By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
Published: | Updated:
Atmospheric costume crime drama from France
Year: 2021-
Certificate: 18
If you’re missing Ripper Street, then this could be the murky historical police drama for you. Set in France’s capital during the ‘beautiful years’ of La Belle Époque, the show is strong on Gothic mood, grisly crimes and shady characters similar to those who populated Ripper Street’s Whitechapel.
The first series of this densely packed drama, which weaves real historical events and characters into its dramatic caseload, is set in 1900, introducing us to young detective Antoine Jouin (Jérémie Laheurte) as he investigates the murder of a woman whose body was found in the Seine. As Jouin earns his detective stripes he stumbles into a much bigger conspiracy, of police corruption and political intrigue. Jouin returned for a second series (1905), in which more vice and corruption colours his investigation into another seemingly cut-and-dried murder.
In the third series, 1910, real historical figures – police chief Louis Lépine and femme fatale Marguerite ‘Meg’ Steinheil (Marc Barbé and Evelyne Brochu) – play a more central role as the Belle Époque draws to its close with high-profile political scandals and is replaced by the deeply unsettled years that preceded the First World War. (Three series)
