Character: Harold Smith
Actor: Geoffrey Hutchings
Episode: Eagle Day
Geoffrey Hutchings still has vivid memories of World War Two.

"I was born at the outbreak of the war and by the end we were living in Dorset, quite a similar setting to Foyle's War. I remember when the Germans bombed Coventry and before they hit the coast they dropped off all their bombs in pockets of the south west, not strategically but just to offload them.

"I was more frightened than excited where there were potential bombs. When the blackouts and sirens came we hurried under the stairs. Crouching there in the hallway was a country bomb shelter. The gasmasks were a bit strange, too, we had to take them everywhere.

"The Americans occupied Dorset and that was the first time I ever met any. Then I was evacuated from Dorset to Cornwall which was further away. My mother thought it might be better for me, so I was there for a few months during the summer."

Adds Geoffrey: "I think of the war years as my period. To me, a period piece is Restoration or Elizabethan, but younger actors talk of the war!"

In Foyle's War, Geoffrey plays Harold Smith, a man who meets Foyle (Michael Kitchen) after the death of his daughter."Harold Smith is a victim of circumstance. He is a nondescript, quiet man. He doted on his daughter and is badly affected by the unfortunate circumstances surrounding her death. The challenge of a character like this is to make him enigmatic and interesting and not give anything away.

"He wears very drab plain clothes - a Fair Isle sleeveless pullover, cap and dull raincoat. The characters in Foyle's War look like my father, as I do when I'm dressed in all the clothes."

Geoffrey's many TV appearances include Maigret, Cor Blimey!, Our Friends In The North, Midsomer Murders, Goodnight Mr Tom, Kavanagh QC, Monsignor Renard, Bad Girls and Holby City. His films include Wish You Were Here, Heart of Darkness, White Hunter Black Heart, Longitude and Topsy Turvy. He is an associate artist of the RSC and won an Olivier Award for best comedy performance in Poppy.

Adds Geoffrey: "I've recently done The Affair of the Necklace with Hilary Swank and Jonathan Pryce, and a Thomas Winterberg film, It's All About Love, starring Clare Danes."

September 2002; Publicity Release