Frédérique Corlet

In Le miroir se brisa, the French TV film adaptation of Agatha Christie's The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, by France Télévisions, Frédérique Corlet or Fred is the parallel of Margot Bence in the original novel. She is the stills photographer at the film studio where Blanche Dulac, the Marina Gregg parallel is working on a comeback film. Fred is portrayed by Camille Rutherford.

Compared with Margot, Fred has a larger role in the plot although her backstory is roughly similar. Fred works as the stills photographer in the film studio of Marc Borel (the Jason Rudd parallel). During a drinks session at the studio (and not during a village fete), she snaps photos of the personalities and captures a shot of Blanche Dulac with Simone Maupin (the Heather Badcock parallel). Blanche has a frozen look on her face as though she has had a great shock.

Fred's backstory emerges through her relationship with Alice. She takes a liking to Alice who turns up at the studio to investigate the death of Simone. Fred offers to make Alice her assistant as this would give her free access to the studio. She also teaches Alice how to develop photos and make prints. It is during one such session that Alice makes a print with the "frozen" look on Blanche which she then hands to Laurence. Fred's relationship with Alice develops and later Alice invites her to her flat. After a night together, Fred admits that Blanche Dulac was her mother. Blanche adopted her when she was two. But later, when Blanche became pregnant with her own child, she lost interest in her adopted daughter. Fred, who was then ten, was sent to an expensive boarding school in England. Blanche never visited Fred and later Fred decided to make a life for herself and travelled to London where she learnt photography. Probably at this time she changed her name from "Frédérique Dulac" to "Frédérique Corlet". She told Alice that she got a job at the studio more or less by chance but she was hoping perhaps for something to happen but Blanche never recognised her.

Later, Fred breaks into the Dulac mansion. Laurence, who happened to be there, arrests her. Fred explains that she is only trying to see her mother. But there is a bottle of methanol in her bag (used for cleaning lenses). Dr Mentchikoff had been killed by methanol in his asthma inhaler. The case against Fred is quite overwhelming. She had concealed her real name of Dulac. Moreover, she had lied about how she got into the studio. It was not a chance appointment. She was not originally a stills photographer but a photojournalist. She begged her editor to let her go and then begged the producer to take her on in the studio. She had also earlier told Alice that her mother who abandoned her would be made to pay.

Unique to this adaptation, Fred is cleared by means of a second of her photos. Alice, while working in the darkroom spots some contact prints in the waste bin. One of the frames shows Simone Maupin showing a photo to Blanche Dulac. Laurence searches Simone's handbag and finds a photo of her son Georges who has a story which would prove to be a major breakthrough in the case.

Note that "Corlet" is never mentioned in the episode dialogue as Fred's lastname. Throughout, she introduces herself as "Fred". However her full name "Frédérique Corlet" is written clearly on Laurence's chalkboard.