The first contemporary TV adaptation of Georges Simenon’s beloved Jules Maigret detective novels is coming to PBS Masterpiece. The network announced its new series Maigret, along with the official list of stars, on Tuesday, September 10, 2024. The Jules Maigret series is the second best-selling detective series ever, behind only Sherlock Holmes. And its modern adaptation is coming this fall.
Based on the beloved books about the streetwise Parisian Chief Inspector Jules Maigret, Maigret will star Belgravia‘s Benjamin Wainwright in the titular role with Stefanie Martini as Jules’ wife, Madame Louise Maigret (above). Read on for all the details on the new detective series, including additional stars and a trailer.
When does PBS’ Maigret premiere?
The Maigret series premiere airs Sunday, October 5, at 9/8c on PBS. There will be six episodes in Season 1. Faye Gilbert directs Episodes 3 and 4, and David Evans directs Episodes 5 and 6. Episodes air weekly.
Here’s the description for Maigret Episode 1 from PBS: “Maigret is investigating a series of bank robberies that have been plaguing Paris. He ignores his superior’s orders and turns his attention to the brutal murder of a burglar, Honoré Cuendet. His decision to juggle both cases puts his career in jeopardy, but he continues to seek justice for the slain thief. Just as he is closing in on Cuendet’s killers, the bank robbers strike again.”
“Chief Inspector Maigret and his team of maverick but loyal detectives, ‘Les Maigrets,’ solve a series of complex crimes in Paris,” the description continues. “Maigret’s unconventional methods and unique sense of justice put him at odds with his superiors and the judicial system he is supposed to represent. Maigret must outwit some of Paris’s most cunning and violent criminals, while dealing with his own troubled past.”
What is PBS’ Maigret about?
Patrick Harbinson (Homeland, 24, The Tower) serves as lead writer and executive producer on behalf of Windhover Films and will direct the first two episodes of the series. Colin Callender and David Stern executive produce for Playground, the Golden Globe and BAFTA award winning production company behind upcoming series Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light for BBC/Masterpiece and Sky dramedy Small Town, Big Story.
Chief Inspector Jules Maigret, the invention of former crime reporter turned prolific author Georges Simenon, inhabits a vividly realized Paris not often seen on camera that takes us from the glitzy upper-class world of luxury hotels and mansions to local bourgeois bistros and bars and the underground haunts of the professionally criminal.
Harbinson’s adaptation reframes Maigret as an unconventional young detective with something to prove, a rising star in the Police Judiciaire, relentless in his investigations, with an uncanny ability to get under the skin of the criminals he is chasing and a matchless knowledge of Paris and its inhabitants. Faithfully and lovingly married to Madame Maigret, Maigret heads the elite police unit known as La Crim, responsible for investigating all serious crime in and around Paris.
“‘To understand and not to judge’: Maigret strives above all to unravel our motivations,” PBS’ announcement reads. “He is good at this not because he is a genius, or has special methods, but because he listens — he doesn’t solve crimes so much as he solves people.”
Is there a trailer for PBS’ Maigret?
Yes. Wainwright’s detective is introduced in the Maigret trailer below. “My job is to understand, not judge,” he declares, ominously adding later, “Bad things were done here” and “You once said I had peace to make. Maybe this is how I do it.” Maigret is warned that he’s making “dangerous” mistakes in his line of work.
Which Jules Maigret books is PBS’ Maigret based on?
Playground has licensed the English speaking rights to the entirety of the series, consisting of 75 novels and 28 short stories, so the show can pull from that entire library of literary goodness.
Who is in the PBS Maigret cast?
Joining Wainwright and Martini are Blake Harrison, Reda Elazouar, Kerrie Hayes, Shaniqua Okwok, and Rob Kazinsky, who make up the “Les Maigrets,” Maigret’s loyal team of detectives, with Nathalie Armin set to play Prosecutor Mathilde Kernavel.
Are there other Jules Maigret TV shows and movies? Who has played Maigret?
This character has been adapted several times before. Gérard Depardieu played the detective in a 2022 movie. Rowan Atkinson took on the role in a 2016 series that only got two seasons. The late Michael Gambon, Rupert Davies, and Bruno Cremer have also played the character.
Maigret, Series Premiere, Sunday, October 5, 9/8c, PBS