'Murder In Provence's First Images Show A Southern France Set Mystery

It's been nearly a year since the announcement first came that Monumental Television, the UK producer best known for Harlots and Ghosts, had picked up the rights to adapt ML Longworth's Verlaque & Bonnet mysteries. The ten-books-and-counting series, set in Aix-en-Provence, features Antoine Verlaque, the charming chief magistrate of Aix, and Marine Bonnet, his law professor on-again-off-again girlfriend. The two wind up as a team solving crimes together after her close friend, local nobleman Étienne de Bremont, falls to his death, and Verlaque suspects foul play.

At the time, Shelagh Stephenson (Downton Abbey) was attached to write at least the first few episodes of what is now called Murder In Provence, but the series' buzz picked up with the casting of Roger Allam (Endeavour) as the Verlaque and Nancy Carroll (The Crown) as Marine. Also part of the cast is Keala Settle (The Greatest Showman), who plays Verlaque's detective friend Hélène and is the source of most cases that wind up in his jurisdiction. Unlike most odd couple detective stories, Verlaque is doing his job as an Investigating Judge, a fundamental role in the French judicial system.

Along with setting the cast, BritBox announced this would be the first series that was a BritBox US and BritBox UK co-production and that the streaming service would debut the show on both sides of the pond via its own platform. Also, both Stephenson and Allam would serve as executive producers.