Maigret's The White Hat with an introduction from Barry Forshaw
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ต.ค. 2021
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Barry Forshaw, author of Crime Fiction: A Reader’s Guide and a forthcoming study of Georges Simenon, provides an introduction to the BBC series of Maigret, before a free episode of the award-winning series, The White Hat.
The White Hat:
Maigret comes into conflict with a defence lawyer intent on scoring points in the media at the police's expense. Mme Maigret has her own problems when she looks after a baby abandoned in a public park.
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At home, Black and White TV is on, it’s BBC and 8 o’clock. The haunting theme starts with Rupert Davies is lighting his pipe. Settling in for another Maigret story. Very defiantly “The good old days”.
Well said@sydmccreath4554
"Perhaps you ought to consult yourself over your defense." That left a mark! 😆
Madame Maigret really loved her husband. That is depicted in every episode in which she appears. ❤️
Madame Maigret cooked chicken for her husband. She was terribly middle class in an English way.
And in the books its obvious he loved and valued her as well.
Rarely - if ever - has an entire 1960s BBC TV series been found and returned to the BBC archive. It's a miracle! Welcome back "Maigret!"
A miracle indeed!!
Well, there was a 1959 pilot episode apparently that is now lost, but the core series of 52 episodes is preserved. That, for a BBC series is still utterly incredible.
@@PitchSkullBlack - True, although I'm not all that bothered about the missing pilot - it doesn't have Rupert Davies!
Greed, unfair,unforgivable
I miss them so much 😢😢
One of Simenon´s features that always draw my attention was that his characters were not only well developed as to their motivations and ambition, but that they were also very well inserted in the social context. The crime being only the bait used to draw the observer´s attention into the complex fabric of human destinies. A new Balzac!
Very well said. And the second "bait" was an Inspector Maigret (as Simenon repeatedly said to RUPERT DAVIES: "you do not only play Maigret, you ARE Maigret", which speaks for itself), who would lead the path to what Simenon wanted to draw his readers' and viewers' attention to: the complex fabric of human destinies. Whenever film producers (or directors) came to choose an actor for the role of Maigret who used to kind of 'dominate' the film set and to play his role as leading personality, the whole project was doomed to failure. There were lots of 'movie icons' who just ruined everything pure and simple: Jean Gabin played Jean Gabin (three movies) and that was it. Humourless Jean Richard in his own TV series didn't do any better. Maigret's sense of humour is a literary means applied by Simenon to let co-actors and colleagues "breathe" and develop their share of personality in the whole plot. On the other hand, Forshaw mentions the "Mr. Bean" - Maigret series, where we have a "Maigret" that sadly walks right into all traps you could possibly think of. I can't remember one second in that unfortunate series when the egocentric "Mr Bean" (Rowan Atkinson I guess was too much attached to the role of his former great success) actually DID get anything right without turning even the smallest cut into a disaster. Thank God it's vanished from TV screens now. Long live RUPERT DAVIES in the role of Maigret. He is immortal.
So, Rupert Davies the incomparable Maigret without serious competitors? Not quite, I'd say. Let me put it that way: supporters of Simenon and his 'Balzac' style will also remember Gino Cervi in the 1960's successful Italian version of Maigret, a true Maigret miles away from his great appearance as Peppone in 'Don Camillo and Peppone'. Rupert Davies couldn't put him to shade.
@@monoecumsemper
Gratias ago pro verbis tuae!
So true about that second bait I dare to call it Maigret the catalyst.
It is a pity and a shame to think that the only way so many people could have theirs history told aright - bits and pieces glued togheter in the whole of a picture - is to have Inspector Maigret on theirs tail.
He is secular, not religious; relentless as a inquisitor, but not as cold and cruel; and even if he cannot possibly impose absolution of sins upon confession, he never takes anyone´s hope away. Gosh, I feel we sorely need more of those guys these days.
Now it is my turn: I feel myself quite embarassed in having to confess that I hardly saw another cinematographical Maigret but that of Bruno Cremmer´s french acting subtitled into broken portuguese I happened to have bought a couple of years ago.
Best wishes!
Very well sad
Fabulous! I adore Rupert Davies in the role. I don’t know if I can bring myself to watch any other actors in the part, he is just SO perfect!
I found Rowan Atkinson surprisingly good and very convincing. Try his potrayal
I too watched the Maigret series with my parents back in the early 60s. While Michael Gambon and others played the character well, Rupert Davies set the Bar.
An excellent sample episode of a much loved series. Barry Forshaw doesn't mention this here, but owing to time pressures Rupert Davies couldn't do the reading he would have normally done to play the character, so visited Simenon in France. Simenon is reported to have been impressed by the casting and right away said: "Maigret - c'est Maigret!"
Congratulations on your command of French.
Damned doctor didn’t even check for a pulse before pulling the sheet over the dying man.
It's not real sir, just television, we all know that he's still alive.
I am only 62 but I remember watching Maigret during the 1960's as it had been picked up by the publicly owned TV network here in Australia. I loved it.
Ewen Solon who played one of the team was a NZ actor, Ron Grainer, an Australian, wrote the theme music
I remember watching this series as a kid. It brings back so many memories. Also I think watching it now that I'm older the context in which I see it is so much better
I liked the Bruno Cremer series (in French, I needed subtitles but it made a difference) because he was the only actor I've seen who expressed the physical size that was described in the books, and the way he could use that size occasionally to intimidate witnesses or criminals. He also mastered the phlegmatic, philosophical approach that was Maigret's habit, the still point in the storm.
The Italian actor Gino Servi was, as I recall, even larger
@@ausbrum Cervi
I agree
Loved Cremer too.
Jean Richard for TV and Jean Gabin for cinema were great in the part too.
I remember with great affection watching on BBC TV this series with Rupert Davies, now knowing that once again I am able to view Maigret, just WONDERFUL.
Snap!
Amen to that. It was a weekly viewing highlight in the mid sixties.
takes me back some 50 years when all episodes where broadcasted on German TV (ARD). those were peaceful evenings when my father and I perfectly agreed: very well played!
@Syd McCreath 'The Avengers' liebe ich heute noch, besonders Emma Peel! Mein Vater konnte mit dem engl. Humor nichts anfangen.
Superb Rupert Davies and the wonderful Luca!! Great plots--Those perfect French pronunciations...what a series!!!!
I grew up with Maigret in the UK when I was a kid. Probably the sort of TV that mum and dad could let their little lad watch with them. I wonder what time it went out in the evening?
Many years later the theme tune was going round my head and an inspector calls was born. Are you a detective? Remember you never read this🤫 Thanks for the introduction Barry, very enlightening 👍
Barry is a gem
Hmm. My parents didn’t allow my older brother and me to watch these shows… we were packed off to bed… of course we would creep downstairs and here the music which we found enchantingly mysterious.
What's missing from Forshaw's analysis here is just how flexible Maigret books are in terms of subject matter, subgenre, and character focus. Sometimes Maigret is an enigmatic calculating machine - at other times he's someone who rights wrongs and keeps people trapped in horrible circumstances from being destroyed. Some novels are whodunits complete with rich snobs in parlour rooms - others are gritty crime fiction. Maigret covers everything from innocuous disappearances to gory serial killings. I would say that was Simenon's genius. He didn't allow his character or his style to get stuck in a rut.
I have read a lot of Maigret and never realized this point, even though it’s exactly why I like the books. I’d add that this approach also allows him (us) to explore more people and places, which also keeps it interesting. Thanks!
It keeps from becoming a television serial format by changing up so that one never knows what to expect!
Loved this! In 1962, Rupert Davies was 46. An inveterate pipe smoker, he died of cancer at only 60. In 1963, my French teacher told me he'd met Davies in a cross-Channel ferry bar. Both were well oiled (those crossings being _incredibly_ tedious) and the actor was merrily reminiscing about his career. As for Simenon, much modern French writing is liberally sprinkled with modernisms and argot, so comprehensibility is strained. Simenon's works, by contrast, are a refreshingly easy read for any older reader proficient in 'standard' French.
His appearance towards the end of his life suggested that he may have had alcohol dependency issues, which is sad.
He was made for this role, and he lent Maigret a patient humanity that was largely missing in the performances of both Atkinson and Gambon, as good as they were.
Why did people of that era always look 10+ years older than they really were?
@@sandraelder1101 Or maybe they had it right, and it's simply that we look ten years _younger_ than we are? Fashions that oldsters like me wear today, such as T-shirts and jeans, would pretty much have been the preserve of the young in the sixties. When you got older, you were supposed to look the part. Now, we desperately hang on to any vestige we can of what Shakespeare called our 'lusty days', even if our aches and pains remind us that, sadly, we're just kidding ourselves.
@@sandraelder1101 as I have read elsewhere: RDavies for e.g. had a few years in a POW/ war-prisioner-camp. When this series was filmed, WW II had ended less than 15 yrs earlier. - The harrowing war-time experience and hardships can be attributed to a more mature/worn demeanour. Deprivations leave their traces in faces & bodies. Plus: People wore 'grown up' clothing, instead of the current inistance of wearing 'short trousers' fore-evahh ...no matter what. Adding to a more age-appropriate look.
Saluti -
I LOVED Rupert Davis.. I loved George Simenon’s Maigret books. Thank you so much for this, so interesting.
Rupert Davis will for me always be the iconic Maigert. The moment when he strikes the match on the wall to light his pipe just as the intro music pauses , just magic. Thank you for posting. Any chance of another?
I can never get enough of maigret..
I watched Rupert Davis as Maigret growing up in Ireland. It was a great series.
Me too in dublin
@@jamessmith530 glad to hear it. I was all the way up North, in Derry.
Thank you for this. Recovering from an accident, slept all day so up all night ! I've just found this; the iconic striking of the match on the wall I remember along with everyone else. Marvellous find - thank you so much for posting this, I can fill my wakeful night with delight.
And with any luck, gentle sleep will soon follow.
@@Sootaroot Thank you for your kimndness. I did. Thank you so much. ❤️😘
Brilliant. I've spent years looking for these videos and did manage to buy a few dvd's last year, but this is great.
It's timelessly reassuring whilst traveling in France a couple of years ago to hear the same police bells ringing as the gendarms race slowly past you in their important haste.
Thank you for your introduction Barry. Interesting. I remember watching when I was 5 in 1962. The striking match, pipe and music was mesmerising. And I love all TV Maigret series.
5 was very young to be watching murders. 😱
I was 4 in 1962 and though I don't remember the stories themselves I have a vivid memory of Rupert Davis striking the match on the wall.
@@ellenthorne8222 It was the highlight of Monday night viewing.
They always lost me after the striking match. I kept waiting for this Margaret character to turn up whose name they did not spell properly.
@@Sootaroot😂😂, I must admit I have to hear names several times or more because how the names are pronounced but spelled differently
This is pure delight! Please give us more.
I also watched these at the age of 10, probably not advisable, but in those day... I have recently purchased the entire set. LOVE THEM> I only had to wait 61 years. Thank you Network
Big smile! 😊
😀
I was six and I only saw the start. It was my bedtime. Now, I can watch them. 😀
with sadly no original copy surviving, the complete series of 52 early copies have been rescued from being lost for ever...: to put the crucial question, are you happy about the quality of the set they released on bluray?? If you ask me, network didn't exactly overspend on top quality digital remastering, which, as needs to be said to their credit, they frankly admit in the accompanying book....
Nice commentary from Barry Forshaw. Good to see this series of Maigret available again.
I fell in love with Maigret watching Bruno Cremer series. Then Rupert Davies. They are both so good. I grew up watching it since I was very young and he is too this day my favourite detective and his books my favourite books to go back to.
This is a treasure and a balm - what a pleasure - thank you.
Omg, Simenons book, Stain in the Snow was soo deep it still stays with me 30 yrs later!
I have several Maigret books, mostly in French, quite a few in English, the original Penguin paperbacks with photos from the tv series on the cover and a copy of L'Affaire Saint-Fiacre in Welsh. In a biography of Simenon i read that Rupert Davies had met him and he thought Davies' portrayal of Maigret was one of the best. Rupert Davies also played George Smiley in the Spy who came in from the cold. Also have a lot of Bruno Cremer without subtitles. This release has been a longtime coming!
Off to look for Welsh versions. Diolch.
How wonderful ! I recently was able to pick up a volume in french to assist me in learning the language. If you ever tire of storing yours, let me know...I'm jealous !
(Only 20 years to master the language, before I'm dead!)
Great introduction. I am from the Gambon era but I really enjoyed this. Remember reading the book. Thank you.
And Rowan Atkinson is so good at the portrayal of the French detective. I was surprised as to how good he played the character.
I loved it and so wanted more episodes!
Yes. I didn’t like him but when I saw him portray Maigret my opinion changed. He was great.
I agree. It was an original take and had powerful storylines. The series suffered from people who couldn't unsee Atkinson as Blackadder and Mr Bean.
@@fredneecher1746 Mr. Bean absolutely DREADFUL.
I liked him in Black Adder. He was at his best then He later had a police officer roleI think if memory serves me at all, it was called The Thin Blue Line. But I could be wrong. After I watched a few episodes I lost my desire to watch him in anything more.
05:38 - Bruno Jean Marie Cremer (6 OCT 1929 - 7 AUG 2010) French actor best known for portraying Jules Maigret on French TV, from 1991 to 2005.
Thank you for your splendid introduction! It informed my viewing and enhanced my pleasure without giving anything away. Thoroughly enjoyable!
I totally agree. Great job.
@@john-paulderosa7217 I usually find introductions tacked onto uploads tiresome. Not this time! The info added by Barry Forshaw is so interesting!
Great to watch Maigret after SO long. Thanks.
At last the Rupert Davies Maigret series ,been waiting years (I even signed a petition to get them released) Brilliant !
Why did the BBC never repeat them?
@@Sootaroot I don't know why they were never repeated the B.B.C wouldn't say.
@@Sootaroot Possibly copyright problems. Additionally, I have just found this on the Wikipedia note on the series: Simenon's wife, who managed his affairs, had put into the BBC contract that the series could only be shown once and the films must then be destroyed. Simenon was aghast when he heard of this but it was too late to change the contract. The series was long considered lost, although the British Film Institute held copies, and a few individual episodes have circulated on DVD.
@@BackwardFinesse I heard something around this but Simenon himself was very shrewd, I'd assumed it was he who'd played for further royalties off additional screenings, I never heard that they were supposed to be destroyed, indeed its obvious they weren't because they were sold to Germany and shown in other commonwealth countries, and weren't 4 repeated specially on the Beeb as well?
Well done!
I have a full set of these novels in French. I also have all the books translated into English. I love Maigret stories. I also like Simenon's novels.
the audio books/dramas are pretty good too
Apparently when Simenon saw Rupert Davies he exclaimed "he is Maigret". The 3, Maigret, Lucas and Lapointe were wonderful
Wonderful! thanks for sharing this!!!
Thanks for posting this. Love it.
i only first discovered Maigret with Michael Gambon who was wonderful and I love that series ... liked the Rowan's versions too but just now discovering these with Rupert Davies and also Jean Gabin ... finally read The Toy Village ... wonderful
Great Introduction by Barry, as a student of tv history I learn few things. The sample episode bring back memories I can't wait watch the deluxe series that I brought .
Very enthralling. Like the actress who plays the inspector's wife. She's a good actress.
Helene Shinger
Wonderful news!!! I love Maigret and loved the Rupert Davies series as a kid.
THANK YOU, MANY MORE PLEASE!
Seen most of actors playing Maigret but for me definitely best Michael Gambon, just as I imagine him. Got most of DVDs , French & British , will buy Davis’s too.
Yes Gambon's portrayal puts across Maigret's humanity.
I’m an American old enough to remember the 1960’s very well I had never heard of Maigret till I happened upon this series and there very enjoyable and very well acted Rupert Davies plays the part so well, Maigrets wife and Maigrets chief assistant are very well played also, really enjoyed the programs these episodes disappeared from TH-cam a few days ago, must have been a copyright infringement or something this is the only one that’s available with Rupert Davies now, too bad
Thank you so much for uploading this video. It is helping me get through the pandemic!
You're welcome Roger, glad to hear that you enjoyed it
I have so enjoyed all his books & tv 👏👏👏
So good, thank you.
Great ! Thank you
This is wonderful.
Rupert Davies did an excellent job of portraying the detective. I have watched most of the episodes that I found on a TH-cam channel that is no longer. through season 3 I wish I knew how to watch more.
Likewise.However, if you are patient enough join Talking Pictures, it's free and the Rupert Davies episodes currently appear on Saturday evenings at 8 O'clock. There are also a number of back editions on 'encore' on the same channel.
When I was a kid I watched every episode of this bar one - we fell asleep halfway through that one for some strange reason.😁
I'm a fan of Morse with John Thaw and remember as young person watching Rupert Davis and later Micheal Gambon.. my mum was a great fan of Rupert Davis....a much underrated actor I believe...
What an exemplary introduction!
❤Thank you always, Barry Forshaw muchly much..
Hope they will also release a Maigret Jean Gabin set..
Thank you
I first learned of Maigret by watching the Rowan Atkinson movies which I thoroughly enjoyed. I'm looking forward to seeing the original versions now. Thank you for the introduction to this
please check the Bruno Cremer version too!
For me, Rowan Atkinson is too dark. Michael Gambon is better but Rupert Davies takes the gold medal.
absolutely fabulous thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it
Thanks Barry.I love Maigret
Here is a wonderful example really effective, delightfully storytelling, wonderfully acted.
I love subtitles. Don’t be afraid to read. ( or should I say lazy ) It’s wonderful seeing these old films in black and white and France post world war 2. I enjoy foreign films from many countries. Just because you don’t speak the language, does not mean you can’t enjoy their art.
I'm half a century too young to have seen Rupert Davies at the time, but now he's the Maigret I picture when I read the books.
Oh, that was great, thanks!
This was great!
Whenever I'd open another Simenon novel of his detective Maigret I'd feel like I was traveling to France to Paris or whatever part of the country the writer was taking me. Very exciting!
Thanks, very good Maigret!
I used to watch the original series when I was a young lad. Rupert Davies was very good in the role; but Michael Gambon, brilliant actor that he is, was simply superb in the 1992 - 93 series - he really was Maigret. Rowan Atkinson's portrayal was pretty good, but certainly overshadowed by Michael Gambon.
Gambon is Maigret for me & I saw them all
I'm always shocked whwn people talk about Maigret TV series and don't even mention Bruno Cremer. He puts everyone else who's ever played Maigret firmly in second place or worse. Even without Cremer, Gambon is terrible. He plays Maigret as a buffoon. If you've ever read Simenon, there was one thing that Maigret never was- a buffoon.
@@swerne01 interesting take on it, I took it that what he did was give a great impression of someone who isn't thinking very deeply on the surface - perhaps portraying himself like that to put others off guard. As a young teen it was my introduction to Simenon and I eagerly awaited it each week.
@@mattgibbs73 That's interesting also. I'm curious to know if you've ever read any of the original Simenon stories
@@swerne01 certainly, since then I've acquired all the green Maigret penguins, plus a lot of the crine noir novels, 60 odd of the new translations and around 60 odd first editions. I particularly like The Stain on the Snow and Cecile is Dead amongst many others. Cheers 😉
My favourite is Michael Gambon....Nevertheless I enjoy it this a lot....please more films about Jules Maigret.....thanks....
I liked Michael Gambon too. I also love the audio books read by Gareth Armstrong.
@@jenniferpierno6108 : Greetings from Bucharest....Still, I prefer the movie instead of audiobook....☺👍👏
Did you see Michael Gambon in The Singing Detective? It was wonderful.
I remember watching this on an old 405 line TV and occasionally having to hold the "Rabbit Ears" aerial in a strange position
Those happy days when there was only 405 line tv and one channel.
I was glad that in his summary of Maigret productions, Barry Forshaw included the 1988 tv movie portrayal by Richard Harris, which is not referred to in the comments here. It was not well received at the time, because inevitable comparisons were made with the Rupert Davies version which was then only two decades earlier, and a stand-alone story always has a tough challenge compared to a series in which Richard Harris could have developed the character. Think of the role Telly Savalas played in The Marcus-Nelson Murders. His detective was not that memorable, but it was given enough of a chance to be expanded into a series, and Kojak became part of tv tec history.
Brilliant, thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Most enjoyable cheers 👍
Michael Gambon's Maigret was the absolute best for me.
Maigret was a Family favourite shown at 20:00 on Mondays I believe, it seemed so French,, Rupert Davis provided the best Portrayal of the Character, imagine our disappointment when the Series finished and was replaced by Perry Mason. Thank you for sharing.
I was always fascinated by Lucas's hat. I don't think I've ever seen anyone else wear a hat quite like that. :-)))
Marvelous series. Someone must post it all on TH-cam. What are you waiting fot?
Thank you 🤩🤩💖
You’re welcome 😊
The nifty script adaptation praised in the intro was by Roger Burford, who became the series's main writer. He was a friend of Christopher Isherwood and founded the Kinema Club at Cambridge University, which led to both men becoming screenwriters. Isherwood's memoir 'Lions and Shadows' calls him Roger East, which he adopted as his nom de plume.
'The White Hat' was directed by Gerry Glaister, who went on to create and produce popular middlebrow BBC series such as 'The Brothers' and 'Howards Way'.
There was also " Le Gentleman Cambrioleur " de Aresene Lupin . Also borrowed in Father Brown
The fabled old classics Superman & Halloween II are on the bookshelf.
Also, to be added, Simenon's Maigret laconic novels gave rise to the 40's American Film Noir and then in turn to French's own great Film Noir which paid homage to the American model, very much like the Spaghetti Westerns.
Hammett, Cain, Chandler.
@@Cryptonymicus And many other just as great so-called pulp fiction writers, most of whom survived on pennies per written page.
the role he will forever be associated with, i believe there was a one off theatre 625 version where he reprises the role in colour on BBC2 in 1968, i'd loved to have seen that, sadly like most early colour recordings it is missing presumed wiped, probably for pot black or the horse of the year show.
Loved these versions…….
All of the regulars are excellent. The witticsms are frosting
I enjoyed this episode.
This episode was first broadcast by the BBC, Jan. 8, 1962. It begins at (10:53), it you want to skip the introduction.
Thank you!!
@@Mutasis_Mutandis My pleasure! Kind regards!
Love love love it
Superb.
Splendid news! I was allowed to stay up late to watch Maigret. I thought that most of the recordings had been wiped - why on earth has the BBC sat on the recordings in their archives for so long?
jThere are two great Maigret adaptations available online or in DVDs from the 1990s, the British version done by Granada for two seasons in 1992, starring Michael Gambon, and the Dune French version that lasted from 1991 until 2005 with Bruno Cremer.
I’m watching this on Sky at the moment. The entire 60’s series is being played.
How are you finding it?
@@NetworkDistributing it’s Sky channel 328
@@NetworkDistributing it’s excellent quality too and has subtitles
The episode with Edna Petrie fascinates me, and I cannot help but conceive the world missed out on a vastly interesting set of play-works by not using Ms. Petrie more than I am aware.
Agreed
I really enjoyed Rowan Atkins has Maigret. Especially how Rowan Atkins portrayed Maigret as a quite and thoughtful character. I think Mr Atkins played the character better and the supporting actors did exceptionally well in adding to the flavour. Yes I have seen these versions featured and read some of the books.
Unfortunately Rowan Atkins never got his career back on track after people kept confusing him with that gormless fellow who played Mister Bean.
woww more please
Actually happened to me, had to do a roof repair a car was parked where we needed access knocked on door woman with a baby in a white shawl said certainly could I hold the baby :only a couple of months old ; while she moved the car. Down the road she drove I thought she'd turn ,no ,she carried on out of sight 5 minutes, 10 minutes, started to wonder , finally she returned and thanked me as she had nipped to the shops for baby food as her husband had forgotten and gone to work.
What a liberty. I would like to be the first to say you were left holding the baby, but I bet I'm not.
wonderful intro