Serene, green and deadly

The seaside village has never looked so serene. It’s springtime on the south coast of England, and quaint stone cottages and their carefully tended gardens dot the tree-lined streets that meander through green rolling hills. But all is not as it seems.

The year is 1940, and as the war in Europe rumbles ever closer to the town, crackling currents of passion, deception and murder are taking root from within.

Into this powder keg steps widower Christopher Foyle (Michael Kitchen), a police detective who proves to be exceedingly good company for the next four weekends as the erudite centerpiece of “Foyle’s War,” the latest offering from the “Masterpiece Theatre” franchise (Sundays at 9 p.m., KCET, KVCR).

Each 90-minute episode contains a new mystery, with Foyle, whose requests for a transfer in order to aid the war effort have been quashed by his superiors, doggedly searching for answers.

The series gets off to a rousing start Sunday in “The German Woman,” as Foyle works to solve the murder of a foreign-born matron with a handful of enemies. Assisting on the case are Samantha Stewart (Honeysuckle Weeks) as his young driver (Foyle never got around to getting a license), and Paul Milner (Anthony Howell), an ex-police officer still hospitalized after losing a leg to the Nazis.

This unlikely trio proves to be a stellar team, particularly in Part 2, “The White Feather,” when Milner is released from the hospital, only to get mixed up with a group of Nazi sympathizers meeting at a hotel.

When halfway through the first episode you’re already bemoaning the fact that “Foyle’s War” is scheduled only for a four-week run, you know you’re on to something special. So enjoy it while you can, folks.