Maigret

I still remember watching Maigret on the box when it was broadcast.

I hadn't heard of the stories author Georges Simenon, but I enjoyed viewing the program with my family.

At the time I wished we had colour television to really be able to appreciate the Parisian scenes.

But even in monochrome it was really brilliant, and extremely atmospheric, drawing you into the scenes and stories.

I have no interest in cars or with motoring, but I do recall being enthralled by the sight of the Citroen cars. I just can't explain the rationale behind this, but they just looked so great that I wanted one when I could drive a car.

I've never watched any other versions, I just couldn't be asked as this version made such a big impression on me.

Well, that's according to my memories, anyway. I was an avid Simenon reader at the time - I think I've read nearly every Maigret story - and I totally loved this series. Simenon's Maigret stories are very difficult for directors and actors to adequately capture because he builds up an atmosphere using all the senses, not just the visual and aural. He also develops the atmosphere gradually - Maigret's or someone else' health, the drinks and food he consumes, Maigret's ponderings on the crime or the criminal, the weather. That atmosphere is also tied in with the specific psychological aspects of each case - Simenon was fairly obsessed with exploring the psychodynamics of pathological behaviour, and very much in the style of psychoanalytic descriptions and explanations. I don't recall seeing any other adaptation of the Maigret novels that came as close as this series. I wish it were available.

I don't care if its b&w & old. This will transport you to France -- Paris and the seaside and the countryside. I am so glad this series is available. It has an amazing cast of characters that you will believe are all French. I watch a lot of "foreign" films and have a higher tolerance for subtitles than most but it is a joy not to have to struggle with subtitles for once and still get the full flavor of another culture. Btw, I had no idea there were so many evil old ladies in France. Love the cafes, the food, the wine and Maigret's constant attempts to keep his pipe going. I found the first 3 seasons on Kino. Hoping the 4th will show up.

Nowadays TV drama is mostly the same as cinema drama, just with a smaller budget, and apart from news and current affairs, TV stations just play pre-recorded items. How different it was when this series was made. I'm not sure if the programmes went out live, but even if they didn't, they were made "as if" live, since editing early video tape was extremely difficult and expensive. So what you get with these shows is similar to what you get when you go to a live theatre performance: a company of actors working together in real time to present a story. Fabulous! And, yes, there are going to be the odd little errors, just as in the theatre. The only difference from live theatre is that, in this series, we have the addition of wonderfully evocative filmed sequences made in Paris in an era when it looked extremely Parisian. It's exciting. I don't mind at all about the small and rather cheap sets.

When I was at the BBC in the 1990's I asked the library in Windmill Road to send up the episodes they had for viewing prior to a possible Video release. They said they had very few surviving episodes but sent what they had including a Christmas special. As I watched all the quality of this series was relived. Now that The Age of Kings has been retrieved and released on DVD this series would have been next on my wish list. It was superb, captured the atmosphere of Simenon's Paris perfectly with its Citroen Tractions, cobbled streets and bistros. The title sequence with Rupert Davies striking a match on a wall to light his pipe to the music of Ron Grainer was superb. Half the UK population flocked home to see it each week.