Maigret is a British television series made by the BBC and which – following a pilot episode broadcast in 1959 – ran for 52 episodes from 1960 to 1963.
Based on the Maigret stories of Georges Simenon, the series starred Rupert Davies in the title role.
Unlike most BBC series produced in the 1960s, all episodes (bar the pilot) have survived intact, and are available as a complete set on DVD and Blu-ray.
In 2022 the series was broadcast by UK television channel Talking Pictures TV, and is periodically repeated.
Contents
Cast
Main
Rupert Davies as Police Judiciaire detective Commissaire Jules Maigret
Ewen Solon as Lucas
Neville Jason as Lapointe
Victor Lucas as Torrence
Helen Shingler as Madame Maigret
Guests
Terence Alexander
Peter Barkworth as Sergeant
Derek Benfield
Peter Blythe
Wilfrid Brambell as Jacob
John Carson
Leon Cortez as Lapie
Diana Coupland as Jo
Roger Delgado
Madge Ryan as Madame Machére
Maurice Denham ag Tiburce de St. Hilaire
Paul Eddington as Harry Brown
Barry Foster
William Franklyn
Michael Goodliffe as Dr Javet
Marius Goring as Peter the Lett
Patricia Hayes as Didine Gulot
Stratford Johns
Philip Madoc
Magda Miller
Warren Mitchell as Aristide
Penny Morrell
Pete Murray as Philippe
Nanette Newman as Odette
Redmond Phillips
Peter Sallis
Patrick Troughton as Gaston Meurant
Production
The series was written by a set of ten writers, each contributing individual episodes; the most prolific being Giles Cooper, credited with nineteen episodes, and Roger East, with twelve.
Directing was similarly shared by sixteen directors, with Gerard Glaister and Terence Williams responsible for eight each, Andrew Osborn seven, and Eric Tayler six.
Each episode was shot in black-and-white and lasted 50 minutes, and (as it was made for the BBC) was intended to be screened without commercial breaks. It was shot mainly in studio, though many of the exteriors were filmed on location in Paris. Interior set designer Eileen Diss spent months scouring France for French items to be used on set, including furniture, ornaments, posters, and cigarette packets; she noted in a 1961 interview that, "Half these things may never be in sharp focus on the screen. But when in a close-up you see a terribly French door-knob behind someone's left ear, it does make just that much extra difference."
Series costar Ewen Solon broke his leg in a stunt while jumping from a wall. Subsequent scripts had to be rewritten to account for the obvious damage which could not be hidden or shot around.
Theme music and various incidental music was composed by Ron Grainer for which he won an Ivor Novello award. Furthermore, Rupert Davies won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor in 1962, while Eileen Diss won the British Academy Television Award for Best Design in 1963. Apart from the pilot, all 52 episodes remain within the BBC's archives.
Davies would reprise the role of Maigret in introductions to each episode of the first series of the 1964 crime anthology series Detective.
On Sunday, 9 February 1969, BBC One London aired Maigret at Bay as part of its series BBC Play of the Month. This feature-length movie was based on the 1964 novel Maigret Defends Himself (Maigret se défend), and featured Rupert Davies, Helen Shingler, and Neville Jason reprising their series roles of Commissaire Maigret, Madame Maigret, and Lapointe, respectively.
Episodes
Home media
In May 2021, Network Distributing announced the Blu-Ray release of the series (to be released August 2021), with a DVD release soon to follow.
The DVD set of 14 discs does not include the booklet found in the Blu-Ray edition. Sleeve notes inform that the series has been "remastered from original film elements", most likely meaning Kinescope films as distributed world-wide, "original fullscreen TV format".
In 2023, Kino Lorber released the series on Blu-Ray for Region A.
