TV Movie Review: Maigret, the BBC Series

I doubt I would have paid much mind to this production had Rowan Atkinson not been the lead. Atkinson is better known for his high key, exaggerated roles such as Mr. Bean and Black Adder. The prospect of seeing him in the role of Maigret is one I had to see. My only regret is that there are only four episodes, two in series one and two in series two.

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 Atkinson says that he took on the role with some trepidation because he's never played a character so ordinary but I think he is excellent, even extraordinary in the role of the thoughtful Maigret whose method is to try to understand the crime and why it was perpetrated. I'll admin that with the first episode, Maigret Sets a Trap, I thought Atkinson might be overdoing the passivity of the character but by the end I was won over.

Budapest stands in for Paris though a few establishing scenes were done in Paris. The production did bring in period furnishing for Maigret's flat and bistros from Paris. Overall I think the  mise-en-scène is very well established and I felt that I was in Paris and its environs. The production chose not to give the characters French accents—something Atkinson was happy about—so you hear a variety of English accents. I didn't find that this took me out of the story because the actors could use natural inflections and use accents indicative of the characters' station. Besides, as we all know, whenever a character is supposed to be speaking a foreign language they are given English accents.

There is a one star review on Amazon that calls this production a farce and Maigret a joke and nothing like the Maigret in the stories. The reviewer also says that it gives no sense of Paris at the time. I haven't read a Maigret in a couple of years so I am a bit hazy on what Simenon's Maigret is like but Simenon's son is an executive producer and doesn't seem to have a problem. Also, the production compiled a Maigret's World document which is exhaustively detailed to work from. I strongly disagree about not having the feel of Paris at the time the stories are set. I think the setting is very richly textured with the feel of a European city only ten years after WWII.

The stories chosen for series one and two are nicely complex without slipping into "wait, what!" confusion. The first episode, Maigret Sets a Trap, may be the weakest but it does serve to establish Atkinson as Maigret. We also see Maigret applying psychoanalytical approach to interrogation and Maigret's wonderful ability to use silence and expressions to provoke reactions: Maigret is in the holding cell with a suspect. He sits silently, with his pipe, brow furrowed, his gaze piercing, Do you love your mother he begins.

If you've read the books and seen this production, I'd love to hear what you think. For me, faithful to the books or not, these to be very well acted and entertaining productions and hope there is a series three.

Episodes
Series 1
Maigret Sets A Trap
Maigret's Dead man

Series 2
Maigret's Night at the Crossroads
Maigret in Montmartre

Keywords: Maigret, Georges Simenon, crime story, Paris crime story