The Maigret stories are all very different in terms of the content and the way that the stories are told. They're not what I would call formulaic.
Rowan AtkinsonI would never wish to say that I've finally waved goodbye to any character, it's just that the emphasis tends to shift.
Rowan AtkinsonThe problem with Maigret is he hasn't got a limp, and he hasn't got a lisp, and he hasn't got a French accent, or a particular love of opera... or all those other things that people tend to attach to many fictional detectives. He's just an ordinary guy doing an extraordinary job, in a very interesting time.
Rowan AtkinsonWhen you play a serious role, as far as I'm concerned, I feel I'm using exactly the same skills, whatever they are, to play the role as you do with something more obviously comic. It's slightly different muscles, but the same skill set.
Rowan AtkinsonIt is very linear storytelling, and I think that's not so much the fashion. I was watching a new drama the other night which was extremely non-linear, where you flash back and flash forward in ways that certainly keeps you on your toes as the audience. There's not much of that courage with the storytelling in our Maigret film.
Rowan Atkinson