Maigret (My Rating 5+/5)

There may be no bad Maigrets

French author Georges Simenon wrote 75 novels and 28 short stories between 1931 and 1972 about Commissaire Jules Maigret of the Police Judiciaire of Paris. These have been made into many stage, film and TV versions over the years. I have not read the stories but have watched three of the TV series. All three are excellent, there are no bad Maigrets.

I first came upon Maigret on the MHz network back in the mid-90s on the local WNVC and then MHz Worldview stations. This French version (with English subtitles) from 1991 to 2005 starring Bruno Cremer is Maigret as Simenon must have imagined him. Unlike the more recent versions, it was filmed on locations in France as well as Belgium, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Finland (where Maigret travels in two cases). One episode takes place along a French canal (I didn’t know there were such things). Cremer’s Maigret also seems more like what we might expect of the French police; he even slaps a suspect. (The novels go back to the 1930’s but the TV versions all take place in the 1950s.) True to form, Maigret is always smoking his pipe (Cremer ended his career in 2005 with throat cancer) and solves the cases through intelligence, persistence, and empathy with the criminals, while often sidestepping the supervisory judge. My rating is 5+ and if you subscribe to MHz you can also watch great foreign language series (with subtitles) including Montalbano, Beck and Nicolas Le Floch.

The 1992 ITV Maigret series starring Michael Gambon also gets a 5+. Gambon is essentially the English speaking version of Cremer. The 12 episodes slightly condense the stories (about an hour vs. the 90 minutes of the Cremer versions) but capture the setting (though filmed in Budapest) and ambiance well. The supporting cast of detective – especially Geoffrey Hutchings as the constantly chain-smoking Sgt Lucas – are also strong.

Surprisingly, the 2016-17 version – also from ITV – starring Rowan Atkinson is also very much worth watching. Atkinson, better known as the comic Mr. Bean and Blackadder, seamlessly melds into this more serious role. The series is also filmed in Budapest, which ITV again deemed to be an adequate stand-in for 1950’s Paris. My rating, a solid five.

Episodes of these three Maigrets may be found via Internet searches but the two English versions also on Britbox.