(soft music) - I am playing Louise Maigret, and she is Maigret's wife.

She is a psychiatric nurse.

I work a lot with divided families.

I think in order to do that job, you need to have a real understanding of the dark places that people can end up.

A real curiosity into people's minds and how they work.

So that gave me quite a lot of insight into who she was.

- You pulled a double shift.

- Got busy.

- You must get some sleep.

- They have so much patience and respect, understanding for each other.

It's a really sort of deep, connected love.

- She kind of is his absolute foundation, I think.

The reason why he can go and get so deeply involved and immersed in these cases is because he knows when he gets home to Madame Maigret, that things are very calm and very balanced, and they do their best to support each other.

- The Maigret's world is so different to the rest of the show.

- How was your day?

- Uh, at the moment, it's bank robbers four, Maigret nil.

- Our bits are so warm and homey and soft, compared to, I guess what is quite gritty and fast and intense.

- Her home, their home, is Maigret's safe place.

(upbeat music) The second most important character in the "Maigret" novels is his wife.

And naturally, in a contemporary version, Madame Maigret is going to be more active than she was in the past versions.

- They're a really good team.

They work together really well.

I'm doing detective work for you.

There's no other character in the series who says, you know, "Have you thought about this information?"

He clearly respects her opinions, knows she has her own training, which is different to his, that's one of the really beautiful layers we managed to find in it.

- I think he feels quite like he was saved by meeting her, and despite the fact that his job really takes him away from home so much and makes him a really unsociable guy, she has seemingly endless patience for his job.

And I think she also believes that he's doing the right thing.

- Oh, love, do what you do.

- They're supportive of one another.

And Stephanie just really embodies that wife who has a sense of duty to her husband, but also gets it back from him, which I think is really a great marriage to portray on screen.

- They're happy together.

This is the place he wants to be.

And we might see that home threatened in the course of this series, but it'll emerge stronger.

And what Stephanie brings to this complicated, emotional role is grace and wit.

- Figure out this relationship and the dynamic between them.

That's sort of my favorite work to do really, is like people stuff, like how do they relate to each other?

Where are their tensions?

And they've been on a long road to get to where they are, and I think she's just very proud of him.

(gentle instrumental music)