Apparently ITV is doing a series of movie-length Maigret TV adaptations with Rowan Atkinson as the French police Commissaire. The first one is called “Maigret Sets a Trap” and the second “Maigret’s Dead Man.”
Isn’t Atkinson rather a small man? One of Maigret’s important characteristics and a tool he sometimes uses is the intimidation of his bulky physique (tall and heavy). Can Atkinson make that work?
Has the first one aired yet? Anyone seen it? If it’s any good I can only hope that in 3 or 4 years it will show up over hear on PBS.
Another of Maigret’s characteristics is he’s French, but Michael Gambon played him, and pretty well, I thought.
If Tom Cruise can play Jack Reacher and Lou Diamond Phillips can play Henry Standing Bear, I guess anything is possible.
They made 4 whole movies where Elijah Wood, Martin Freeman and Sean Astin were much smaller compared to everyone else. I’m sure they’ve got the cinematic magic to make Atkinson look bigger (he’s 5’11", by the way - not a squirt but admittedly not looming).
5’11" is ok, I’m sure that’s taller than the actual Maigret (people were shorter in those days). So perhaps they’ll pad his frame a little bit (I hope they don’t go overboard, like they did with David Suchet as Poirot, who always reminded me of the Penguin). I doubt if a network TV detective series will have the patience or money for CGI, but it shouldn’t be necessary.
I see that they are setting it in the 1950’s, which is OK, but I prefer the 30’s mise en scene of the Cremer series.
I’m eager to hear from any Brits who may have actually seen it, since it aired on March 28 (or at least, that is the release date on IMDB, which I assume because this is a TV production is the air date).
I thought Rowan Atkinson did pretty well at standing there thinking, but that’s my problem with Simenon - it’s all insights, which don’t always make for great drama when they look a bit like a deus (or diabolus) ex machina.