Maigret

I believe the Michael Gambon Maigret was shot in Budapest because Paris didn't look like Paris any more! There are no such problems here. This is the Paris of the books, and Rupert Davies is Maigret exactly as Simenon conceived him. It was this authenticity that made me buy it as soon as it came out.

Thus the scenery and atmosphere are perfect. The stories, inevitably, are variable, but I'd call them good to excellent. The acting is solid rather than anything better - clearly there were no funds for retakes and there is usually a fluffed line or two in every episode.

The weak spot is the technical quality. Episode One is an outlier, in that it is so poor it is difficult to watch. From Episode Two it is very much better, but still not great. But then, would it have been any better for the TV viewer of the time, watching a 405 line transmission on an 18 inch set?

Anyway I'm delighted to have bought this wonderful time capsule.

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.

Watching Maigret played by Rupert Davies when I should have been doing my homework is one of the reasons I did not so well at school. Others are, The Saint, Danger Man, Quatermass and the Pit, The Avengers, and so on. All the products of UK TV. But perhaps they were in fact produced by the Soviets to undermine the education of British kids like me. I have recovered but would really like the BBC to release the surviving Maigret episodes. They cant be doing any good stuck where they are.

Maigret showed me a France that excited my imagination and caused me to read every book that George Simenon ever wrote. I was not disappointed by Simenon. And Rupert Davies would have had a hard time convincing me that he was not genuinely French if we ever met. As for Ewen Solon, I could never see him as anything but Lucas in any subsequent appearances.

I've just seen the first of this long 'lost' (not shown anyway) series, which was hugely popular when it appeared in the 60s, and is just being revived by the UK's Talking Pictures channel (old films and TV).

So, January 2022, but I see the review just posted by 'Sir-Oblong' (?!) makes no allowances for the usual production standards of that distant era. Maybe he hasn't seen perhaps 'Z Cars' - much loved but with similar creaky scenery!! Or the infamous Crossroads, with wobbly sets and even more wobbly acting, of necessity as doing many shows in an extreme hurry, on a tiny budget! Of course the Gambon series looks better, they had a vastly better budget, and the technical advances greatly helped with the picture quality. That series had shows that ran for longer (90 mins or 2 hours, from fading memory) so the stories could be developed in a better way, but the Davies version was actually shot in Paris (for the externals) so has that extra benefit.

The criticism about "claustrophobic sets" is also strange, the Gambon & Atkinson series both had some small sets, reflecting the stories as Simenon wrote them (a small room is a small room, a small bar is a small bar!). Their later date of production meant they looked rather better, having had more time and money spent! NB The Gambon series was 2 runs of 6 shows, and I think Atkinson stopped after just 3 (a relief for those fans pained at his lack of resemblance to the written Maigret). I look forward to more of the Davies reruns!

Added some weeks later:- And having mentioned the (inaccurate) Fiztbong-Obolongs critical review, I've now seen far more episodes, and the supporting acting was greatly improved as we get into series 3. His criticism of Helen Shingler is especially daft, as she plays Madame Maigret just as directed, and what a wife would have been back then, especially of a leading policeman. The review by Richard Hull is far more accurate about the Simenon books, and how the atmosphere and detection methods are layered, and pretty hard to replicate on screen - especially in these original one hour shows.

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.