• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, October 6, 2025

The original Jules Maigret, detective for the French police based in Paris, was described by his creator, author Georges Simenon, as “a large, powerfully built gentleman [with] a pipe, a bowler hat [and] a thick overcoat.”

In a new six-part Maigret series that premiered Sunday night on “PBS Masterpiece,” Maigret (pronounced MAY-gray), possesses none of these accoutrements.

Instead, the new Maigret (played by Benjamin Wainwright, photo above) is lean and tousle-haired, handsome, faithful, vulnerable and intense.

He investigates crimes in his own way, at his own pace -- regardless of constant hectoring from above. 

In this show, it is a chief prosecutor (Nathalie Armin) who nags him every chance she gets, although no reason is provided in Episode 1 for her obsession with him.

In fact, as the series -- titled simply “Maigret” -- gets underway, Maigret has just been elevated to the rank of chief inspector (up from just plain inspector) and yet she still rides him mercilessly like he’s a hapless rookie.

Suffice it to say that the new Maigret is unlike any of the Maigrets that have come before him -- including his many TV incarnations in which he was portrayed by the likes of Rupert Davies, Michael Gambon, Richard Harris and, most recently, Rowan Atkinson.

These were, of course, all in English, despite the fact that Maigret is French. Like the shows that preceded it, the new “Maigret” takes place in and around Paris (although filming was done in Budapest).

The fact that the new series is set in the present day allows the “Masterpiece” press material to position the show as “the first contemporary television adaptation of Georges Simenon’s beloved novels.”

This may or may not be a good thing. The Maigret character was introduced in 1931 by the Belgian-born Simenon, who eventually wrote a total of 75 Maigret novels and 28 short stories featuring the French detective up until 1972. 

The novels are said to have sold copies in the hundreds of millions worldwide over many decades, and they are still in print.

That means millions around the globe are familiar with the character and have likely formed a mental picture of him that is quite different from the way he is portrayed in the new series.

To them, Maigret is a French investigator from an era other than the present one. And perhaps that is where he should stay whenever his adventures are adapted for television.

In the new show, there is nothing in particular about this modern-day Maigret that marks him as French at all. 

Like every other character in the show, Maigret comes across as a Brit who, for some inexplicable reason, ended up being a cop in France.

If “Maigret” had been set in some earlier time, it would have made for a much more attractive show. 

In its contemporary setting, it plays like all of the other proficiently-produced police procedurals that are plentiful all over -- especially in the U.S. and Britain.

The six-episode “Maigret” is divided into three, two-part stories. Part One of the first -- titled “The Lazy Burglar” -- aired Sunday. Part Two airs next Sunday on PBS.