Maxime Beaumont

In L'Heure zéro, the French adaptation of Agatha Christie's Towards Zero for the TV series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie, Maxime Beaumont is a TV chef for the TV Nord channel and the parallel of Nevile Strange from the original novel. Maxime is portrayed by Nuno Lopes.

Like Nevile, he is a celebrity. In this case, Maxime is a well known chef. He had been born in Lisbon, half Portuguese and half French and then moved to Paris to train under some famous masters. He then ran a restaurant which have garnered at least two stars (probably Michelin stars). Much more of a "blue beard" than Nevile, Maxime was at one time married to Audrey Fontaine, a newly appointed news anchor at the channel. His present wife Claire Beaumont works as an announcer as well. In addition, Maxime also had a previous relationship with Marlene. He had promised to marry her more than ten years ago but had broken off the engagement three days before the wedding, claiming that he wanted to join a monastery. However, part way through the episode, Laurence discovers that Maxime never became a monk--he left Marlene to marry Audrey just a few months later. During the episode, Maxime also tried to seduce Alice Avril who had joined the station and ended up assisting him in his cooking show.

Like Nevile Strange in the original, Maxime also had a motive for murder, in his case the killing of station boss Jean Devandière. Just prior to joining the station, Maxime had begun to drink heavily and his frequent drunkenness affected the performance of his restaurant, causing it to lose two stars. Devandière bought over the restaurant and kept it afloat. In addition, he offered Maxime a slot as a cooking show presenter. By the terms of Devandière's will, the restaurant would have reverted to Maxime. However, like Nevile, there is the all too obvious clue pointing to him, in this case, a blood-stained kitchen knife left at the crime scene with only his fingerprints on it (unlike the original novel, this is the actual murder weapon). This blatantness of this clue caused Laurence to look elsewhere and work on the premise that someone else was trying to frame Maxime. In addition, Maxime had also planted another clue to point to his real target Audrey. In this case, he had poisoned Devandière with strychnine before stabbing him, knowing that Audrey has strychnine with her (her purpose for having strychnine is not explained). However this ploy fails because Marlene, bitter that Maxime had left her, changes the lab report to say digitalin (which Maxime uses) instead.

In a plot twist unique to this adaptation, Maxime has to point the finger at Audrey again, Maxime has to improvise another killing, this time of his wife Claire, which he does by disappearing during his cooking show to go backstage, ostensibly to fetch ingredients. He leaves one of Audrey's gloves nearby as another clue. This succeeds, but not for long as Marlene discovers that it was Audrey who left Maxime and not the other way around. Laurence makes some calls and discovers that Maxime had spent time in a psychiatric hospital after his divorce with Audrey. Like Nevile, Maxime was also egotistical enough to insist that Audrey keep up the pretense that it was he who left her and in this case he does so by blackmailing Audrey with a mistake she made when she was a young journalist.

Like Nevile, Maxime is ultimately pushed over the top psychologically to reveal his true colours but this takes place in a different way. Late one night at the TV station, Alice, who has stepped in as a news anchor, does up her hair like Audrey and changes into her clothes in order to practice for the role. She had been told to attempt to emulate Audrey's style. Maxime is attracted and invites Alice for dinner at his restaurant. During the dinner, things take a weird turn when Maxime starts calling Alice "Audrey" and blames her for ruining his life. He grabs a knife and tries to kill her. Fortunately, Laurence and co. by this time has figured out what is going on and rush to the restaurant in time to intervene.

Besides admitting to the killing of Devandière and Claire, Maxime also confesses to two more. He killed Roger Foucher, the TV Nord news anchor. He did this to create a vacancy at the station. He then persuaded the station to employ Audrey and so bring her into his reach. Finally he also confessed to killing Audrey's lover (the Adrian Royde parallel) before he could marry Audrey. Like Nevile the original, Maxime insists right to the end, that his plan was good.