SUMMER '36

 

This six-part Netflix series in French (with subtitles, of course), is loosely based on Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express.  English "cosy" mysteries of the Midsomer Murders type don't usually adapt well to foreign versions, but in this case it works very well indeed.

The series is set in Nice, and as the title suggests, in the year 1936, when the shadow of Hitlerism and fascism is spreading over Europe.  Despite the growing menace - and the surreptitious appearance of German secret police -- the festivities go on as usual, with wonderful costumes, and plenty of cheerful effects.  I really enjoyed the sights of abbes and nuns in traditional garb in the crowded streets.

The story revolves around four young women, related in various ways, plus two older ladies, the mother and aunt of two of the young ones. They are equivalent to the passengers in Christie's train, but it is impossible to tell just how they are involved in the series of murders, each of which happens at the end of an episode.

Nice is particularly cheerful in the summer of 1936, as workers are celebrating their first legally paid holiday, and are (sort of) finding their feet in the swanky resort. One of the workers is married to one of the four young women, Eugenie Berthier, who is the heiress to a factory, and is visiting her estranged father for the first time in 17 years. Naturally, there is conflict, particularly when her 16-year-old niece falls in love with her worker husband's working young brother.  Her sister, Blanche, is involved in a very tawdry love affair, while her husband (though unknown to her) is secretly saving Jews from the Nazis.

And then there is Leonie Morel, an apprentice detective, who is working for the Nice police surreptitiously, as she is really trying to clear the name of her father, who is due to meet the guillotine for a murder he did not commit.  And her sister, Guilia Vincent, is also in Nice, working in a high - and very vulnerable - position at the luxurious Riviera hotel -- where a famous prosecutor is murdered in episode number one.

It is wonderfully complicated, and compulsive viewing.  The actors are all amazing, but I have to admit the one I liked best was the policeman in charge of the cases, Inspector Raven.  For a start, he is not dumb.  He actually solves the case -- but in an unusual kind of way.  The actor, Francois-Xavier Demaison, is so very good that I will be watching out for his name in the future.

Highly recommended.