Baptiste (TV series)


Baptiste is a spin-off series from the drama The Missing using one of the central characters, Julien Baptiste, played by Tchéky Karyo. The series is produced by Two Brothers Pictures and distributed worldwide by their parent company All3Media. It was broadcast on BBC One starting in February 2019 and is written by Jack and Harry Williams, who also wrote The Missing. In the United States, it was broadcast on PBS on their series Masterpiece beginning on April 12, 2020.

Synopsis

The show uses one of the central characters from the TV series, The Missing, that of Julien Baptiste played by Tchéky Karyo. Baptiste's wife and daughter are played by the same actors from The Missing, otherwise all other characters and actors starring in the programme are new to this storyline.
After having an operation on his brain tumour, Julien Baptiste claims he is not the man he once was. His old boss persuades him to help the Dutch Police look for a missing sex worker in Amsterdam. While looking, he meets Edward, the uncle of the missing girl. All is not as it seems with Edward, and the show also introduces Kim Vogel, who has a criminal history and Constantin,, a Romanian national who is seen murdering and dismembering a victim at the start of the programme.

Cast

Production

The BBC announced in April 2018, that a spin-off from its successful The Missing series would go into production and was set to be broadcast in 2019.
Most of the action is set in Amsterdam in the Netherlands; although some exterior scenes were shot there, some were actually filmed in Antwerp and Ghent in Belgium. Additionally, a handful of scenes were shot in Deal, Kingsdown, Ramsgate and Sandwich, all in Kent, England.
The series is in six episodes, all being broadcast on a Sunday evening.

Reception

Carol Midgley writing in The Times, gave the first episode three stars out of five and declared the first 45 minutes to be "underwhelming", though the last 15 minutes picked up and left her "semi-intrigued". The Guardian described the programme as a "slowburning spin-off" and "the opener draws you into a darkly compelling plot".
The Daily Telegraph described the series as "worth sticking with" and gave it three stars out of five.