Saw this on the Talking Pictures channel (UK, old films and TV). They had previously shown the 1960s series (50+ episodes) featuring Rupert Davies, a generally acclaimed Maigret.
This Cremer version is of course French, with subtitles, but they are not too wordy, so fairly easy to follow. Also very French, lots of atmosphere, meaningful looks, thoughtful silences.
I see some reviews refer to how faithful this version is to the books, a ludicrous statement, as Lucas, his main assistant in all the books I've seen, has disappeared.
This episode was also a bit hard to watch, as we'd seen the same story a few months ago in the Davies series -- this one had the story as quite a different tale, same murder victim, same characters, but a different murderer (or was it self-defence?!).
But the acting is very strong overall, Aurore Clement (I now discover an acclaimed film actress) is superb as the murdered cafe owner's wife, downtrodden and beaten over many years.