I suppose it depends on whether you subscibe to the Simenon - the genius myth.....

I guess the stories must lose something in translation. I think we all thought leetle Erench bars where they drink Gauloise and smoke Ricard were terribly romantic - so we forgave Maigret for having the most boring predictable casebook imaginable.

I can remember after every episode, we all said -either - well that was tripe! or, what WAS all that about?

We all liked Ewen Solon's hat - which was incredibly cool looking.