BBC acquires Sambre – Anatomy of a Crime
July 4, 2024
The BBC has acquired Sambre – Anatomy of a Crime, a French crime thriller based on true events, for BBC iPlayer and TV channels, from Federation Studios.
Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, the Oscar-winning filmmaker behind docuseries The Staircase and the drama Laetitia, recounts the extraordinary legal case of a serial rapist who attacked women across three decades in the same location. The cast of the six-part series includes Alix Poisson, Clémence Poesy, Olivier Gourmet, Noémie Lvovsky, Jonathan Turnbull and Pauline Parigot.
Sue Deeks, Head of BBC Programme Acquisition, commented: “Sambre – Anatomy of a Crime is an absorbing series about France’s most notorious sexual predator, and of how he was allowed to slip through the cracks of the judicial system for over 30 years. Each episode is told from the perspective of a different character involved in the case – a victim, the judge, the mayor, the scientist, the police officer and finally, the perpetrator, and is a gripping examination of the flaws of a society and its institutions”.
The series (6×60) is directed by De Lestrade, written and created by Alice Géraud and Marc Herpoux, and based on the investigation by Alice Géraud. Produced by What’s Up Films and Federation Studios in coproduction with Versus Production, originally commissioned by France Télévisions.