What series?

Having got to the end of Series 3 of the Amazon Prime version of BBC's 1960's version of 50 or so of the Maigret stories with Rupert Davies, we tried for Series 4, only to find that the 13 or 14 episodes could only be bought individually. Not a big deal, but slightly irritating, so we went back to Episode 1 of Series 1, which happens to be the popular and lurid story 'Maigret au Picratt's', otherwise 'Murder in Monmartre'. The full story is to be found at reference 1.

Being under an hour, a good deal of the story had been stripped out and what was left was simplified. Some of the fleshy bits survived, but nothing like to the extent of later versions.

Notwithstanding, we thought it did very well, despite almost certainly having watched the very same adaptation less than a year ago and at least two other adaptations over the years. And I must have read the original story several times - not least because it was part of my holiday reading at the end of last year.

A tribute to the quality of BBC drama in its early days. Somewhere, probably Wikipedia, I read recently that it is one of the few early drama series to have survived. One of the others being 'The Forsyte Saga', another long series, which we went through at least twice in our DVD days. It had worn very well too, although the later, shorter version, from somewhere else, was not bad either.

I failed to find out for sure when we first bought this series 1, almost certainly some time last year, but there is an entry for Prime for £19.99 for early August on my credit card bill, which is at least a marker - and suggesting a discount of something under a fiver for bulk purchase. But where are the other two?

No doubt we shall end up buying the stories of series 4 one by one.

Gemini

I asked Gemini about this failure to offer bulk purchase and he offered lots of reasons why this might be the case, with his interesting essay being strong on generalities but weak on particulars, which last, to be fair, are unlikely to be in the public domain. What used to be called 'Commercial in Confidence' when I was in the world of work.

It seems that there could be all kinds of arcane copyright issues, perhaps only affecting one of the proposed bundle, which would take that bundle down. And there were two oddities in or near Series 4 which might be causing problems: 'Maigret and the Dead Girl', a retread of the pilot; and, 'Maigret at Bay', a late addition to the Davies effort. 

Another reason might have been that Amazon had worked out that you were probably hooked and would not care about losing the discount. But they could have achieved that just as well by jacking up the price a bit. We might be irritated, but we would pay up. Not convinced for all that: copyright seems a more likely story to me.

Have the lawyers made more out of all this than might have been involved for any of the parties - Amazon, the BBC and the estate of Georges Simenon, wherever that might live these days? MHZ Choice, of whom I had not previously heard, are also said to be in on it. See references 5 and 6.

There is also a suggestion that Amazon Prime is so big, that a lot of the licensing process has been automated, with one problem here being 'damaged metadata'. A problem which I have in my own humble doings!

Footnotes

Why did Basil Sydney not carry on after the pilot episode - missing from the Prime collection? It rather looks from the snap above and reference 7, that he was too old to make the commitment. Born at the end of the nineteenth century if you please. And another heavy smoker. Something to check later?

I am reminded that a correspondent once treated me to an extensive moan about the failures of BBC archiving, this in connection with something French too, but rather more recherchée.

I might be old and out of the game, but I worry about the level of resources being poured into AI and the underpinning computer power. It might be useful to me and it will probably do useful stuff which humans could not manage unaided - but it will also be taking out lots of jobs. At a time when we have quite enough trouble usefully channelling the energies of all our young men. Not to mention those of all our young women - but at least they are less likely to turn violent.

As things stand, AI is already pervasive and it would be difficult to access the considerable information resources of the Internet without its being involved and denying myself that access would be a bit drastic. Just have to hope that someone else gets a grip on it. 

What would my local chapter of the Labour Party have to add to the debate? In the 1930s and 1940s, it might well have been quite a lot. Now, I rather doubt it.

PS: blog search was not without interest - references 7 and 8 - but nothing relevant here. However, Amazon keeps and makes available quality records of my purchases from them and I now know that Series 1 was bought in May last year, Series 2 in August and Series 3 in January this year, shortly after our return from holiday.

References

Reference 1: https://www.association-jacques-riviere-alain-fournier.com/reperage/simenon/notice_maigret/note_maigret_Maigret%20au%20Picratts.htm. Lists some of the many appearances of this story since 1951.

Reference 2: Maigret au "Picratt's - Georges Simenon - 1951. Rencontre volume XV, story 4. The 39th story in the oeuvre.

Reference 3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maigret_(1960_TV_series).

Reference 4: https://psmv6.blogspot.com/2026/01/pork-sandwiches.html. A recent mention of the Galsworthy of Forsyte fame. I am reminded that I might get to see a bifana later today (Friday).

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MHz_Networks.

Reference 6: https://mhzchoice.com/.

Reference 7: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basil_Sydney.

Reference 8: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/search?q=maigret+davies.

Reference 9: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/search?q=davies+bbc.