Just saw this on the Talking Pictures channel (UK) - we've seen all the other British TV Maigret series, Rupert Davies in the 60s (BBC B&W, Simenon's reported favourite), Gambon in the 90s, and the more recent ones with Rowan Atkinson as a rather skinnier Maigret!
I just read the other 3 reviews, one by Grachev ("great film version") is quite funny, praising the "shot in France, Paris atmosphere and people". In fact the Cremer series had most location shooting done in Prague or Budapest (the latter was also the setting for the terrific Gambon episodes, 12 in all, featuring many Hungarian actors & technicians). So much for that fan?!
Reviewer Whalen rightly says this book has been very popular for TV films, all the British versions did this story. Davies had just an hour to find the killer, but the 2 ITV versions had rather longer, Gambon about an hour and 20 mins, Atkinson nearly 2 hours. The latter 2 went very thoroughly into examining the characters of the killer and his female relatives, and were in no way overshadowed by this French version. Gambon especially showed how to get in their heads, and that one had 2 very strong female performances, and a much more nuanced killer. I can't believe Whalen has actually seen all the versions, to reach that conclusion!
The British versions didn't bother showing us all the previous murders, so saved a little time, didn't detract from the story, we soon knew the background! One continual irritation with this French version is that Maigret's trusty R-H man, Lucas, (almost ever present in the books -- and I've read a lot, though not all) hardly ever features in them. Bizarre!