Richard Harris had always wanted to play the role of Inspector Maigret since 1972 when director John Huston introduced him to the Maigret novels by Georges Simenon. In an interview about Maigret (1988), Harris said: "I was instantly hooked and read sixty or seventy of them. It has been an obsession of mine to play him ever since. As I read the stories I became him in my head. The clue to Maigret is that he watches everything, and throws people into psychological confrontations to get their reactions. I also knew exactly how I would look and what I would wear."
Maigret returned as a television series four years later, with Michael Gambon replacing Richard Harris as Maigret. This ended up being the first of two roles the actors would share, as they would also later both play Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter film franchise.
There were constant on-set rows between Richard Harris and the producers over the direction of Maigret (1988) as Harris constantly fought to keep the integrity of Georges Simenon's Maigret novels which the TV film was straying away from.
Wanting to retain Maigret's shambling walk, Richard Harris found the solution by wearing size fifteen shoes instead of his normal nine and a half.
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