Showing results by author "Georges Simenon" in All Categories

Maurice Denham is the famous French detective Maigret, and Michael Gough is his creator, Georges Simenon, in five classic radio dramatisations. First broadcast in 1976, the episodes are 'Maigret Goes Home', 'Maigret in Montmartre', 'Maigret Has Scruples', 'Maigret in Society' and 'Maigret Sets a Trap'. Maigret is an enduringly popular character, first appearing in print in 1931 and most recently filmed for television starring Rowan Atkinson.

That shoeless foot looked incongruous lying on the pavement next to another foot encased in a shoe made of black kid leather. It was naked, private.... It was Maigret who retrieved the other shoe, which lay by the kerb six or seven metres away. A series of strange phone calls leads Inspector Maigret through the Paris streets towards a man out of his depth amid a network of merciless criminals.

Four full-cast dramatisations starring Maurice Denham as Inspector Maigret and Michael Gough as his creator Georges Simenon. Simenon and his masterful inspector, Jules Maigret, look back together over four of their greatest cases… Where is the vital report that holds the key to the fate of the French government? What is the secret behind the mysterious suicide in Bremen? Who is responsible for the sudden disappearance of one of Paris’s best known solicitors? And will the demented double murderer strike again?

The Yellow Dog’ sees Maigret upsetting the citizens of Concarneau as he begins his murder investigation. But there is poison in the Pernod, a howling yellow dog and, it seems, a madman on the loose... In ‘Maigret and the Burglar’s Wife’, "Sad Freddie" is committing a burglary when he discovers the body of a dead woman, holding a telephone in her hand. Can Maigret believe the burglar’s wife in the face of other evidence?

Maigret stumbles upon a series of murders in Fontenay-le-Comte while visiting an old school friend. On his way home from a conference, Maigret stops to visit an old school friend in Fontenay-le-Comte. A man in the same train car introduces himself and asks if Maigret has come to help solve the murder case. In fact, the man's brother-in-law had been murdered four days earlier, followed by the murder of a local widow in the same way, a blow to the head with a pipe.

Maigret finds himself back on the Rue des Acacias just 10 days after cracking another case there. This time it is the murder of a criminal Maigret has known for over 20 years and one he always suspected was behind a string of jewellery robberies in the city. Maigret's patience is tested as he eliminates neighbour by neighbour in his hunt for the murderer.

A visit from the tall, thin woman he arrested many years ago - now married to a hapless burglar - leads Maigret on a tortuous investigation in which he struggles with a formidable suspect. This novel has been published in previous translations as Maigret and the Burglar's Wife.'

Nineteen-year-old Frank - thug, thief, son of a brothel owner - gets by surprisingly well despite living in a city under military occupation, but a warm house and a full stomach are not enough to make him feel truly alive in such a climate of deceit and betrayal. During a bleak, unending winter, he embarks on a string of violent and sordid crimes that set him on a path from which he can never return. Georges Simenon's matchless novel is a brutal, compelling portrayal of a world without pity; a devastating journey through a psychological no-man's land.

The attempted suicide of a countess and the death of a billionaire in the same luxury Paris hotel send Maigret to the Riviera and then to Switzerland, as he searches for the truth amid the glittering world of the super rich. Eyes half closed, head tilted against the back of his seat, he seemed not to be thinking, as the plane flew over a thick carpet of bright clouds. In reality, he was making an effort to bring names and shadowy figures to life, names and figures that even this morning had been as unknown to him as the inhabitants of another planet.

Nicholas Le Prevost stars as the French detective in four new BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatizationsThese new adaptations of classic stories find Maigret recreating four memorable cases for his creator Georges Simenon.In ‘Maigret: A Man’s Head’, a convicted man is allowed to escape, then followed by police investigating a double murder.

Inspector Maigret is meant to be taking a holiday, but he can't resist following the development of his colleague Janvier's case in the papers - and playing a few tricks on the way. Standing at the window in the middle of the morning, vaguely observing the comings and goings in the street, he had a feeling that reminded him of certain days in his childhood, when his mother was still alive and he was off school because he had the flu or it was the end of term. It was the feeling of finding out what went on when he wasn't there.

'Maigret had never been comfortable in certain circles, among the wealthy bourgeoisie where he felt clumsy and awkward.... Built like a labourer, Oscar Chabut had hauled himself up into this little world through sheer hard work and, to convince himself that he was accepted, he felt the need to sleep with most of the women.' When a wealthy wine merchant is shot in a Paris street, Maigret must investigate a long list of the ruthless businessman's enemies before he can get to the sad truth of the affair.

Four gripping dramatisations starring Maurice Denham as Maigret and Michael Gough as his creator Georges SimenonMaigret Goes to School/Maigret and the Old Lady/Maigret Hesitates/The Patience of MaigretThe world’s best-known French detective, Jules Maigret, talks to his creator Georges Simenon about four intriguing cases in these full-cast dramatisations that have been specially adapted for radio from the original novels.

At what point in the day could the note have been slipped into his pocket, his left breast pocket? It was an ordinary sheet of glazed squared paper, probably torn out of an exercise book. The words were written in pencil, in a regular handwriting that looked to him like a woman's. For pity's sake, ask to see the patient in room 15. When Inspector Maigret's wife falls ill on their seaside holiday, a visit to the hospital leads him on an unexpected quest to find justice for a young girl.

Leaning on the banisters, Madame Maigret watched her husband going heavily downstairs.... What the newspapers didn't know was how much energy he put into trying to understand, how much he concentrated during certain investigations. It was as if he identified with the people he was hunting and suffered the same torments as they did.

When a salesman from a Paris department store confides his secret fears to Maigret, the Inspector soon becomes caught up in a treacherous feud between husband and wife that is not as clear cut as it seems.

Four gripping dramatisations starring Maurice Denham as Maigret and Michael Gough as his creator Georges Simenon. The world’s best-known French detective, Jules Maigret, talks to his creator Georges Simenon about four intriguing cases in these full-cast dramatisations that have been specially adapted for radio from the original novels.

A new translation of Georges Simenon's gripping tale of lost identity. A man picked up for wandering in obvious distress among the cars and buses on the Grands Boulevards. Questioned in French, he remains mute... A madman? In Maigret's office, he is searched. His suit is new, his underwear is new, his shoes are new. All identifying labels have been removed. No identification papers. No wallet. Five crisp thousand-franc bills have been slipped into one of his pockets.

Imperious, clever, mysterious: Maigret meets his match in the alluring form of Félicie in book 25 of the new Penguin Maigret series. In his mind's eye he would see that slim figure in the striking clothes, those wide eyes the colour of forget-me-not, the pert nose and especially the hat, that giddy crimson bonnet perched on the top of her head with a bronze-green feather shaped like a blade stuck in it.... Félicie had given him more trouble than all the 'hard' men who had been put behind bars.

The dark side of glamorous expat life in Paris is brought to life in this new translation. Try to imagine a guest, a wealthy woman, staying at the Majestic with her husband, her son, a nurse and a governess...in a suite that costs more than a thousand francs a day.... At six in the morning, she's strangled, not in her room but in the basement locker room.... In all likelihood, that's where the crime was committed.... What was the woman doing in the basement? Who could have lured her down there, and how?