First Look: Maigret in Montmartre

Inspector Jules Maigret returns to our screens this Christmas Eve in Maigret in Montmartre as Rowan Atkinson takes up the iconic pipe once again.

Set against the beautiful backdrop of 1950s Paris, this instalment is based on Georges Simenon’s brilliant novel Maigret at Picratt’s and follows the detective as he investigates the random murders of a countess and a showgirl, discovering a dark secret that links their past lives at the Grand Hotel in Nice.

Arlette, a beguiling showgirl from a seedy club in Montmartre, arrives at the Quai des Orfevres late one night drunk and claiming she has overheard two men discussing the murder of a Countess whilst she was performing. During initial questioning, Arlette is prickly and then overcome with tiredness and she insists on lying down to sleep. Left alone, sometime later she suddenly wakes terrified and screaming the name “Oscar”. As Maigret tries to dig a little deeper asking if Oscar is one of the men intending to kill. But Arlette becomes increasingly defensive and rushes from the building.

The next morning news arrives that Arlette has been found murdered in her apartment. The investigation leads Jules Maigret into a seedy world of lowlifes and fading high society.

Maigret in Montmartre will see the return of Lucy Cohu as Madame Maigret, with further cast including Shaun Dingwall as Inspector Janvier, Leo Starr as Inspector LaPointe, Nicola Sloane as the countess, Olivia Vinall as Arlette, Mark Heap as Doctor Moers, Lorraine Ashbourne as Rosa Alfonsi, Douglas Hodge as Fred Alfonsi and Sebastian De Souza as Philippe Martinot.

The executive producers are Barnaby Thompson (Easy Virtue, Dorian Gray, St Trinians) for Thompson & Thompson Ltd, John Simenon for Georges Simenon Limited, Stewart Harcourt and Jeremy Gwilt (Undeniable, Foyle’s War, Torn, Home Fires) who produced the first two Maigret films – Maigret Sets a Trap and Maigret’s Dead Man. Jeremy Gwilt has also produced the new film.