Maigret

Unlike many Maigret fans, I have never read any of Georges Simenon's books. So I never heard of Maigret till one of our PBS channels started showing it on "Mystery!" several years ago. Right away I knew I loved it. This show is so realistic! Michael Gambon is great as Inspector Maigret, and his subordinates and the bad guys are all great characters as well. The cases the Chief Inspector solves are really very interesting. Also the locations and sets make you feel as if you are right there on the case with the Chief Inspector and his men. It's great to sit back and watch him slowly solve a mystery. You can tell that a lot of thought was put into the making of this show. Pity it was only made for 2 seasons. But at least that gives us 12 great episodes to watch. I was able to tape series 2 before our PBS channel stopped playing it. Fortunately it's available on video if you know where to look. I'd rate this at least a 9 on a scale of 10.

We used to watch this in French in high school! I absolutely loved the days when we'd walk in and be told we got to watch Maigret. They're kinda old, but way interesting, and we almost never knew what was going to happen. The episodes aren't predictable, which makes it all the more interesting. I hate when you know what's going to happen before it does, but I don't recall an instance where that was the case. It's totally worth checking out if you like a good mystery. And they really are great for French classes. I don't think we watched them in French with English subtitles like we did with other movies, but he's a French detective and there are a lot of French words and sites that are helpful to the students. We also used to write summaries of the stories entirely in French, so if you're a teacher, it's a great combination of comprehension and writing. If you decide you like these, or are looking for something similar, try watching Poirot. It's a series based on the stories by Agatha Christie. Same type of thing, but I'm partial to Maigret myself!

This is a splendid series which I have recently obtained on DVD. Memories of when I first watched it seventeen years ago have come flooding back. But so did the irritation over one particular episode - Series 1 Ep 4. Maigret returns to his home village on All Souls Day (2nd November) a day when a priest is allowed to offer three Masses. Here the priest for a requiem Mass is dressed not in black vestments (appropriate for Masses of the dead in the 1950's) but in green vestments and not vestments for a priest but those of a deacon. When so much authenticity is captured in a production it was a pity that woeful ignorance of simple ecclesiastical matters was allowed to have such free rein. If those concerned in production are unsure about church customs then it is usually easy to find out for certain. But, all in all, a great series - delightful to watch and I give it 8 out of 10.

Reat mystery series set in Paris before the guillotine was reitred. It's compelling fun to see Maigret slice through the layers of lies he's told to nail the villain. The theme music is fabulous and it sets the mood. You really feel. As if you were back in '50s Paris.

This has a Colomboesque feel; the interest is in seeing how he garners the evidence to obtain the conviction.

I have seen two of these and am will binge the rest. I lok forward to seeing him mount oleaginous malefactors on the skewer of evidence and send them to the guillotine for their misdeeds.

Regrettably, not nearly enough of these were made.

I'd never heard of this series until last month. It's currently being shown on a British TV channel.

It's absolutely excellent, a real tonic.