ITV detects Maigret revival

UK commercial broadcaster ITV is bringing back fictional Parisian detective Jules Maigret for two TV movies, with Mr Bean star Rowan Atkinson lined up to played the lead role.

The Blackadder actor, who has concentrated on theatrical movies for the past two decades, will return to television for 2×120’ films, to be produced by Ealing Studios and Maigret Productions, a Peter Fraser Dunlop Group company.

Set in the 1950s in Paris, the first of the dramas, Maigret Sets a Trap, will go into production in September. They were commissioned by ITV’s director of drama Steve November and controller of drama Victoria Fea.

Maigret Sets a Trap is adapted from Belgian author Georges Simenon’s novel Maigret tend un piège. The second film, Maigret’s Dead Man, is based on Maigret et son mort.

Maigret will be written by Stewart Harcourt (Love & Marriage), while the exec producers are Barnaby Thompson (Easy Virtue, Dorian Gray, St Trinians) and Ben Latham-Jones (Nina, D Train, Midsummer Nights Dream) for Ealing Studios; John Simenon for Maigret Productions; and Stewart Harcourt. Jeremy Gwilt (Foyle’s War, Torn, Home Fires) will produce the drama.

BBC Worldwide is the international partner for Maigret and the BBC’s commercial arm will oversee the global rights to the series in all territories outside the UK.

Harry Potter actor Sir Michael Gambon first took on the role of pipe-smoking policeman Maigret for ITV in the 1990s.

Simenon wrote 75 Maigret novels and the character first appear in print in 1931.