Character: Hugh Reid
Actor: Michael Simkins
Episode: The White Feather, A Lesson In Murder, Eagle Day

Michael Simkins says his character provides a foil to Foyle!

"Hugh Reid is Foyle's equivalent in uniform and he is a good sounding board for him. Foyle doesn't wear his heart on his sleeve, but Reid becomes his confidante. They play golf together and fish together. He is one of the few people Foyle wants to socialise with out of hours.

"Reid takes his work seriously but, like Foyle, he has a slightly gallows humour. He thinks that if Hitler suddenly arrived, the criminals they are investigating wouldn't amount to a row of beans. There are more pressing issues around them and the roles that they play in the force could be redundant at any time."

It's the first time Michael has played a policeman in wartime, but he's used to putting on a copper's uniform for work.

"I have played two or three policemen a year for television - either bent or straight. It must be the way I look. I was sitting in Soho once and a rather thuggish bloke came up and said 'you're a copper, aren't you?' I have done crime reconstructions so obviously I've picked up some things on the way!

"I've done lots of different roles, too - before this I played Billy Flynn in Chicago with Denise Van Outen and I spent a year as Sam in Mamma Mia." His other credits include My Family, I Saw You, A Touch of Frost, Trial & Retribution III, Chalkface and Castles, where he met Foyle's War director Jeremy Silberston.

Michael also pens the column, An Actor's Life, in The Guardian.

"That came about as a result of my tracking down the last survivor of Britain's worst rail crash in 1916. The guy was 17 when it happened and I met him when he was 92. Then the paper found out I was in Chicago - one thing led to another and they asked me to do a weekly column. It's quite difficult to come up with something new each week, but I know it's read by some of the more influential people in the business, and it's given me a lot of pride.

"It's essentially humorous but I respect people's privacy and would never consider snooping. But actors often come up with the most odd concerns or fantastic stories. Next I'm hoping to put the pieces together in a book."

September, 2002; Publicity Release