The moment Simenon saw me he shouted: " C'est Maigret, c'est Maigret. You are the flesh and bones of Maigret!" Davies later remembered. "That was a wonderful beginning. Then he drove us to his lovely château in the village of Échandens, where I met his wife. Later he began to coach me in Maigret's idiosyncrasies." [4] Unlike most BBC series produced in the 1960s, all episodes (bar the pilot) have survived intact, and are available as a complete set on DVD and Blu-ray. Episodes included such well-known faces as Stratford Johns, Leon Cortez, Terence Alexander, Roger Delgado, William Franklyn, Michael Goodliffe, and Barry Foster, among others. [2] The choice of Davies to play Maigret was enthusiastically approved by Simenon himself. Remembering the role in a 1964 interview Davies said "When Andrew Osborn, the producer of the show, offered me the part on Good Friday in 1960, I knew very little about Maigret. I knew he was a famous French fictional detective, but that was all." Rather than read the books to get the feel for the character, Davies thought it would be better to meet Maigret's creator and hear from him how he saw the character. The BBC agreed and a meeting was arranged between Davies and Simenon in Lausanne. [4]

Then it is revealed that Gilbert Négrel had apparently been having an affair with Jave's wife, although he had a fiancée, Martine Chapuis, whose father, Noël Chapuis, the barrister, took over Négrel's defense.Chapuis went down to Concarneau, where Éveline was from, and discovered that her past included a history of affairs. M keeps his promise to avoid the Quai, but occasionally sends an anonymous note to Janvier, or makes an anonymous call to a reporter. In the end, his realization of Philippe Jave's awareness of his wife's secret trip to Paris provides him the clue, and he transmits it again to Janvier, who wraps up the case. Jave had been in the house when his wife arranged to meet Négrel, who had kept his office hours, but gone home early after the confrontation with her. Jave had killed her with an injection, then stripped her to make it seem she'd met her lover. Directing was similarly shared by sixteen directors, with Gerard Glaister and Terence Williams responsible for eight each, Andrew Osborn seven, and Eric Tayler six. [2]

Maigret’s talent in solving crimes is his ability to read people and understand why they do what they do. He had seldom been so perplexed by human beings. Would a psychiatrist, a teacher or a novelist...have been better placed to understand characters who had suddenly materialized from another century?'

Previously released in English as Maigret’s Little Joke and None of Maigret’s Business, this 47th novel in the Chief Inspector Maigret series reminds me of a short story in Agatha Christie’s Poirot Investigates called “The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim.” In that tale, the conceited Hercule Poirot bets Detective Chief Inspector David Japp that Poirot can solve a crime without leaving his flat.

This is a joy to read. Simenon paints a vivid picture of Paris as Maigret wanders the streets his wife in tow, stopping at cafe’s and bistro’s to peruse the papers for scraps of evidence to solve the murder. Although staying largely true to the storyline of the books, the series featured only three of Maigret's team of detectives (the "faithful four" [3]), omitting any casting for Janvier, although the character is mentioned in several episodes. I need to read this in French. The edition I read was translated by one Dennis Brain, and I'm afraid he could have done with an independent and bilingual proofreader. He fell victim to the translator's pitfall of producing a very literal translation that reads like an unpolished rough draft. If you run your hand over it you can feel the original French underneath; clunky syntax and phrases that sound unnatural in English--because they are. I'm a translator myself, I recognise the problem. Fortunately when I was working at the job I had a skilled bilingual proofreader to hand who enjoyed the work. Brain apparently did not, and more's the pity. With a little proofreading and tightening, it could have been a very enjoyable read.