This very subtle and careful series has been entertaining fans of detective fiction for 15 years. It unfortunately came to an end.
One of the best detective dramas on French television has bowed out. This succession of TV films which followed duos then trios of investigators at different times, ended on March 8, 2024, with the broadcast of its final episode, Murder at the boarding school on France 2 and streaming on france.tv.
According to information from Télé-Loisirs, the termination of the series is not linked to its audience results. Producer Sophie Révil explained that “after fifteen years, we were a little at the end of our inspiration, you have to know how to finish a series”. Unfortunately for the fans, The Little Murders of Agatha Christie ended with a classic episode.
Arthur Dupont, who has played Inspector Beretta since 2021, has in fact confided to the media specializing in TV news that no other finale to end this very popular series in style was planned. One more disappointment, no doubt, for regulars of the program. He also gives another version on the reasons for the end of the series: “France 2 reduced the budget and Sophie Revil and Escazal (the production company) did not want to do things with less money, because that would meant losing quality and I think they are absolutely right. It’s all about big money…”
The Little Murders of Agatha Christie were very popular. The first episode, broadcast on January 9, 2009, introduced investigations inspired by the novels of the queen of crime, carried out by commissioner Jean Larosière (Antoine Duléry) and his deputy Emile Lampion (Marius Colucci) in the 1930s. From the season 2, from 2013 to 2020, it is the investigations of the journalist Alice Avril (Blandine Bellavoir), the commissioner Swan Laurence (Samuel Labarthe) and his secretary Marlène Leroy (Elodie Frenck) in the 1950s and 1960s which fascinated the spectators. From 2021 to 2024, commissioner Annie Gréco (Émilie Gavois-Kahn), inspector Max Beretta (Arthur Dupont) and psychologist Rose Bellecour (Chloé Chaudoye) led the investigation in the 1970s.
The audience has always been there for this series, praised for its writing, its direction of actors but also its very careful costumes and sets. The first season attracted an average of 4.66 million spectators (19% audience share), while the second was followed on average by 4.43 million viewers (19.3%). More criticized but just as tasty, season 3 gathered more than 5.6 million spectators at its launch, but the fragmented broadcast and the disappointments of certain fans got the better of the popularity of the series, which was no longer followed “that” by 2.7 to 3.8 million viewers at the end of its season.