Character: Blake Hardiman
Actor: Adrian Lukis
Episode: The Funk Hole

Adrian Lukis had to learn to play tennis for his role in Foyle's War.

"My character Blake Hardiman is always playing tennis so I had to have a crash course. We went to a club in Barnes but all our finer techniques went to waste - we were just trying to get the ball over the net.

"For the tennis sequences I had to wear a cream V-neck sweater, cream shirt and long cream trousers with braces. It was in the heat wave and we were playing on an unrolled court, so the ball wouldn't bounce in the right way. It was hard to make us look like good tennis players and I did sweat a bit that day!"

Blake and his wife Jane (Caroline Harker) are spending the war in a 'funk hole'.

"Blake has somehow managed to get out of fighting and by pulling some strings has landed up spending the war in a country guest house. He doesn't think he should do his bit to protect king and country, he wants to sit out the war and see if he can capitalise on it while others are doing the hard work. He spends most of his time trying to persuade a Jewish financier to go into partnership with him to buy up cotton mills - which is hardly the Blitz spirit.

"I played him as someone who thinks he is smarter than anyone else and yet he always get the joke a few minutes late. Although the other characters see through him, he thinks he can sit at the top table and sound off his opinions."

Adds Adrian: "I loved the first series of Foyle's War, so I jumped at the chance to be in it. I had worked with Caroline's sister Susannah on Pride and Prejudice, and we just laughed non-stop and had such good fun."

Adrian recently appeared opposite Niamh Cusack in ITV1's Too Good To Be True and is filming a role as a successful right-wing political novelist in Absolute Power for the BBC.

"I don't often play the good guys or conventional types but I like playing men who are slightly damaged or have an edge," he says.

Adrian's other credits for television include Peak Practice, Prime Suspect IV, Down to Earth, Doc Martin, The Hunt and Back Home.

October 2003; Publicity Release