Benjamin Wainwright to Star in Drama ‘Maigret’ for ‘Masterpiece

Colin Callender’s Playground Productions will adapt Georges Simenon’s best-selling detective novels “Maigret” into a television series set to air in the U.S. on PBS under the “Masterpiece” banner.

The adaptation of the streetwise Parisian Chief Inspector Jules Maigret has started production in Budapest. Callender and David Stern will executive produce for Playground.

Benjamin Wainwright (“Belgravia: The Next Chapter,” “Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim”) will play Maigret and Stefanie Martini (“The Gold,” “Last Kingdom,” “Emerald City”) stars as Madame Louise Maigret.

“George Simenon’s creation of Jules Maigret holds a firm place in the pantheon of great literary detectives and we are incredibly grateful to our partners ‘Masterpiece,’ Banijay, ILP and John Simenon for their trust and support as we endeavor to bring a contemporary Maigret to a new, worldwide audience,” Stern said. “Patrick Harbinson’s brilliantly fresh take on this iconic IP is reflective of Playground’s ambition to expand our growing slate of contemporary returning dramas that speak to a global marketplace.”

Blake Harrison (“World on Fire,” “I Hate Suzie Too”), Reda Elazouar (“Sex Education,” “Pirates”), Kerrie Hayes (“The Responder,” “Criminal Record”), Shaniqua Okwok (“The Flatshare,” “It’s a Sin”) and Rob Kazinsky (“Star Trek: Section 31,” “Eastenders”) make up the “Les Maigrets,” Maigret’s loyal team of detectives, with Nathalie Armin (“Showtrial,” “Juice”) set to play Prosecutor Mathilde Kernavel.

“Chief Inspector Jules Maigret, the invention of former crime reporter turned prolific author Georges Simenon, inhabits a vividly realized Paris not often seen on camera that takes us from the glitzy upper-class world of luxury hotels and mansions to local bourgeois bistros and bars and the underground haunts of the professionally criminal,” reads the series’ log line.

It continues: “Patrick Harbinson’s adaptation reframes Maigret as an unconventional young detective with something to prove, a rising star in the Police Judiciaire, relentless in his investigations, with an uncanny ability to get under the skin of the criminals he is chasing and a matchless knowledge of Paris and its inhabitants.  Faithfully and lovingly married to Madame Maigret, Maigret heads the elite police unit known as La Crim, responsible for investigating all serious crime in and around Paris.”