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FRENCH TV

French zombie drama wins International Emmy

Critically-acclaimed French TV series 'Les Revenants' (The Returned) walked away with the award for best international drama series at Monday night's International Emmy Awards in New York.

French zombie drama wins International Emmy
"French zombies that didn't know they were liked, are going to go out. Beware." French drama The Returned wins International Emmy for Best Drama Series. Photo: xstu25/Youtube

Rights for the fantasy-zombie show, which was created by Fabrice Gobert, have already been bought in some 40 countries, including the US, Canada, Australia, Germany, and throughout Latin America.

Accepting the golden trophy at the New York Hilton, producer Caroline Benjo thanked Gobert and Canal + "so daring in their choices" as well as Sundance Channel, which has just begun airing the show in the United States.

She joked that all the "French zombies that didn't know they were liked, and are going to go out. Beware."

The series, marking a kind of renaissance in French television, was also remarkably successful in Britain earlier this year when a subtitled version aired on Channel 4.

It notched some 1.8 million viewers, the best audience for a subtitled show in Britain since 2006.

It has been airing with subtitles on Sundance since October 31st on Sundance in the United States – a high achievement for a French show.

Some 36 nominees from 19 countries were competing in nine categories at the 41st International Emmy award ceremony, which honours the best television made outside the United States.

The Returned, along with the likes of Spiral ('Engrenages'), has led something of a revival in French TV drama in recent years, after decades of what one critic called "rubbish television that lost its soul."

SEE ALSO: Zombies lead revival of French TV industry

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What’s on TV – French series and films to stream

Comedy and crime, romance and religion feature in a round-up of the six of the best shows coming to French TV

What's on TV - French series and films to stream
Image: Les Cobayes / Twitter

Call My Agent – Netflix

This superb French comedy drama following the day-to-day lives of a disaster-prone Paris-based talent agency – which goes under the title 10 pour cent here – has just won an Emmy on the other side of the Pond, so of course we were going to mention it here. 

Available to stream now.

Les Chroniques de Sherlock – Salto

What, another Sherlock Holmes adaptation? Yes, indeed. A suitably stylish Russian one, in fact, dubbed into French, in which Conan Doyle’s great detective leaves London for the mean streets of 19th-century St Petersburg on the trail of a certain Jack the Ripper. Available to stream now.

Les Cobayes – OCS

A charming romantic comedy in which a couple – played by Thomas Ngijol and Judith Chemla – who have lost the spark since they had their first child take part in a trial of a drug intended to reignite their love and desire for one another.

Available on demand from November 28th.

Braqueurs – Netflix

The original slick and stylish and gritty 2016 crime drama, from director Julien Leclercq, that follows the lives and crimes of a gang of ordinary decent Paris criminals. The film was so good, it inspired the slick and stylish and gritty Netflix series of the same name.

Available to stream from December 1st.

Le Redoutable – Netflix

Louis Garrel and Stacy Martin star in this charming semi-biographical tale of the love affair between New Wave film-maker Jean-Luc Godard and actor Anne Wiazemsky, 20 years his junior during the making of his 1967 film La Chinoise.

Available to stream from December 2nd.

Ainsi soient-ils – Disney +

The internationally acclaimed series, originally broadcast on Arte and known as The Churchmen in English, follows five very different young men at Paris’s historic Capuchin Seminary. Disney + will stream the first three series from early December. Intriguingly, Netflix has stumped up the cash for a new English-language series set in the US.

Available to stream from December 8th.

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