SIMENON SIMENON. A CHARMING MUSIC TUNE

About the signature tune in the Rupert Davies series 

SIMENON SIMENON. UNA PICCOLA MUSICA AFFASCINANTE 

A proposito della sigla musicale nella serie con Rupert Davies 

SIMENON SIMENON. UNE CHARMANTE PETITE MUSIQUE 

A propos de la musique du générique de la série avec Rupert Davies 

 

In 1965, my parents sent me strictly to bed, when the Rupert Davies Maigret was coming up at 9.00 pm on Saturdays in the new German TV channel, ZDF, directly after the announcer had told us a ban for the next film concerning young people. I often have been wondering how a lovely and very sympathetic young woman like Victoria Voncampe could do that to me. I had to leave the TV room instantly. My father explained, the very first minutes of some of those crime shows would perhaps be the worst of the whole episode for me, because there an awful scene could be shown, such as a person being killed with a weapon or with the murderer's bare hands. In those cases I had to hurry out of the room, if not, I would have had to expect a punishment to follow sooner or later. 

But I stopped on my way directly behind the closed door and pricked up my ears for at least to listen what was coming up on TV. Sometimes I heard a desperate cry or loud voices of persons struggling, or the sound of a shot, that's right. But, after that, there would always follow that catching Maigret signature tune, played by the Ernst August Quelle orchestra. This tune can be interpreted to be rather bright and cheerful, whereas the original English tune by Ron Grainer, born in Australia, always started with very smashing, dark and serious rhythms, as I got to know years later. So, I think, the introductory scenes of the Rupert Davies Maigret films had almost always simply to have a smashing, dark and serious end which atmospherically and ingeniously would be caught up by the first times of the Grainer music. But the film beginnings do work very well with the Quelle music as well, I can assure you. Both Maigret themes, the English and the German one, were extraordinary popular in their own countries and both had to be published on shellac records, although, at least in Germany, it was very unusual in those times to bring out TV tunes to be bought in record shops. The Grainer Maigret music appeared even in the British charts, and, a few years later on, Quelle's Maigret theme was used in cinema publicity films of Gauloise cigarettes to provide a suitable musical background for the happy French life presented in those ads. 

I did not know anything of all of that during the first run of "Maigret" in Germany and in the years after that. Once, as a 13-year-old boy, I had to go shopping for special things in Osnabrück, the town next to the small village Lotte, where my parents' house was situated. By the way, I was born in Osnabrück as well. Thus I was searching for the specialities to buy in a big town supermarket, where there was playing a piped music in the backgrounds. That was radio music with some announcements in between. Suddenly I had to pause because of my recognising some very familiar music tunes, which caught me instantly, as always when I heard them. What was that? Yes, indeed it happened to be the Quelle Maigret theme! At first I couldn't believe my ears, overwhelmed by such a surprise, and I kept like being petrified until the end of that piece of music. Afterwards there was no announcer to comment the unexpected occurrence. So, after the shopping, I went straight to the next radio & record shop to ask the shop assistant what was going on. She didn't know, therefore I insisted on asking the shop manager, Mr. Friedemeyer, in person. "Yes, the Maigret theme will come out in the next future", he said. "You will have to wait a few weeks, and if you want me to provide it for you, I will gladly do it. I am a Maigret fan myself." I ordered the record at once and soon could play the Maigret theme (and the Maigret blues from the back side of the record) as often as I wished on the record player at home. 

I was really very happy, so happy, that I wrote a letter to Ernst August Quelle to tell him my gratitude (his address I had gotten from the ZDF in Mainz). Of course, I also asked him, when there would be the Maigret series on TV again. At that time, he didn't know. As a kind of consolation he sent me a piece of paper with the first notes of his Maigret theme written on it by himself. Now, after a long time, thank you again, Mr. Quelle! 

I don't know what is more catching in the opening scene of "Maigret": Rupert Davies striking a match on a rough wall to light his pipe in the dark, or the fabulous Parisian musette. The wall belonged to Place Pigalle in Paris, as I once read in a magazine. That's where they filmed authentic French outdoor scenes for the first episode of the Rupert Davies Maigret series as well: "Murder in Montmartre". 

The gif shows a water colour picture which I painted as a youngster. To make it more attractive and to fill it with some more life and Maigret atmosphere, I combined it for you with pipe smoke. I have never seen a colour photo of that scene, so I risked a try to paint it. 

Berthold Deutschmann 

SIMENON SIMENON. RUPERT DAVIES IN COLORS

About TV magazines of the sixties 

SIMENON SIMENON. RUPERT DAVIES A COLORI 

A proposito di riviste televisive degli anni sessanta 

SIMENON SIMENON. RUPERT DAVIES EN COULEURS 

A propos de magazines des années '60 

In my 5th school year, that was in 1965, there was a small miscellaneous corner shop, "Budke's", quite close to the school, where I got my weekly comics, "Mickey Mouse" and "Fix & Foxy", if I could afford them with my pocket money. But since I had gotten to know "Maigret" from the TV screen, I had a better idea and, more and more often, preferred to buy instead the TV magazine "HÖR ZU" with a lot of pictures in it as well, which mainly illustrated articles concerning TV programs and actors. With a new HÖR ZU in my hands, first of all I opened the Saturday pages to look for Maigret. There, regularly, a quarter or one third of the ZDF page, marked off by a horizontal black dividing line, was dedicated to the Maigret evening crime shows. Every time I discovered a new picture of Rupert Davies as the Chief inspector Maigret or of Ewen Solon as Sergeant Lucas, his assistant, I actually was very pleased. I remember only one time, when I was not pleased at all with finding not a single Maigret picture, but many other photos, too many, referring to a national football match. On the other hand it once occurred that I was searching for the bottom one-third Maigret page section and did not find it at all, at first sight. And then I had to open my eyes widely discovering the whole page filled with Maigret. And, exceeding all my expectations by far, that page even contained two colour photos, one of Maigret, and the other one of Lucas. That happened in HÖR ZU 34/1965, illustrating the episode "Love from Felicie". 

Maigret colour photos in general were rare in those days. Every time striking one it was a big surprise for me. A few colour photos were taken by the BBC during the production of that series, once I discovered one of Helen Shingler as Madame Maigret, a rather small one, but in colour, that was in HÖR ZU 40/1965. By the way, you can order antique German magazines such as HÖR ZU at Historia Verlag in Freiburg. The magazines they offer are not used, they almost seem to have been printed yesterday! (There also does exist an inexpensive chance to take a look (and a photograph) of many Rupert Davies pictures from German antique magazines like "HÖR ZU", "Funk Uhr", "TV hören & sehen" and "BRAVO" in the national library Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, Frankfurt on the Main). 

There were several colour photos of Rupert Davies published in other German magazines, when he had been interviewed for his part as Maigret, even some private ones, more or less, for example in "BRAVO". The ideas of presenting him photographically sometimes were pretty funny, such as the one that shows him as the detective spying through a hole of a newspaper, a hole big enough to see his entire face, smiling. That actor basically must have had a lot of humour! In Germany, there were a few cover pictures of him published, for example in "Constanze", that's why I once wrote to HÖR ZU asking them for a title page with "Maigret". At that moment, they didn't want, because they preferred to promote German actors, according to their answer. 

At Christmas time in 1965, my parents and I were visiting a big store in Osnabrück, "Woolworth". In the book department I located the word "Maigret" on a special offer cardboard sign. Instantly I went to it. It belonged to a box of Maigret books, black ones, but with colourful rough title illustrations (no photos). On the back cover of each book there was a black and white photo representing a man with a hat on and smoking a pipe. I was taken aback, because that was NOT Rupert Davies! Well, it was the author. Nevertheless I asked my parents, if I could get three of those books. They said yes. So I picked out "Maigret und der Verrückte" (The madman of Bergerac), "Maigret und der Clochard" (Maigret and the Bum), and, of course, "Maigret und der Weihnachtsmann" (Maigret's Christmas)). The books were a Kiepenheuer & Witsch publication, and the fabulous and brilliant title pictures were made by the ingenious illustrator Werner Labbé. At home, I started reading those books, although they did not have any inside illustrations at all. And now, at last, I understood perfectly Victoria Voncampe's repeated announcing words, when she said: "This film is based on a novel of the same title by Georges Simenon." Actually, the German version of those TV episodes did have the same titles as known from the Kiepenheuer & Witsch paperback edition. Typically, almost all titles began with "Maigret and ...". 

Berthold Deutschmann

Link 

SIMENON SIMENON. UN MAIGRET BRITANNIQUE

http://www.simenon-simenon.com/search?q=RUPERT+DAVIES

SIMENON SIMENON. A CHARMING MUSIC TUNE

http://www.simenon-simenon.com/2018/04/simenon-simenon-charming-music-tune.htm

SIMENON SIMENON. RUPERT DAVIES AND ME

http://www.simenon-simenon.com/2018/03/simenon-simenon-rupert-davies-and-me.html

SIMENON SIMENON. WHAT A PLEASURE WITH MAIGRET!

Still about the series with Rupert Davies 

SIMENON SIMENON. CHE PIACERE CON MAIGRET ! 

Ancora sulla serie con Rupert Davies 

SIMENON SIMENON. QUEL PLAISIR AVEC MAIGRET ! 

Encore à propos de la série avec Rupert Davies 

You might think I must have seen all of those Rupert Davies Maigret episodes at least ten times each, as a fan. But it's not like that, not at all, although there was the complete series on TV Channel Two in the sixties, then replays, then a long long time nothing. But from the mid nineties onwards one could get copies from the ZDF for much money; I made myself a list of the films that I would like best, and I bought copies each time I could afford some more of them, that's right, but I did not devour them. The Rupert Davies Maigret is something very special, you know. The best thing for me is to spread out the whole along all of my lifetime.

Last week, for example, a friend of mine sent me the DVD "Maigret und der Mann auf der Bank" ("Murder on Monday"), that I did not possess and that I had never seen before. I was very happy to hold it at last in my hands. But instead of watching it at once, I left it on the shelf for some days. I kept wondering whether that film would be that catching to me like the ones I watched on TV as a youngster in the sixties. I had some doubts, because another friend of mine recently told me, "Maigret" would have been thrilling to us only when we were kids and because those films were, partly, forbidden to us. So, starting to watch that film, I almost felt myself a boy again and was absolutely open to what would happen now. What do you assume - did I like that film, or not? It was a surprise for me, too: I had not seen a film that fascinating for a very long time! That story, all those fabulous actors, the music, the feeling of French atmosphere, as if it really was a French film! Well, it was a BBC production, and BBC always knew how to make perfect crime shows and documentations. This was Georges Simenon's opinion as well; in his "Intimate Memories" he expressly had admiring words concerning BBC, London. 

Sometimes it's hard to believe Rupert Davies was NOT a Frenchman. During his high times, very well known as Maigret by almost everyone, he tried to extract some fun out of this. Once, for example, when he opened the garden party in aid of Raystede Centre for Animal Welfare at St. Mary's, Bramber, - by the way, Davies was a vegetarian -, he began his speech using French words, just for fun. Not until he noticed a few blank looks from the crowd that had gathered, he changed to English.  

It would be wrong taking the BBC Maigret too seriously, I suppose. Of course, there do occur very exciting and serious moments in those crime films, still the series was supposed to have an absolute realistic touch to match the Simenon novels, but there is enough room and time for fun, too. In "Murder on Monday", for example, they took Stratford Johns to play the part of a suspect, exactly him of all actors, who, at those times, was famous on British TV screens as Detective Chief Superintendent Barlow in a different very long running BBC crime show series. He as a murderer in "Maigret" surely would turn things upside down! Or think of the dialogues between Maigret and Lucas, sometimes they are really very funny!  

Even Simenon had his fun writing his Maigret books: According to what I once read, he found the Maigrets a relaxing matter in comparison with his "really hard" novels. Writing Maigrets he could do even while whistling a tune! Well, I don't take him at his word, the Maigret novels are much too good compositions, they simply couldn't have been written in passing. But I do believe they were done each in a week or so.  

Berthold Deutschmann

SIMENON SIMENON. HOW IT ALL BEGAN…

About the beginnings of the series with Rupert Davies 

SIMENON SIMENON. COME È INIZIATO TUTTO… 

A proposito degli inizi della serie con Rupert Davies 

SIMENON SIMENON. COMMENT TOUT A COMMENCÉ... 

A propos des débuts de la série avec Rupert Davies 

The British Broadcasting Corporation, London, was the very first TV station to discover "Maigret" as a TV subject. That was in 1959, when Georges Simenon had already written about 60 Maigret novels, and the BBC tried out "Maigret and the lost life" as a late night TV pilot project, which succeeded very well, so that a series of TV films could follow. Simenon told his wife, Denise, who was his manageress in those days, to be sparing with TV interests. So, she rejected the inquiry for a following series, and the BBC seemed to be left alone. But, according to Simenon's "Intimate Memories", there was an intermediary, who tried again (and again), and finally negotiations began and a contract was drawn up to be signed in London. 

But Simenon himself remained to be reserved about an arising TV series and wanted to check at least the first episode scripts and, later on, to watch examples of the first film results. The executive producer, Andrew Osborn, had to find a new Maigret actor, because Sidney Basil, who starred in the pilot film, was no longer at disposal. Osborn thought of Rupert Davies, who was already known by the TV audience from impressive appearances on screen, for example in the "Sea Fury" series and as "Inspector Duff" in another series. So he asked Davies to play the part of Maigret. Davies, who, so far, had not read a single Maigret novel and only knew Maigret was a fictitious French detective, was surprised. He thought of himself to be a typical Englishman without any French characteristics. Osborn suggested him to read a few Maigret novels and to think the matter over. After that, he was not totally convinced to take that series leading role, which could type him and block him to get other acting parts, although they might be no leading parts, but varied and interesting. He suggested to the producer to visit the author and hear his opinion. So, Osborn and Davies flew to Lausanne and met Simenon. The author, at first glance, was very enthusiastic about Davies. "That IS Maigret! You are the flesh and bones of Maigret!" was his reaction. 

That was another unexpected surprise for Rupert Davies, but he remained thoughtful and had to go to the window to have a look out. Simenon was pleased. "That's exactly, what Maigret would do," he commented. According to what I have read in the papers, Davies, at first, remained reserved. He even had to go alone to a nearby café to have a cup of English tea, if possible, and think the matter over again. But he returned and said yes, he could try to take the part. He wanted to know directly by the author, what kind of man Maigret was, how exactly he would handle his pipe and how he would say goodbye to Mme Maigret at the door, when he was leaving for his office at Quai des Orfèvres. During that conversation he noticed the table to be a bit wobbly and asked Simenon for some tools, so he could repair the thing in no time, if there were no objections. Simenon told him, he had a tool kit in every floor of his château, but, unfortunately, he hadn't have had time enough to fix that table leg himself, and, by the way, Davies' intention would be another prove that he simply was Maigret. If Davies actually did repair that wobbly table - I don't know. 

A few months later, when some episodes of the very first "Maigret" TV series had been realised, Davies visited Simenon again, with copies of two of those films in his hand luggage. And again he had his doubts, he thought of it to be an "acid test". But, fortunately, Simenon was very pleased with the results, and soon the first season of 13 films could be presented to the TV audience. And it would be up to the audience to decide, if there ever would be a second season. 

In that series, which finally had four seasons (a complete fifth season was not possible, because there were not enough Maigret novels, at that time, to be adapted for the screen), Helen Shingler played the part of Madame Maigret. According to an interview Mrs. Shingler gave to a magazine, she was chosen for that role by Madame Simenon, Denise, after she had studied carefully a pile of photos of actresses that were sent to Simenon by the BBC to select one. Georges Simenon had already seen the photos before the decision of his wife, and, what a coincidence, he had the same opinion. Helen Shingler had already been known mainly to the cinema audience, before she won fame as Mme Maigret on the small screen. She could be admired in about 30 of those 52 episodes. Mrs. Shingler as well once met the Simenons and found them very pleasant and amiable.  

Sergeant Lucas, the Chief inspector's right hand, is played by Ewen Solon. He got the part by coincidence, but not easily. When there was something like a loose first rehearsal of "Maigret" in the London BBC TV studio, a Lucas actor was urgently needed, and Ewen Solon, at that moment, happened to be present and had his fun being Lucas. Suddenly, the producer came up, and Mr. Osborn really was angry seeing Solon in his team. He knew Solon from other TV productions and from cinema films as well, but he had a different actor in mind for the Lucas part. This led to a short, but loud and intensive word confrontation. Solon did not mince matters thinking he already had lost the Lucas role and would never get it. But exactly because of his unlimited openness towards Osborn, he, already unexpectedly and to his great surprise, won that part! Ewen Solon was to be present in almost all of the episodes. 

Berthold Deutschmann