- Anne Bolton: Sam told me Greville had been hurt. She told me I should visit him, but it was only when I was there, I realized I didn't want to. Does that sound very cool to you, sergeant Milner? I can't see him, I should want to see him, I want the Greville Woods I was in love with, the Greville I was going to marry. I tried to make myself visit him, that's why I was there that night, but I couldn't do it, I couldn't face him.
- Sergeant Paul Milner: Thank you, miss Bolton.
- Anne Bolton: You think I'm disgusting?...
- Sergeant Paul Milner: No... But I will speak out of term, if you don't mind. This
- [pointig at his leg]
- Sergeant Paul Milner: is fake, it's aluminium. I lost most of my leg in Trondheim last year. I was a mess, when they carried me home, maybe not as badas your fiancé, but there was massive scarring everywhere.
- Anne Bolton: I'm sorry.
- Sergeant Paul Milner: You shouldn't be. I'm the man I was before, I haven't changed.
- Anne Bolton: And what are you saying? That Greville is still the same?...
- Sergeant Paul Milner: He won't be, if you leave him.
- Christopher Foyle: [Andrew is leaving to the RAF base at Debden] Are you all right?
- Samantha Stewart: Yes sir, all present and correct.
- Christopher Foyle: [after a pause] Well, I'll miss him... Will you?
- Samantha Stewart: [sobbing] Yes, sir... I'm sorry sir, I... I didn't mean to get involved... Oh, I did, but...
- Christopher Foyle: Well... The Foyle's you know... Always have been hard to resist.
- Samantha Stewart: Absolutely, sir!
- [watching a parody of the real mystery at a hospital revue]
- Patient as Jamieson: Mr. Foyle, Mr. Foyle! I need your help! I understand you're a bit of a sleuth.
- Patient as Foyle: Which bit did you have in mind?
- [laughter]
- Patient as Jamieson: My name is Jamieson, and I need someone with a nose for crime!
- Patient as Foyle: I'm sorry, Mr. Jamieson, my nose stays where it is.
- [laughter]
- Patient as Jamieson: Pity. Well, listen to me. Something terrible has happened. Someone has dropped a statue on Group Captain Smythe!
- Patient as Foyle: That *is* terrible.
- Patient as Jamieson: You're telling me - they missed!
- [laughter from everyone except Smythe, who's sitting in the audience]
- Sir Michael Waterford: I did think of it sometimes... Often... Of taking my own life.
- Christopher Foyle: Why?
- Sir Michael Waterford: Because I know what I am. Because I know I'm a fake. Sometimes living with myself is hard. I was at Messines Ridge, in the summer of 1917, battle of Ypres. For god sake I was their commanding officer. My batman was a man called Martin Drake, Gordon's father.
- Christopher Foyle: Yes, you told me.
- Sir Michael Waterford: What I didn't tell you, that it was hell! In the start it was gas shells, you'd hear them whining, as they came overhead. The gas and the shrapnels and the shells, and the mud and the blood, the rifles, machine guns, the artillery and the noise! And the endlessness of it. I didn't think it would be over until I was dead, ripped to pieces. Young men with their entrances hanging out. I'd had enough. I took out my gun, and I shot myself in the leg. I had to get out of there, it was the only way, that's what I did. Drake saw. He carried me to the field hospital. And as far as I knew, he never told anyone. And he wrote about it to his son. Gordon turned up and showed me the letter. He knew it would ruin me. He made me pay. I've been paying ever since. And in the end, I expect he'd have taken everything I have. Everything except my self-respect. I lost that twenty-five years ago.
- Sir Michael Waterford: But these men are so brave. We call them "the few" but who could have thought this country could produce so many of them?
- [Sir Michael's housekeeper, Mrs. Roecastle, confesses to being the saboteur at the burn hospital]
- Sir Michael Waterford: Why did you do this?
- Mrs Roecastle: For you, sir. I knew they were breaking your heart, taking over the manor house. I could see what they were doing to you.
- Sir Michael Waterford: No, no, *no*! I don't mind. Those poor young men, so terribly hurt, I'm glad they're here.
- Mrs Roecastle: But you had a gun, sir! You were going to use it on yourself.
- Sir Michael Waterford: Mrs Roecastle, you've done a terrible, wicked thing. And you haven't understood me at all. You've no idea.
- Mrs Roecastle: I did it for you, sir.
- Sir Michael Waterford: [to Foyle, speaking about the badly burnt pilots being temporarily hospitalized at his estate, Dibney Manor] But these men are so brave. We call them the few, but who could have thought this country could have produced so many of them?
- Wing Commander Turner: You know, too many of the top brass at Command and Group still think that human error and human weakness is all a question of morale. They are too ready to throw the book at anyone who steps out of line. LMF, they call it. Lack of moral fiber.
- Christopher Foyle: What do you call it?
- Wing Commander Turner: Well, I see the truth of it. These young men, we ask so much of them. It's not just the number of ops they fly, and the mental strain, it's lack of sleep, it's no wonder they get ill. Flying stress, combat fatigue, shellshock even. There are many names, there just aren't enough of us to recognize it.