Recently Jane has watched several episodes of a detective series called Patience (2025-). A detective is given invaluable hints in a case by someone who works in the records department, a neurodivergent woman called Patience. Tonight we settled down to watch something different, a French language detective series called Astrid: Murder in Paris (2019-). A detective is given invaluable hints in a case by someone who works in the records department, a neurodivergent woman called… well, Astrid, obviously.

It turns out that the later series (set in York) is a remake of the earlier one (set in Paris). It isn’t a blow by blow recreation but so far it seems to be worked up from essentially the same script. I think I can make a pretty canny guess about how episode 2 is going to run and who turns out to be the murderer.

To my eyes, the French one feels a lot older. As much as anything, I suspect that is due to how I’ve got used to British standards for filming TV drama. It hits more of the beats I expect whereas the French version is speaking a different cinematographical language as well as a different verbal one. Both are worth a watch for comparison although, for now, I think I’ll stick with the one set in York.