Jules Maigret (), or simply Maigret, is a fictional French police detective created by writer Georges Simenon. He is divisional commissaire ("Chief Inspector") of the criminal brigade of the judicial police, based at 36, Quai des Orfèvres, Paris.The character's full name is Jules Amédée François Maigret.

Between 1930 and 1972, 75 novels and 28 short stories about Maigret were published, starting with Pietr-le-Letton (Pietr the Latvian) and concluding with Maigret et Monsieur Charles (Maigret and Monsieur Charles). The novels and stories have been translated into more than 50 languages.

The Maigret stories have also received numerous film, television, and radio adaptations. Penguin Books published new translations of 75 books in the series over as many months from November 2013.

Character

Creation

In the spring of 1929, Simenon set off for a tour of northern France, Belgium and Holland in his boat, the Ostrogoth. He had begun contributing detective stories to a new magazine called Détective and also published popular novels, mainly with the publisher Fayard.

During his northern tour, Simenon wrote three popular novels which featured a police inspector named Maigret: Train de nuit (Night Train), La femme rousse (The Red-Headed Woman) and La maison de l'inquiétude (The House of Anxiety). He began working on Train de nuit, or possibly Pietr-le-Letton (Pietr the Latvian), in September 1929 when the Ostrogoth was undergoing repairs in the Dutch city of Delfzijl.

On his return to Paris in April 1930, Simenon completed Pietr-le-Letton, the first novel in which inspector Maigret of the Paris mobile crime brigade was a fully developed character. The novel was serialised in Fayard's magazine Ric et Rac later that year. Simenon considered this the first "true" Maigret novel, and it was the first fictional work to appear under Simenon's real name.

Simenon stated that he invented Maigret while drinking in a cafe and imagining a Parisian policeman: "a large powerfully built gentleman...a pipe, a bowler hat, a thick overcoat." Maigret was reputed to be based on Marcel Guillaume, an actual French detective, although Simenon variously claimed not to remember the inspiration or that Maigret was influenced by his father.

Biographers Thomas Narcejac and Fenton Bresler both see Simenon himself in his creation.

Description and biography

Maigret is tall and heavy, with broad shoulders, large hands, a thick face, thick hair, thick eyebrows and bright eyes of a "greenish gray" colour. He has strongly growing facial hair and therefore shaves every morning. Outdoors, he usually wears a thick black overcoat. In the 1930s, he wears a bowler hat, but from the 1940s he wears a fedora. He frequently smokes a tobacco pipe.

He is happily married to his wife Louise (usually referred to as Madame Maigret). He doesn't like his first name being used and prefers to be called "Maigret". Even his wife usually calls him "Maigret", only using his first name a handful of times.

He is Divisional Chief Inspector of the criminal brigade of the judicial police, based at 36, Quai des Orfèvres, Paris. At work, he is aided by "The Faithful Four": detectives Lucas, Janvier, Lapointe, and Torrence. Other prominent characters include police surgeon Dr. Paul; Judge Coméliau, the Examining Magistrate who alternates between being a help and a hindrance to Maigret; Joseph Moers, a forensic specialist; and Dr. Pardon, Maigret's close friend and physician.

In most novels, Maigret is aged around 45 to 55 years. There are contradictory clues to his year of birth. In Monsieur Gallet, décédé, which takes place in 1930, Maigret is described as 45, indicating 1885 as his year of birth. In another novel, La première enquete de Maigret, where the investigation takes place in 1913, the author states that Maigret is 26, which establish his year of birth as 1887. In the 1932 novel L'affaire Saint-Fiacre, Maigret is 42, which would mean he was born in 1890, assuming he is contemporary to the year the novel was written.

Maigret is from the fictional village of Saint-Fiacre in the Allier department, where his father, Evariste Maigret, was the bailiff for the local landowner. Maigret's mother died in childbirth when he was eight. He studied medicine at Nantes, but dropped out when his father died. He began working as a police officer in Paris in his twenties. At the age of 30, he entered the Homicide Squad and became chief inspector of the squad in his late thirties. He probably retired at the age of 55, giving him over 30 year police experience.

Personality and work method

Maigret can be gruff, but is otherwise patient and unflappable. He has an appreciation of food, especially traditional French dishes and his wife's cooking. His most frequently consumed drinks are beer, white wine and cognac.

He is relentless in his pursuit of criminals. He often follows them himself and isn't averse to breaking into properties without a warrant if necessary. He is famous for his long interrogations of suspects, sustaining himself with beer and sandwiches until the suspect reveals the truth. He is humane and often sympathetic towards the criminals he investigates, seeking to understand them rather than judge them. He fires his gun only four times in his career, twice wounding a criminal in self-defence.

His method is to immerse himself in the life and milieu of the victim in order to discover why the crime was committed and, eventually, who committed it. He relies more on intuition than logical deduction and sometimes tells his colleagues, "I never think." He aspires to be a "mender of destinies". After learning a criminal's story, he sometimes lets them go or reduces the charges against them.

List of Works

Novels

List of Maigret novels with date of French-language publication as well as the Penguin reissue dates and titles.

Short stories

List of Maigret short stories by date of first publication in French.

In other media

Audiobooks

Following the Penguin reissue of the 75 novels, actor Gareth Armstrong started recording each for Audible. Recordings took one day per book. By September 2015, he had recorded 25 of them. He has since completed all 75 recordings.

Theatre

A production called Maigret and the Lady by Philip Mackie toured in England and Scotland in 1965, before playing at the Strand Theatre in London in October 1965. Madame Maigret was played by Charmian Eyre, and Maigret was Rupert Davies.

Film

The cinematic potential of Maigret was realized quickly: the first screen Maigret was Pierre Renoir in 1932's Night at the Crossroads, directed by his brother Jean Renoir; the same year brought The Yellow Dog with Abel Tarride, and Harry Baur played him in 1933's A Man's Neck, directed by Julien Duvivier.

In 1950, Charles Laughton played the first English-language Maigret in The Man on the Eiffel Tower, adapted from the 1931 novel A Battle of Nerves. The film co-starred Franchot Tone, Burgess Meredith, and Wilfrid Hyde-White. Back in France, Michel Simon played the character in Full House.

Albert Préjean portrayed Maigret in three films: Picpus, Cecile Is Dead, and Majestic Hotel Cellars. A decade later, Jean Gabin played the part in three other films: Maigret Sets a Trap, Maigret et l'Affaire Saint-Fiacre, and Maigret voit rouge. Maurice Manson appeared in Maigret dirige l'enquête (1956), whilst Heinz Rühmann played the lead in a 1966 European international co-production Enter Inspector Maigret.

Gerard Depardieu starred as Maigret in a 2022 French film, entitled Maigret, adapted from Maigret and the Dead Girl.

In 2024, director Pascal Bonitzer announced he would write and direct Maigret and the Dead Lover, starring Denis Podalydès. The film was released in 2026.

Television

There have been numerous incarnations of Maigret on the small screen all around the world. He has been portrayed by French, British, Irish, Austrian, German, Italian, Dutch, Japanese, and Russian actors. A French version, Les Enquêtes du Commissaire Maigret, starred Jean Richard in 88 episodes between 1967 and 1990; however, Simenon himself is said to have disliked Richard's Maigret because he would not take his hat off when entering a room. Later, Bruno Cremer played the character in 54 adaptations between 1991 and 2005.

Romney Brent played Maigret in the Studio One episode "Stan the Killer", whilst Luis van Rooten starred in an episode of Suspense entitled "The Old Lady of Bayeux". Louis Arbessier appeared in a televised film of Liberty Bar. The Italian actor Gino Cervi played the character on Italian television from 1964 up to 1972 in Le inchieste del commissario Maigret; Simenon himself considered Cervi's interpretation of the character to be "very good." This series resulted in 14 novels and 2 short stories being adapted.

In the late 1960s, Simenon's son Marc created a television spinoff entitled Les Dossiers de l'Agence O. Pierre Tornade starred as Maigret's former sidekick Torrence, now working for a private investigation agency. The series featured guest appearances by other characters from the Maigret canon, including inspectors Lucas (Pierre Mondy), and Janvier (Louis Arbessier).

In the Soviet Union, Russian theatre actor Boris Tenin portrayed Maigret in several TV films in the 1970s. In Soviet cinema, apart from Boris Tenin, Maigret was portrayed by cinema actors Vladimir Samoilov and Armen Dzhigarkhanyan.

In Japan, Kinya Aikawa played Megure, a Japanese-born equivalent to the French Maigret, reinvented in a modern Japanese setting, in Tōkyō. Megure Keishi, a 25-episode TV series aired from 14 April to 29 May 1978 on Asahi TV. Megure's wife was played by Sato Tomomi, who earned the praises of Simenon himself: "The best 'Madame Maigret' in my opinion, even including the French ones, was the 'Madame Maigret' on Japanese television. She was exactly right".

Rupert Davies played the title role in the 1960s British Maigret TV series, which debuted on 31 October 1960. Davies took over the part after Basil Sydney, who appeared as Maigret in the original transmitted pilot, proved unavailable owing to ill-health. Davies went on to star in 52 adaptations for BBC TV in that decade. His portrayal won two of the highest accolades: his versions were dubbed into French and played across the Channel; and Simenon himself said of Davies "At last, I have found the perfect Maigret!" The theme tune to the TV series, "Midnight in Montmartre", was composed by Ron Grainer. Kees Brusse and Jan Teulings also portrayed the character in separate Dutch adaptations produced around the same time.

Granada Television produced an adaptation of Maigret for ITV in 1992 and 1993 in which Michael Gambon starred as Maigret; there were 12 adaptations in the two series. An earlier version, Maigret (1988) on ITV cast Richard Harris in the lead role.

In 2004, Sergio Castellitto played Maigret in two Italian TV movies: La trappola ("The Trap") and L'ombra cinese ("The Chinese Shadow").

Rowan Atkinson played Maigret in four television films made by ITV from 2016 to 2017. The first two episodes were adapted from Maigret Sets a Trap and Maigret's Dead Man. Two further episodes were broadcast in 2017, adapted from Maigret at the Crossroads and Maigret in Montmartre.

In 2021, the Simenon estate signed a co-production and licensing deal with Playground Entertainment and Red Arrow Studios to produce a new English-language series, with the option extending to the entire Maigret canon. In September 2024, the cast and crew for the series was announced, led by Benjamin Wainwright as Maigret. The new series first aired in October, 2025.

Radio

Maurice Denham played Chief Inspector Maigret in a series of three-quarter-hour dramatizations of the novels on BBC Radio 4 beginning in 1976, with Michael Gough playing Georges Simenon. The format of each play would begin with Maigret and Simenon sitting together discussing some fact or event which would then lead into Maigret's recounting a particular case, with Simenon asking questions or commenting from time to time. After Denham's death, the series was continued in 2003 with Nicholas Le Prevost playing a gruffer, more earthy Maigret and Julian Barnes playing Simenon.

In the interim, Bernard Hepton starred in a 1986 Saturday Night Theatre adaptation of Maigret's Special Murder, whilst Barry Foster played the detective in 1998's Maigret's Christmas for the Afternoon Play.

In 1990-1991, abridgments of some of the novels (including "Madame Maigret's Case," "Maigret and the Tavern by the Seine," and "Maigret in Montmartre") were serialized in daily one-minute installments on WNCN, a classical music station in New York City. They were read every night at midnight in a radio program called the "H.B.J. Midnight Murder Mystery Minute."

Comics

Jacques Blondeau adapted the novels into the comic series Maigret (1950–53), published in Samedi Soir and Paris Journal. Rumeu (drawings) and Camille Dulac (script) adapted the Maigret story L'Affaire Nahour into the comic strip Maigret in 1969. Between 1992 and 1997 the series Maigret inspired five albums, drawn by and .

Statue

In 1966 a statue of Maigret by Pieter d'Hont was erected in Delfzijl, Netherlands, where Simenon wrote the first Maigret novel. Simenon unveiled it on 3 September 1966 and a number of actors who had portrayed Maigret attended.

Notes

References

Further reading

• Bingemer, Stephan. "Holidays with Inspector Maigret: Mixed Reality Adventures as Value Drivers in Future Tourism." in Science Fiction, Disruption and Tourism (2021).

• Chartrand, Tanya L., and John A. Bargh. "The chameleon effect: the perception–behaviour link and social interaction." Journal of personality and social psychology 76.6 (1999): 893+ online.

External links

• Simenon's Maigret (bibliography, statistics, online texts, links)

• Titles matching "Maigret" on IMDb