Roger Bessan

In Rendez-vous avec la mort, the French adaptation of Agatha Christie's Appointment with Death for the TV series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie, Roger Bessan is the general handyman/butler employed at the Hotel du Nord, the establishment owned by the late mother of Ernest Tricard. This character is unique to this adaptation and there is no parallel character from the original story. Roger Bessan is portrayed by Olivier Carré.

Commissaire Laurence and Tricard describe Roger as the factotum but he undertakes butler duties in the hotel. According to Tricard, his mother's hotel had had no customers for ages but she had refused to sell it. She kept Roger on as the only member of the staff.

Shortly after the beginning of the show, Clémence Berg, the Mrs Boynton parallel and sister of Tricard arrived in France with her children for her mother's funeral. She and her family moved into the hotel. Clémence took a dislike to Roger and gave him a month's notice. However this threat came to nothing her mother's will left everything to Tricard as well as the car, some paintings and an annuity to Roger.

The enmity between Clémence and Roger made Roger a plausible suspect in her murder. He had a previous conviction for attempted murder. He also had the air of being somewhat of a mysterious character. When Alice Avril moved into the hotel as a maid for Clémence, he shocked Alice by being able to appear seemingly from out of nowhere in the building. He told Alice he had long developed the knack of moving about quietly and unnoticed and had also cultivated the ability not to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. He advised Alice not to be at the wrong place at the wrong time as well.