Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie

Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie is a French comédie policière (comedic police crime drama) television programme consisting of two series based loosely on Agatha Christie's works of detective fiction, first broadcast on France 2 on 9 January 2009.^[1] In English-speaking countries, Series One is titled "The Little Murders of Agatha Christie" and Series Two is titled "Agatha Christie's Criminal Games". Series One takes place in the 1930s with Commissaire (approximately DCI) Larosière (Antoine Duléry) and Inspecteur Lampion (Marius Colucci). Series Two is set in the late 1950s through early 1960s with Commissaire Swan Laurence (Samuel Labarthe), journalist Alice Avril (Blandine Bellavoir), and Laurence's secretary, Marlène Leroy (Élodie Frenck). Series One streams with English subtitles in the United States on Acorn TV and MHz Choice, Series Two streams with English subtitles in the United States on MHz Choice and in Australia on SBS.^[2][3] The thirty-eight episodes to the end of Series Two include adaptations of thirty-six of Christie's works.

Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie
Also known as	The Little Murders of Agatha Christie; Agatha Christie's Criminal Games
Genre	Comédie policière (comedic police crime drama)
Created by	Anne Giafferi Murielle Magellan
Based on	Agatha Christie's detective fiction
Starring	Series One: Antoine Duléry Marius Colucci Series Two: Samuel Labarthe Blandine Bellavoir Élodie Frenck Series Three: Émilie Gavois-Kahn Arthur Dupont Chloé Chaudoye
Country of origin	France
Original language	French
No. of series	3
No. of episodes	11 | 27
Production
Production location	France
Running time	100 minutes
Production company	Escazai Films
Original release
Network	France 2
Release	9 January 2009 (2009-01-09) – present
Related
Petits Meurtres en Famille 2006 (4-part mini-series)

A third series, with a new cast and set in 1970s France, was announced in 2019^[4] and released starting in 2021. Although the title bearing Christie's name remained, most of the episodes were original stories "in the spirit of Christie's works" because the producer felt that the remaining books would be "too difficult to adapt", or because of rights issues in some cases.^[5]

Series One: 1930s France (2009–2012)

Overview

Set in northern France in the 1930s, womanising and bombastic Commissaire Jean Larosière and his hapless junior officer Inspecteur Émile Lampion unravel a series of complicated murder cases to reveal the killers.

Cast and characters

Main

• Antoine Duléry as Commissaire Jean Larosière (11 episodes)
• Marius Colucci as Inspecteur Émile Lampion (11 episodes)

Support

• Serge Dubois as police officer (policier) Ménard (9 episodes)
• Olivier Carré as medical examiner (médecin légiste) Dr Verdure (5 episodes)

Guest cast

No. in Series	Actor (character)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

Episodes

No.	Title	Christie adaptation	Directed by	Original release date
1	"Les meurtres ABC"	The A.B.C. Murders	Eric Woreth	2009 (2009)
2	"Am stram gram"	Ordeal by Innocence	Stéphane Kappes	2009 (2009)
3	"La plume empoisonnée"	The Moving Finger	Eric Woreth	2009 (2009)
4	"La maison du péril"	Peril at End House	Eric Woreth	2009 (2009)
5	"Le chat et les souris"	Cat Among the Pigeons	Eric Woreth	2010 (2010)
6	"Je ne suis pas coupable"	Sad Cypress	Eric Woreth	2010 (2010)
7	"Cinq petits cochons"	Five Little Pigs	Eric Woreth	2011 (2011)
8	"Le flux et le reflux"	Taken at the Flood	Eric Woreth	2011 (2011)
(Blandine Bellavoir, who plays Albertine, appears as a main character in the second series.)
9	"Un cadavre sur l'oreiller"	The Body in the Library	Eric Woreth	2011 (2011)
10	"Un meurtre en sommeil"	Sleeping Murder	Eric Woreth	2012 (2012)
11	"Le couteau sur la nuque"	Lord Edgware Dies	Renaud Bertrand	2012 (2012)

Series Two: mid-1950s to 1960s France (2013–2020)

Overview

The action has moved to mid-1950s to 1960s Lille, France. Suave, razor-sharp, arrogant, and intolerant – Commissaire Swan Laurence investigates murders with the often unappreciated assistance of reporter Alice Avril and police secretary Marlène Leroy.

Cast and characters

Main

• Samuel Labarthe as Commissaire Swan Laurence (27 episodes)^[6]
• Blandine Bellavoir as La Voix du Nord journalist and feminist Alice Avril (27 episodes)^[7]
• Élodie Frenck as Laurence's Marilyn Monroe-esque police secretary Marlène Leroy (27 episodes)^[8]

Support

• Dominique Thomas as Commissaire Divisionnaire Ernest Tricard (27 episodes)
• Marie Berto as secretary then police officer Arlette Carmouille (5 episodes)
• Cyril Gueï as medical examiner (médecin légiste) Dr Timothée Glissant (13 episodes)
• Christophe Piret / François Godart as newspaper editor (rédacteur en chef) Robert Jourdeuil (2 / 15 episodes)
• Natacha Lindinger as medical examiner Dr Euphrasie Maillol (4 episodes)
• Éric Beauchamp as police "cop" (flic) Martin (16 episodes)
• Bubulle as Marlène's goldfish Bubulle (27 episodes). Bubulle is a series of fishes kept in the office by Marléne. When each fish expires, Laurence, knowing Marléne's attachment, secretly replaces it with a new fish. In episode 26, Laurence remarks "Bubulle 4".

Guest cast

No. in Series	Actor (character)
1	Catherine Mouchet (Rose-Marie Bousquet), Olivier Rabourdin (Etienne Bousquet), Stéphane Caillard (Juliette), Solveig Maupu (Jaqueline Cassard), Shane Woodward (Jimmy White), Guillaume Bienvenu (Antonin Lambert), Vincent Londez (Léonard Jandel)
2	Élodie Navarre (Elvire Morenkova), Jean-Philippe Écoffey (Georges Leroy), Claude Perron (Claude Kerrigan), Antoine Oppenheim (Daniel Kerrigan), Hélène Médigue (Babette), Valentine Alaqui (Violette), Alexis Michalik (Jules Lavigne), Luis Inacio (Victor Lebrun)
3	Françoise Fabian (Alexina Laurence), Nathalie Richard (Geneviève Ranson), Jacqueline Bir (Émilie Longuet), Anne Azoulay (Charlotte Ségur), Olivier Chantreau (Louis Segur), Vincent Schmitt (Georges Siatidis), Isabelle de Hertogh (Bella Siatidis), Alexie Ribes (Daisy)
4	Alix Poisson (Suzanne Delavallée), Charlie Dupont (Roland Delavallée), Didier Vinson (André Delavallée), Arly Jover (Alma Sarrazin), Eric Caruso (Philippe Sarrazin), Luc Samaille (Alain Langevin), Laurence Flahault (Paulette Torbier)
5
6
7
8	Élodie Frenck (Solange Vanilos), Nancy Tate (Mary Patterson), Blanche Cluzet (Marguerite Richard), Edouard Giard (Jean-Baptiste Millet), Lucile Marquis (Rose), Sandrine Salyères (N'Daye Sissoko), Charles Templon (Pierre), Charlotte Talpaert (Louise)
9	Philippe Nahon (Émile Deboucke), Anne Benoît (Annick Devassène), Marcelle Fontaine (Josiane Lallin), Alexandre Steiger (Jean Castor), Emilie Wiest (Sabine Toulemonde), Pierre Kiebbe (Baptiste)
10	Arnaud Perron (Robert Vasseur), Gilian Petrovski (Michael Doutremont), Eléonore Joncquez (Régine Molon), Serge Riaboukine (Dr. Léopold Santini), Mélissandre Fortumeau (Béatrice Santini), Jeanne Bournaud (Hélène Schmit)
11	Valeria Cavalli (Leticia Salvan/Charlotte Salvan), Juliette Plumecocq-Mech (Linda Greenblat), Christine Bonnard (Henriette), Blandine Pélissier (Odette), Annabelle Hettmann (Philippine Leroy), Clovis Fouin (Marcel Combet/Eugène Perrier), Honorine Magnier (Antoinette Combet/Emma Zontag)
12
13
14
15
16	Frédéric Pellegeay (Grégoire Vidal), Pierre Khorsand (Paul Courelle), Mona Walravens (Dany Courelle), Beatrice Rosen (Lucette Vidal), Christian Joubert (Albert Major)
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24	Bérénice Baoo (Clarisse Rodier), Arnaud Binard (Dr. Rodier), Maïra Schmitt (Adèle Rodier), Kevin Garnichat (Dr Nathan Steiner), Chloé Chaudoye (Marie Steiner), Barbara Monin (Dominique Lebrun), Emmanuel Bordier (Félix Jacquel)
25
26
27	Antoine Duléry (Commissaire Larosière), Anouchka Vingtier (Isabelle Grignan), Alain Duclos (Arthur Grignan), Claudine Vigreux (Madame Léotard), Ulrich Vanacker (Simon Wurtz)

Episodes

No. in series	Title	Christie adaptation	Directed by	Original release date
1	"Jeux de glaces"	They Do It With Mirrors	Eric Woreth	2013 (2013)
2	"Meurtre au champagne"	Sparkling Cyanide	Eric Woreth	2013 (2013)
A movie star appears to commit suicide by poisoning her drink at a dinner party, but Laurence suspects that someone else put the poison there. Avril replaces her on the set while Laurence investigates.
3	"Témoin Muet"	Dumb Witness	Marc Angelo	2013 (2013)
Laurence receives a letter dated months earlier from Émilie Longuet fearing that she will be murdered. On learning that the wealthy old woman is already dead, he orders an exhumation and autopsy which prove she had been poisoned. He and Avril both encounter ghosts who, despite his disbelief, help uncover secrets that are possible motives for all the resident family members, Mrs. Longuet's live-in personal assistant and, to Laurence's horror, his own mother whom he arrests before discovering that the weapon used in a second murder was planted in her room.
4	"Pourquoi pas Martin?"	Why Didn't They Ask Evans?	Marc Angelo	2013 (2013)
5	"Meurtre à la kermesse"	Hallowe'en Party	Eric Woreth	2014 (2014)
6	"Cartes sur table"	Cards on the Table	Eric Woreth	2014 (2014)
A strange, wealthy man induces a dubious Laurence and Avril to attend a dinner party he is hosting with four other guests whom he suggests got away with murder, plus a self-proclaimed former member of France's secret service. When the host is murdered at the party, Laurence investigates. Two guests are subsequently murdered and Laurence himself becomes a suspect before determining the culprit.
7	"Le crime ne paie pas"	Murder on the Links	Marc Angelo	2014 (2014)
8	"Pension Vanilos"	Hickory Dickory Dock	Eric Woreth	2015 (2015)
(Élodie Frenck appears in a dual role as Marlène's sister Solange.)
9	"Un meurtre est-il facile?"	Murder is Easy	Marc Angelo	2015 (2015)
Tired of living in poverty and being disrespected as a female journalist, Avril accepts a marriage proposal from Émile Deboucke, a much older man and very rich factory owner whom she barely knows. Avril moves into Deboucke's mansion and is given an executive position at his factory. After a series of murders at the factory and the attempted murders of herself and Marlène, Avril helps Laurence solve the crimes from within. Avril and Deboucke end their engagement amicably.
10	"Madame Mac Ginty est morte"	Mrs McGinty's Dead	Didier Bivel, Eric Woreth	2015 (2015)
(Arnaud Perron, Blandine Bellavoir's partner, plays Alice's ex-husband.[9])
11	"Murder Party"	A Murder is Announced	Eric Woreth	2015 (2015)
12	"L'étrange enlèvement du petit Bruno"	The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly	Eric Woreth	2016 (2016)
A famous author and her husband receive anonymous letters threatening that their son will be kidnapped for ransom from their home at a specific time. Despite deploying heavy security, Laurence fails to prevent the kidnapping and is shot in the aftermath. He feigns death to pursue the case without the culprit's knowledge and, with major assistance from Avril, Marlène, and Dr. Maillol, is able to reveal all at his own fake funeral.
13	"Le cheval pâle"	The Pale Horse	Olivier Panchot	2016 (2016)
14	"L'affaire Protheroe"	The Murder at the Vicarage	Olivier Panchot	2016 (2016)
After a young secretary is found dead by hanging, Laurence quickly determines it was murder intended to look like suicide. Avril goes undercover as the secretary's replacement to help investigate.
15	"La mystérieuse affaire de Styles"	The Mysterious Affair at Styles	Eric Woreth	2016 (2016)
A lady comes to see Laurence in distress because the owner of the popular beauty spa she manages is seeing a much younger man. Laurence is unwilling to get involved, but Marlène persuades Avril to visit the spa; they do so, but are mistaken for a lesbian couple. While there, Marlène finds a man's body at the bottom of the swimming pool, murdered. Laurence arrives at the spa to investigate. During the investigation, Avril discovers that the spa's owner, Emilie, is actually Avril's own mother. Shortly afterwards, Emilie also dies, which is clearly a second murder. Laurence's investigation into both murders turns up strange happenings, such as Emilie's habit of drinking the blood of children, a surrogate pregnancy of one of the spa staff who Emilie recently adopted and wrote into her will, and the alluring wife of a government minister who sedated Emilie to cover up her own affair with Emilie's husband.
16	"Albert Major parlait trop"	A Caribbean Mystery	Eric Woreth	2016 (2016)
While in hospital for injuries incurred in an accident, Avril encounters famous crime author Albert Major but fails to interest Laurence in the author's claim to be writing a book exposing a "perfect murder" that he witnessed years ago. Major becomes the first of several victims murdered grotesquely in the hospital. Avril discovers a secret hospital area with strange goings-on possibly related to the murders, but when Laurence finds no evidence in the room he decides it was just her head injuries causing her imagination to run wild. Laurence eventually realises that everything is indeed connected, catches the culprit, and reaches Avril, the next intended victim, just as she is about to succumb to a poisoned intravenous drip.
17	"L'Homme au complet marron"	The Man in the Brown Suit	Rodolphe Tissot	2017 (2017)
18	"Le miroir se brisa"	The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side	Rodolphe Tissot	2017 (2017)
19	"Crimes haute couture"	Third Girl	Nicolas Picard-Dreyfuss	2017 (2017)
20	"Crime de Noël"	not adapted from a Christie story	Rodolphe Tissot	2017 (2017)
21	"Drame en trois actes"	Three Act Tragedy	Nicolas Picard-Dreyfuss	2018 (2018)
(Samuel Labarthe appears in a dual role as acting teacher Herbert Michel.)
22	"Meurtres en solde"	Hercule Poirot's Christmas	Didier Bivel	2018 (2018)
(Alexandre Labarthe, who plays Laurence's son, is Samuel Labarthe's son.[10] This adaptation has no Christmas theme.)
23	"Mélodie mortelle"	The Sittaford Mystery	Christophe Campos	2018 (2018)
24	"Ding Dingue Dong"	Evil Under the Sun	Christophe Campos	2019 (2019)
When Marlène stumbles into Laurence's office disheveled, disoriented, and deemed to be suffering from depression, he has her admitted to a private psychiatric clinic where he is investigating a murder. But Laurence is arrested as the prime suspect of a second murder at the clinic because he has been having an affair with the victim, the wife of the head of the clinic, and is believed to have been on the premises at the time. Avril goes undercover as a nurse to investigate while Laurence is in jail but he soon joins her by feigning insanity to get himself admitted to the clinic. Marlène's sharp eye for fashion provides the critical clue that puts Laurence on the right track to reveal the murderers.
25	"L'Heure zéro"	Towards Zero	Nicolas Picard-Dreyfuss	2019 (2019)
26	"Rendez-vous avec la mort"	Appointment with Death	Nicolas Picard-Dreyfuss	2019 (2019)
27	"Un Cadavre au petit déjeuner"	not adapted from a Christie story	Nicolas Picard-Dreyfuss	2020 (2020)
The Series Two Finale is a musical self-parody, with all the cast breaking out into song and dance throughout. After a night of drunken revelry that she cannot recall, Avril awakens in bed next to the corpse of young man with a knife in his chest. Laurence has resigned as Commissaire and is about to leave for Washington to work for the FBI but, joined by Marlène, Glissant, and Tricard, he goes to extraordinary lengths, including illegalities, to figure out who is trying to frame Avril for murder and to keep her out of the clutches of her chief antagonists: Laurence's replacement, the psychotic nephew of former Commissaire Larosière, and Carmouille, although she eventually saves the day. (Antoine Duléry appears as the nephew of Series One's Commissaire Larosière. Original musical-comedy episode;[11] first aired in Italy in 2019, Australia in 2020, and in France in October 2020.[12][13][4])

Series Three: 1970s France

A third series, with a new cast and set in France in the 1970s, was announced in 2019.^[4][14]

The first and third episodes are adaptations of, respectively, Endless Night and The Hollow. Other episodes are original stories; according to the producer, they are in the "spirit of Agatha Christie".^{[15][16][17][18][5]}

Overview

The third series is set in the 1970s, again in Lille, France. Commissaire Annie Gréco is aided by police inspector Max Beretta and psychologist Rose Bellecour.

Cast and characters

Main

• Émilie Gavois-Kahn as Commissaire Annie Gréco
• Arthur Dupont as Inspector Maxime "Max" Beretta
• Chloé Chaudoye as psychologist Rose Bellecour

Support

• Saverio Maligno as Inspector Râteau
• Alexandre Russo as Inspector Cassard
• Quentin Baillot as Commissaire divisionnaire Servan Legoff
• Benoît Moret as medical examiner (médecin légiste) Jacques Blum
• Nicolas Lumbreras as Bob, a hippie hotel owner
• Christèle Tual as Barbara Bellecour, Rose's mother
• Grégoire Oestermann as Arnaud Bellecour, Rose's father

Episodes

No.	Title	Christie adaptation	Directed by	Original release date
1	"La Nuit qui ne finit pas"	Endless Night	Nicolas Picard-Dreyfuss	2021 (2021)
2	"La Chambre noire"	N/A	Nicolas Picard-Dreyfuss	2021 (2021)
3	"Le Vallon"	The Hollow	Alexandre Coffre	2021 (2021)
4	"Mourir sur scène"	N/A	Nicolas Picard-Dreyfuss	2021 (2021)
5	"Quand les souris dansent"	N/A	Alexandre Coffre	2022 (2022)
6	"Jusqu'à ce que la mort nous sépare"	N/A	Nicolas Picard-Dreyfuss	2022 (2022)
7	"Meurtres du troisième type"	N/A	Bertrand Soulier and Hélène Lombard	2022 (2022)
8	"En un claquement de doigt"	N/A	Émilie Deleuze	2022 (2022)
9	"Mortel Karma"	N/A	Christophe Douchand	2023 (2023)
10	"Meurtres au Pensionnat"	N/A	Christophe Douchand	2023 (2023)

Notes

• A distinct four-part mini-series, "Petits Meurtres en Famille", adapted from Hercule Poirot's Christmas, was released in 2006. Although Larosière and Lampion are the main characters (played by the same actors), this mini-series is not a prequel or sequel to the later series. However, in this earlier miniseries, Larosière knows who his father is and actually meets him in the story, but in "Un meurtre en sommeil" (Sleeping Murder), Episode 10 of Season 1 of "Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie", Larosière says he does this know who his father is and is going to seek out his identity.
• Laurence drives a Facel Vega Facellia FA red Bordeaux coupe.^[19][20][21]

Complete cast

Cast of Series One and Series Two

Actor	Character	Episodes	Year
Antoine Duléry	Jean Larosière Larosière's nephew	11 1	2009–2012 2020
Marius Colucci	Émile Lampion	11	2009–2012
Blandine Bellavoir	Albertine Alice Avril	1 27	2011 2013–2020
Samuel Labarthe	Swan Laurence	27	2013–2020
Élodie Frenck	Marlène Leroy	27	2013–2020
Dominique Thomas	Ernest Tricard	27	2013–2020
Christophe Piret	Guillaume Parisot Robert Jourdeuil	1 2	2012 2013
François Godart	Robert Jourdeuil	15	2013–2019
Éric Beauchamp	Martin	16	2013–2018
Serge Dubois	Ménard	9	2009–2012
Olivier Carré	Verdure Roger Bessan	5 1	2010–2012 2019
Bubulle	Marlène's goldfish Bubulle	27	2013–2020
Flore Bonaventura Alice Isaaz	Juliette Larosière	1 1	2010 2012
Anne Benoît	Madame Daste Annick Devassene	1 1	2009 2015
Hélène Vincent	Kristin	1	2009
Lucie Lucas	Esther	1	2009
Pascal Elso	Léopold Vallabrègues	1	2009
Corinne Masiero	Angélique	1	2009
Denis Lavant	André Custe	1	2009
Frédéric Pierrot	Jean Villiers	1	2009
Robinson Stévenin	Jean	1	2009
Françoise Bertin	Emilie Dubreuil	1	2009
Lannick Gautry	Mathieu Vidal	1	2010
Isabelle Candelier	Christine Boisseau	1	2010
Guilaine Londez	Mademoiselle Thuleau	1	2010
Mata Gabin	Esméralda	1	2011
Jean-Marie Winling	Pierre Fougères	1	2012
Patrick Descamps	Chesnais	1	2012
Françoise Fabian	Alexina Laurence	1	2013
Claude Perron	Claude Kerrigan	1	2013
Charlie Dupont	Roland Delavallée	1	2013
Alexis Michalik	Jules Lavigne	1	2013
Isabelle de Hertogh	Bella Siatidis	1	2013
Dominique Pinon	Hubert Petitpont	1	2014
Natacha Lindinger	Euphrasie Maillol	4	2014
Nicolas Vaude	Stanislas	1	2014
Alban Lenoir	Paul Coupet	1	2014
Philippe Nahon	Emile Deboucke	1	2015
Serge Riaboukine	Léopold Santini	1	2015
Cyril Guei	Dr Timothée Glissant	13	2016–2020
Sophie Cattani	Eve Constantin	1	2016
Philippe Rebbot	Dr Locart	1	2018
Marie Berto	Arlette Carmouille	5	2016–2020
Barbara Schulz	Audrey Fontaine	1	2019
Nuno Lopes	Maxime Beaumont	1	2019
Mireille Herbstmeyer	Clémence Berg	1	2019

See also

• List of French television series