We’ve not seen the Black Adder and Mr Bean comic legend that is Rowan Atkinson on the small screen in a fair few years, but just when you think he may have hung up his little bear next to Baldric on the great clothes line of yesteryear he sweeps back in with something completely different in ITV’s Maigret films. The two new TV movies, Maigret Sets A Trap and Maigret’s Dead Man, will see Atkinson taking on the role of French fictional detective Jules Maigret, giving him a chance to show his more serious acting skills in the process.
It’s a bit of a random move for the comedian who hasn’t really done much since appearing as Mr Bean at the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony, following on from the release of Johnny English Reborn in 2011. In fact, if you trawl back through his 36 year career on television you’ll struggle to find anything vaguely resembling serious acting, so it’ll be a pretty big turnaround if he manages to make it work.
We’re not expecting the Gallic equivalent of Sherlock, but it looks like it could be a gritty Parisian super sluth crime drama, which is not what you’d expect from Atkinson. Set in the 1950s post war Paris, the new films are adapted from the popular Maigret detective novels written by Georges Simenon, who wrote 75 novels and 25 short stories in total featuring the character between 1931 and 1972.
The two films that have been comissioned by ITV have been adapted from two of the novels, with Maigret Sets A Trap following the storyline of Maigret Tend Un Piège and Maigret’s Dead Man being derived from Maigret Et Son Mort. They’re both being written by Stewart Harcourt, who’s past credentials include writing the screenplay for the television adaptations of Agatha Christie’s Poirot and Miss Marple, so there’s a but more experience on the writing front than there is on the acting side of the equation.
For anyone not massively aux fait with the Maigret series, which included us, so dont feel too bad, they’re centred around the French police detective Jules Maigret in a similar vain as Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple. He’s a formidable man of few words who’s random hat, big coat and ever-present pipe give him just as much of an iconic look as any of the other big name detectives and now with Rowan Atkinson in the lead role, he should be getting even more style definition in the ITV films.
Scheduled to go into production in September 2015, we’re not expecting the two 120 minute films to air until Christmas 2015 or early 2016. Talking about his casting in the central role, Atkinson said, “I have been a devourer of the Maigret novels for many years and I’m very much looking forward to playing such an intriguing character”.
