There is no shortage of literary detective stories to adapt for the big and small screen. There are classic tales of Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple, and even Arsène Lupin, as well as modern ones like Morse, Vera Stanhope, and Jimmy Perez. But there’s one that often flies under the radar–despite being adapted several times before for television, film and radio–and that’s Georges Simenon’s French detective Jules Maigret. The sleuth has appeared in over 100 novels and short stories, which have been translated into more than 50 languages since they first appeared in print. They’re second only to Conan Doyle’s adventures in terms of international sales. So it’s perhaps no surprise that the BBC decided to give Maigret another go.

It’s not an easy task to enter into a world already filled with a host of engaging mystery series, but to do so and at the same time make your show stand out seems an almost impossible task. But Patrick Harbinson’s series smartly takes a page from the BBC’s popular modern interpretation of Sherlock and brings Maigret forward into contemporary times. This new adaptation takes us to modern Paris, while finding creative ways to keep that certain je ne said quoi that makes this particular detective one of crime fiction’s most quietly compelling characters. That’s helped, of course, by stand-up casting and tight, absorbing scripts.

That Shelf’s Managing Editor Emma Badame had the opportunity to sit down with two of the series’ stars, Benjamin Wainwright (Jules Maigret) and Shaniqua Orwok (Janvier) to talk about the detective’s timeless charm, why the series is more a “why-dunnit” than a “who-dunnit”, and what audiences can expect from this stand-out new series. Watch the interview below now:

Maigret airs Sundays through November 9 at 9/8c on MASTERPIECE Mystery! on PBS. It is also available to stream via PBS and PBS MASTERPIECE on Prime Video.