''Baptiste'' is a British TV drama starring

Tchéky Karyo Tchéky Karyo (; born 4 October 1953) is a French actor and musician of Turkish origin. Beginning his career as an actor on stage in classical and contemporary works, he began to work as a character actor in films in the 1980s. He has acted in nu ...

as Julien Baptiste, a character that originated in the series '' The Missing''. The spinoff is produced by Two Brothers Pictures and distributed worldwide by their parent company All3Media. The first series, set in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

, was broadcast on

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, ...

starting in February 2019 and is written by Jack and Harry Williams, who also wrote ''The Missing''. In the United States, it was broadcast by PBS on its series ''

Masterpiece A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...

'' beginning on 12 April 2020. A second series, set in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population o ...

, began on BBC One on 18 July 2021.

Synopsis of first series

The show uses one of the central characters from the TV series, '' The Missing'', the detective Julien Baptiste, played by

. Baptiste's wife and daughter are played by the same actors from ''The Missing'', otherwise, all other characters and actors starring in the programme are new. After having an operation on his brain tumour, Julien Baptiste claims he is not the man he once was. His former boss persuades him to help the

Dutch Police National Police Corps ( nl, Korps Nationale Politie), colloquially in English as Dutch National Police or National Police Force, is divided in ten regional units, a central unit, the police academy, police services center, and national control ...

look for a missing 15-year-old enslaved

sex worker A sex worker is a person who provides sex work, either on a regular or occasional basis. The term is used in reference to those who work in all areas of the sex industry.Oxford English Dictionary, "sex worker" According to one view, sex work i ...

. While looking, he meets Edward Stratton, the uncle of the missing girl. All is not as it seems with Edward and the show also introduces Kim Vogel, who has a criminal history and Constantin, a

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania ** Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...

national who is seen murdering and dismembering a victim at the start of the programme.

Cast

as Julien Baptiste * Tom Hollander as Edward Stratton *

Jessica Raine Jessica Raine (born Jessica Helen Lloyd; 20 May 1982) is an English actress. She is best known for her roles as Jenny Lee in the television series ''Call the Midwife'' (2012–2014) and Verity Lambert in the television film '' An Adventure in ...

as Genevieve Taylor * Clare Calbraith as Clare *

Talisa Garcia Talisa is a female given name. Notable people with the name include People * Talisa Lanoe (born 1994), Kenyan swimmer *Talisa Soto Miriam Talisa Soto (born March 27, 1967) is an American former actress and former model. She is known for portrayi ...

as Kim Vogel * Trystan Gravelle as Greg *

Anastasia Hille Anastasia Hille (born 1965) is an English film, television and theatre actress, and ceramicist. Born in London, she was a student at London's Drama Centre and won second prize at the Ian Charleson Awards in 1994 (the first prize was awarded to ...

as Celia Baptiste *

Anna Próchniak Anna Próchniak (born 22 December 1988) is a Polish actress who initially trained as a dancer until deciding to switch to acting, graduating from the National Film School in Łódź. Próchniak's first major international film role was in '' The ...

as Natalie Rose *

Barbara Sarafian Barbara Sarafian (born 16 April 1968) is a Belgian actress. She began her career in radio programmes, including ''Sonja Duplex'' from Studio Brussel and (The New World) from Radio 1. In Flanders, her television debut in the much-repeated ser ...

as Martha Horchner *

Alec Secăreanu Alexandru "Alec" Secăreanu (; born 4 December 1984) is a Romanian actor. He gained international recognition for playing Gheorghe in the 2017 film ''God's Own Country''. Early life Alexandru Secăreanu was born in Bucharest. He completed dram ...

as Constantin * Nicholas Woodeson as Peter * as Niels Horchner *

Fiona Shaw Fiona Shaw (born Fiona Mary Wilson; 10 July 1958) is an Irish film and theatre actress. She is known for her roles as Petunia Dursley in the ''Harry Potter'' film series (2001–2010), Marnie Stonebrook in the fourth season of the HBO ser ...

as Emma Chambers (series 2) * Gabriella Hámori as Kamilla Agoston (series 2) * Stuart Campbell as Alex Chambers (series 2) *

Conrad Khan Conrad Louis Khan (born 2000) is an English actor. His performance in the film ''County Lines'' (2019) earned him nominations for Young British/Irish Performer at the London Critics Circle Film Awards, Most Promising Newcomer at the British Inde ...

as Will Chambers (series 2) *

Dorka Gryllus Dorka Gryllus (born 26 December 1972) is a Hungarian film and theatre actress. She is the daughter of Dániel Gryllus, a Hungarian musician, performer and composer, founding member of folk music group Kaláka and Katalin Kőváry, a theatre dir ...

as Zsófia Arslan (series 2) * Miklós Béres as Andras Juszt (series 2)

Episodes

Series 1 (2019)

Series 2 (2021)

Production

The BBC announced in April 2018 that a spin-off from its successful ''The Missing'' series would go into production and was set to be broadcast in 2019. Most of the action for the first series was set in

in the Netherlands; although some exterior scenes were shot there, some were actually filmed in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

and

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded i ...

in Belgium. Additionally, a handful of scenes were shot in

Deal A deal, or deals may refer to: Places United States * Deal, New Jersey, a borough * Deal, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * Deal Lake, New Jersey Elsewhere * Deal Island (Tasmania), Australia * Deal, Kent, a town in England * Deal, a ...

, Kingsdown,

Ramsgate Ramsgate is a seaside town in the district of Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century. In 2001 it had a population of about 40,000. In 2011, according to the Census, there was a populati ...

and

Sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

, all in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, England. The first series consisted of six episodes, all being broadcast on a Sunday evening. A second and final series began on BBC One on 18 July 2021.

Reception

Carol Midgley writing in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ( ...

'', gave the first episode three out of five and declared the first 45 minutes to be "underwhelming", though the last 15 minutes picked up and left her "semi-intrigued". ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'' described the programme as a "slowburning spin-off" and "the opener draws you into a darkly compelling plot". ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'' described the first series as "worth sticking with" and gave it three out of five. Stuart Jeffries of ''

'' gave the second series four out of five.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Baptiste (Tv Series) 2019 British television series debuts 2021 British television series endings 2010s British crime drama television series 2010s British mystery television series 2020s British crime drama television series 2020s British mystery television series BBC television dramas English-language television shows Murder in television Television series by All3Media Television series about missing people Television shows set in Amsterdam