‘Baptiste still has a lot of energy and fight. I enjoy expressing that’
Tcheky Karyo talks to Georgia Humphreys about the return of the French detective
Tcheky Karyo may be almost 70 years old but, he insists, he feels like he’s 30.
And it’s a good job really, seeing as the final series of BBC’S Baptiste – in which the French star plays the titular character – had plenty of action for him to get his teeth into.
“It starts with a big fight with the police, and this was a nice challenge, to do this fight with those young guys,” enthuses the actor and musician, who was born in Istanbul.
“I’m happy to show that even if he’s at the bottom of himself, he still has a lot of energy, and he is able to fight. I really enjoy being able to express that.”
By “bottom of himself ”, father-of-two Karyo is referring to the fact his character, retired police investigator Julien Baptiste, has gone through a personal tragedy.
In the first episode of the new series – which is a spinoff from BBC hit The Missing – Julien has pushed his wife Celia (Anastasia Hille) away and is finding relief at the bottom of a bottle. What he needs is a new case to distract him – and then it turns out Britain’s ambassador in Hungary, Emma Chambers (Killing Eve’s Fiona Shaw), needs his help.
Her whole family has disappeared in the Hungarian mountains, so he travels to the resort where she’s staying to use his experience and capacity for understanding human nature, to help her try to get her family back.
But there is lots getting in his way – buried secrets, a police force he cannot trust, and the media – who are obsessed with getting information on such a high-profile, international case.
“At first, Emma is a bit surprised by this stranger,” Karyo, 67 – who’s married to French actress Valerie Keruzore – elaborates on the storyline. “Julien’s not afraid to trespass and is perhaps a bit delusional.
“In the despair that Emma is going through, Julien brings something magical, a different type of hope, and that helps to shake the rut they are in with the case. Emma admires his determination, his stamina, and his complete involvement in the situation. He won’t give up.
“There is an exchange between Julien and Emma, where she is reminiscing on how she ended up in this situation and laughs at her misfortunes, but Julien admires that Emma hasn’t blinked or broken stride, despite her situation.”
He calls the ambitious second series “a very positive challenge, a very exciting adventure for me, to meet actors like Fiona Shaw, who is so amazing in the way she gets involved in her job. She doesn’t take things for granted, she’s always questioning, so it becomes a real dance.”
He adds it was great working with Shaw because they are more or less the same age, and have both done a lot of theatre work.
“I also appreciate that despite being from such different origins – she is British, I’m French – we have the same cultural references. She knows the same people I know in France and we had that as our middle ground. It was moving and there was something quite dear in meeting Fiona. I really love her!"
● The final series of Baptiste begins on BBC1 on Sunday, 9pm and on iplayer