Ooh la larks

THERE was intrigue on TV at the weekend as a senior public servant claimed that a famous politician with a terrible wig had once tried to bribe him in a posh hotel.

Michael Fabricant can rest easy though. The story was about as rooted in reality as his barnet.

In any case, as the tale was told in STV’s new Sunday night crime drama Murder In Provence the politician in question was French.

This murder mystery series isn’t in French though – much to the chagrin of many social media commentators who couldn’t get their heads around a load of British actors playing foreigners in a foreign country, yet speaking with British accents.

To read the outrage, it was almost as if the likes of Maigret and Van der Valk had never done the same thing on British television. Also, if we’re going to complain about characters in TV drama not speaking like the locals do, EastEnders should surely get a mention.

Luckily, what Murder In Provence does have is the scarily reliable Roger Allam from Endeavour, who was jambonning it up as a crimefighter, investigating Judge Antoine Verlaque.

Like a prime Alan Partridge, Allam has already expressed a strong desire for a second series – and you can see why.

He clearly had a ball swanning around the south of France investigating crimes and delivering sarcastic quips and withering putdowns, like a glorious cross between The Thick Of It’s Peter Mannion MP and Endeavour’s DI Fred Thursday. Murder In Provence would be worth watching for Allam alone, but he’s not alone.

He’s more than ably assisted by the likes of Nancy Carroll as his lady friend Marine Bonnet; Patricia Hodge, playing Miranda’s – sorry, Marine’s – mother Florence; and The Greatest Showman’s This Is Me lady, Keala Settle, as Verlaque’s police sidekick Helene Paulik.

Yes, the very American Keala Settle is playing a French woman in France, but speaking in a (very convincing) British accent.

If you find that idea a little mind-blowing, you can take comfort from the fact that at least in this she doesn’t have a beard. Well, not yet anyway.

‘‘ Murder In Provence would be worth it for Allam alone