''Paris Police 1900'' is a French

crime drama Crime film is a film belonging to the crime fiction genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and fiction. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine with many other genres, such as Drama (film and television), dr ...

television series created by Fabien Nury that was first broadcast on 8 February 2021 on

Canal+ Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...

in France and was shown on

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

in October 2021. A follow-up series of six episodes, featuring the same characters and called , was released in 2022.

Synopsis

In 1899 in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, the Third Republic is in crisis again. Amid civic unrest fuelled by rumours of the impending release of

Alfred Dreyfus Alfred Dreyfus (9 October 1859 – 12 July 1935) was a French Army officer best known for his central role in the Dreyfus affair. In 1894, Dreyfus fell victim to a judicial conspiracy that eventually sparked a major political crisis in the Fre ...

, the government is under threat from

nationalists Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, Id ...

royalists A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gover ...

and

anti-Semites Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

on one hand and from

anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or hierarchy, primarily targeting the state and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state w ...

on the other. The situation is made worse by the sudden death of the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Félix Faure Félix François Faure (; 30 January 1841 – 16 February 1899) was President of France from 1895 until his death in 1899. A native of Paris, he worked as a tanner in his younger years. Faure became a member of the Chamber of Deputies for Seine- ...

. It is against this background that Antoine Jouin, an ambitious young detective of the Police Prefecture, is assigned to investigate the dismembered torso of a young woman found in a suitcase floating down the

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

. In the course of the investigation, Jouin encounters Louis Lépine (retired Prefect of Police, recalled to restore order in Paris), Jeanne Chauvin (the second woman in France to obtain a law degree and to be licensed to plead at the bar) and Meg Steinheil (a notorious '' demimondaine'' turned

police informant An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a "snitch", "rat", "canary", "stool pigeon", "stoolie", "tout" or "grass", among other terms) is a person who provides privileged information, or (usually damaging) information inten ...

). All become involved in the suppression of a more serious plot: a threatened coup against the Republic, orchestrated by the Guérin family. Connections are discovered between the dead woman and the police, in the form of rogue officer Joseph Fiersi, as well as with the aristocratic Gabriel Sabran de Pontevès and his family.

Cast

* : Antoine Jouin, inspired by (or precursor of) Louis-François Jouin, policeman killed by

Jules Bonnot Jules Joseph Bonnot (14 October 1876 – 28 April 1912) was a French soldier, Illegalism, illegalist anarchist, bank robber, and murderer. He is notorious for his role in the French anarchist band "The Bonnot Gang" that committed many crimes in ...

in 1912. *

Évelyne Brochu Evelyne Brochu (born November 17, 1982) is a Canadian actress and singer-songwriter. In 2013, she became well known for her English-speaking role as List of Orphan Black characters, Delphine Cormier, a French scientist on the hit Canadian science ...

: Marguerite Steinheil * Thibaut Évrard : Joseph Fiersi * Marc Barbé : Louis Lépine * Eugénie Derouand : Jeanne Chauvin *

Patrick d'Assumçao Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint * Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...

: Commissaire Puybaraud * Alexandre Trocki : Commissaire Cochefert * Hubert Delattre :

Jules Guérin Jules Guérin (; 14 September 1860 – 10 February 1910) was a French journalist and anti-Semitic activist. He founded and led the Antisemitic League of France (), an organisation similar to the , and edited the French weekly (Paris, 1896–19 ...

* Valérie Dashwood : Mme Lépine * Yannick Landrein :

Sébastien Faure Sébastien Faure (; 6 January 1858 – 14 July 1942) was a French anarchist, convicted sex offender, freethought and secularist activist and a principal proponent of synthesis anarchism. Biography Before becoming a free-thinker, Faure w ...

* Jean-Benoît Ugeux : Morpinet * Christophe Montenez : Gabriel Sabran de Pontevès * Christian Hecq :

Alphonse Bertillon Alphonse Bertillon (; 22 April 1853 – 13 February 1914) was a French police officer and biometrics researcher who applied the anthropological technique of anthropometry to law enforcement, creating an identification system based on physical m ...

* Astrid Roos : Hélène Chagnolle * Vincent Debost : Hector * Anthony Paliotti : Louis Guérin * Anne Benoit : Maman Guérin * Renaud Rutten : Alphonse Chagnolle * Nicolas Bouchaud : Weidmann * Dan Herzberg : Jeannot Dornet *

Yann Collette Yann Collette (born 14 April 1956) is a French actor. He appeared in more than sixty films since 1979. Selected filmography References External links * 1956 births Living people French male film actors {{France-film-actor-19 ...

: le comte Sabran de Pontevès * Steve Driesen :

Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau Pierre Marie René Ernest Waldeck-Rousseau (; 2 December 184610 August 1904) was a French Republicanism, Republican politician who served for three years as the Prime Minister of France. Early life Pierre Waldeck-Rousseau was born in Nantes, ...

* Olivier Pajot :

Marie-Armelle Deguy Marie-Armelle Deguy is a French actress, the daughter of poet and essayist Michel Deguy. Filmography Cinema *1988: ''La Septième dimension'' by Laurent Dussaux *1988: ''Zanzibar'' by Christine Pascal *1988: '' L'Enfance de l'art'' by Fra ...

: la comtesse de Vaudois * Noam Morgensztern : Gustave Pertaud * Eddie Chignara :

Édouard Drumont Édouard Adolphe Drumont (3 May 1844 – 5 February 1917) was a French journalist, author and politician, most often remembered for his antisemitic ideology and animus. He initiated the Antisemitic League of France in 1889, and was the founder ...

* Renaud Hezeques : l'inspecteur Guichard * Raphaël Thiéry : Mimile

Episode list

Reception

The show was widely praised by critics, with Phil Harrison, for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', describing it as "A classy, raunchy Parisian noir... A promising mixture of high intrigue and low cunning."

References

External links

* * 2021 French television series debuts Canal+ original programming French-language television shows French police procedural television series Television series set in the 1900s Television shows filmed in France Television shows set in Paris {{France-tv-prog-stub