Spiral (and other French police series)

[vinteuil]

I didn't remember that Laure was pregnant at the end of the last series. Did we know?

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... o yes : do you recall the cliffhanger ending series 5, when the pregnant Laure was stabbed while trying to save the girl from jumping into the river, and it was left uncertain whether the unborn child would survive?

And I'm only now recalling Roban's unexplained nosebleeds in series 5, which we now see were premonitory of something more serious...

Lovely to be back with Gilou, Tintin and the rest of the crew.

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[kernelbogey]

... o yes : do you recall the cliffhanger ending series 5, when the pregnant Laure was stabbed while trying to save the girl from jumping into the river, and it was left uncertain whether the unborn child would survive?

And I'm only now recalling Roban's unexplained nosebleeds in series 5, which we now see were premonitory of something more serious...

Lovely to be back with Gilou, Tintin and the rest of the crew.

Oh dear - I remember Roban's nosebleeds, but the cliffhanger has gone from my memory! Unaccountable lapse.

[DracoM]

Cracker of a start! The gang's all here!

[antongould]

Cracker of a start! The gang's all here!

Indeed

[DracoM]

What I found so encouraging and refreshing is that a major channel series dared to have on camera REAL, messy, worrying mother set ups ref Berthaud and her potentially tragic baby situation. Interesting too that it is a French company that made Spiral, yes, but BBC had the guts to play it.

That Saturday night slot has led to some of the most innovative series from Scandinoir to Francenoir. Excellent. BBC also to be congratulated in scheduling it.

[Nick Armstrong]

Oh dear - I remember Roban's nosebleeds, but the cliffhanger has gone from my memory! Unaccountable lapse.

Same here!

Fantastic first two episodes - as others have said, it's a real pleasure rediscovering the cast of characters, and the plots seem as strong as ever.

I have a particular liking for Edelmann - his outburst in court, including enquiring if the murder could have been committed with a trombone, was a treat

a French company that made Spiral, yes, but BBC had the guts to play it.
... BBC also to be congratulated in scheduling it.

Well if you look at the credits, the BBC seems to have had more input than that - while not exactly a co-production, the series is credited as being "in association with BBC Four". I wonder what that represented in terms of involvement.

[Constantbee]

Why are French thrillers just that bit better than Scandi noir? I'm enjoying the development of the characters, too. Audrey Fleurot (Josephine Karlsson in this, Catherine Keemer in Witnesses) is eminently watchable. Don't know much about her, but when I looked her up she has a distinguished filmography, and stage work that includes Moliere and Strindberg.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Cracker of a start! The gang's all here!

[mercia]

as and when a murder occurs in London, is there all this wrangling as to who does the investigation ? I appreciate the English and French legal systems are not the same and we don't have this juge d'instuction person.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

as and when a murder occurs in London, is there all this wrangling as to who does the investigation ? I appreciate the English and French legal systems are not the same and we don't have this juge d'instuction person.

- older detective stories used to feature a "if you don't solve this by tomorrow we'll have to call in The Yard" moment, but nothing on the scale of this. Still nice to see that the unsympathetic, pen-pushing, incompetent boss is a world-wide feature - but someone at the French equivalent of the Lee Strasberg school should have told Valentin Merlet that you can overdo the collar thing!

[Cockney Sparrow]

as and when a murder occurs in London, is there all this wrangling as to who does the investigation ? I appreciate the English and French legal systems are not the same and we don't have this juge d'instuction person.

I need to apprise myself of the French Criminal legal system. I don't understand how the chief prosecutor could appoint the Serious crime unit but the investigating judge can re-allocate it to the CID. (Unless the investigating judge's senior manager is the Prosecutor? One of the (no doubt numerous) differences in our system is that the investigator is separate from the prosecutor and although the prosecutor assesses whether to take a case on and prosecute it, neither party gives instructions to the other.).

We pass on most of these BBC4 foreign crime series, apart from Wallander and some Montalbano, too gruesome, dark and involved I suppose. Glad, after the comments here we gave Spiral a try - definitely worth watching, and somehow different from some of the offerings we have passed on.

[kernelbogey]

I hope Maitre Caliban will elucidate for us!

[Nick Armstrong]

I hope Maitre Caliban will elucidate for us!

He won't I'm afraid! I started my career with the aim of becoming an Anglo-French lawyer in Paris, and spent some time working over there - not in droit pénal, but generally the system and the jurisprudence I found so silly and counter-intuitive that I rapidly decided against... plus I'd discovered libel in London and so ploughed that furrow instead!

So the machinations of the Procureur, the Parquet and the Police Judiciaire are as much a mystery to me as to you... but viewed from the outside, they make for enjoyable drama!

[kernelbogey]

He won't I'm afraid! I started my career with the aim of becoming an Anglo-French lawyer in Paris, and spent some time working over there - not in droit pénal, but generally the system and the jurisprudence I found so silly and counter-intuitive that I rapidly decided against... plus I'd discovered libel in London and so ploughed that furrow instead!

So the machinations of the Procureur, the Parquet and the Police Judiciaire are as much a mystery to me as to you... but viewed from the outside, they make for enjoyable drama!

Aah, tant pis!

Unless the investigating judge's senior manager is the Prosecutor?

It would seem that the Prosecutor (he of the indirect gaze ) is indeed Roban's manager. If we can infer that everything in Spiral is based on French law then it would seem that Monsieur Le Juge has full charge once the case is allocated to him.

[vinteuil]

So the machinations of the Procureur, the Parquet and the Police Judiciaire are as much a mystery to me as to you...

... and yet to get into Simenon you have to get a feel for the relations between the PJ , aka the '36', otherwise 36, quai des Orfèvres, and the Parquet, and the Procureur... Yet another reason why the French title 'engrenages' [ cogs, gears... ] is so much better than the naff 'Spiral'. Indeed it is "la mécanique implacable de la Justice à travers les enquêtes croisées d'un procureur, une capitaine de police, un juge et une avocate" as their publicity has it.

Helpful page re the PJ -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direction_R%C3%A9gionale_de_Police_Judiciaire_de_Paris

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