Murders In...: 5 Things To Know About France 3's Collection Of Crime Novels.

It is now a well-established habit among French television viewers: fans of police investigations and postcard-perfect landscapes meet on Saturday evenings on France 3! The Meurtres à... collection broadcast in this time slot has been taking crime fiction fans to the four corners of France for ten years now. Here are 5 things to know about this successful franchise.

She has just celebrated her 10th anniversary.

The franchise of "Murders in..." on France 3 was launched on April 23, 2013, with an episode entitled "Murders in Saint-Malo".

Ten years later, to mark the anniversary of this collection of crime dramas, France 3 aired on Saturday, April 29, 2023, "New Murders in Saint-Malo", a new telefilm featuring the same duo of investigators, Bruno Solo and Louise Monot.

The actors from the very first crime telefilm in the series returned to the Corsair City to properly celebrate the event and of course to please fans from the beginning.

2- More than a hundred French actors participated in this adventure.

In ten years of existence, the Meurtres à... franchise has delighted fans of police investigations on Saturday nights on France 3, while also introducing them to postcard-worthy landscapes in French regions.

In total, 60 episodes of this collection have already been broadcast on France 3 before the Nouveaux meurtres à Saint-Malo. With each new TV movie, the cast is renewed. Only Charlotte de Turckheim and Olivier Marchal have participated in two episodes of the collection in different roles.

Over the years, many French actors have participated in this television adventure. More than a hundred actors and actresses (109 to be precise) can boast of having played in one of these regional crime dramas.

Bruno Solo and Louise Monot are not the only investigators in this franchise to have reformed their duo. Before the anniversary episode Nouveaux meurtres à Saint-Malo, Antoine Duléry and Claire Borotra investigated together twice, in Meurtres au Pays basque and Meurtres à Guérande!

3- She has highlighted 15 French regions to date.

In the collection of "Murders in...", the criminal cases, as gripping as they may be, are also a pretext to highlight a region of France. Each TV movie offers, in addition to the actual detective story, a promise of entertainment and change of scenery.

With this successful franchise, the public channel France 3 justifies its title of channel of the regions, by taking viewers to the heart of our territories, in mainland France and overseas! Only the Île-de-France region is excluded from this collection of crime dramas, which aims to be regional and intentionally decentralized.

To date, the Saturday night investigations have allowed fans of this program to discover no less than 15 different regions. The Nouvelle-Aquitaine region has hosted the most shoots, with 9 investigations filmed on its territory.

This collection, where each episode resembles a postcard, makes a point of diversifying the cities that serve as the setting for criminal cases. Some destinations even ask France 3 to come and shoot a Murder in... in their city because these detective TV movies are a great showcase for local tourism.

However, some French territories have not yet been filmed for this collection, such as Réunion and Mayotte, New Caledonia, but also Corsica! These possible filming locations for future episodes are just as many heavenly destinations that loyal Saturday night viewers on France 3 are undoubtedly eager to discover...

4- On average, she attracts 4.62 million viewers.

The diversity of filming locations is undoubtedly one of the reasons that explains the success of this franchise on public television. For ten years, the collection of "Murders in..." on France 3 has averaged 4.62 million viewers.

The audience record for these police investigations is held by "Murders in Corrèze" with Carole Bianic and Arié Elmaleh. This episode, which aired on May 2, 2020, was watched by 6.5 million viewers.

Even "Murder in La Ciotat" with Élodie Varlet and Philippe Bas, the episode with the lowest audience, brought together 3.6 million fans on September 24, 2016, a number that other TV series or dramas would dream of reaching!

The adventure continues at the pace of 7 new episodes every year.

Despite being ten years old, the concept of "Murders in..." is far from running out of steam. 9 new episodes have already been filmed or are currently being filmed, set in the Côte Fleurie, Guadeloupe, and the city of Chantilly!

The adventure is far from over as 5 other TV movies are currently being written. On average, 7 new and unpublished detective stories are broadcasted each year on France 3 as part of this collection.

Anne Holmes, the director of French programs and fiction at France Télévisions, who created this collection, believes that this is the right pace to keep viewers loyal without boring them.

Since this collection of TV movies is also a success in Belgium on RTBF, it is possible that one day "A Murder in Belgium" will be born, offering a joint investigation between French and Belgian police...