. In wartime, people were expected to help each other out, People in the war were more concerned about surviving than in whining about their 'rights'. it's unlikely that any modern woman would be able to cope with wartime living conditions, people had to be tough in those days to survive.

I agree with you. Nothing sets my teeth on edge more than, "it's not in my job description". As a baby boomer, we took up where our parents left off. If something needed to be done, it was done, didn't need to be asked. I once saw an office plant die because nobody thought to water it. I used to when I worked there but after I was made redundant, no one else took up the slack.

You are right about people depending on each other for their very survival certainly during the war and after. It was ingrained and continued into my generation.

SkiesAreBlue

[deleted]