Fernand

In Je ne suis pas coupable, the France Télévisions adaptation of Sad Cypress for the TV series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie, Fernand is the gardener of the elderly millionaire Élisabeth Laroche-Viseul and adoptive father of Clémence Mouson. He is the parallel of Bob Gerrard, the Hunterbury lodgekeeper in the original novel and his daughter Clémence is the parallel of Mary Gerrard.

Fernand plays much the same role as in the original novel but has a lot of screen time in the adaptation. He is portrayed as a lascivious man who is frequently drunk. Twice he tries to attack Lampion (who is undercover dressed as a woman). He is very confident about his position in the household and thinks he might even benefit from his employer's will because he knows secrets.

Like Bob Gerrard, Fernand reveals near the end that his adopted daughter is actually the daughter of the mistress of the house Élisabeth Laroche-Viseul. However Fernand tells this directly to the police after Clémence is murdered and is a lot more explicit in the details. He tells commissaire Larosière that he and his wife were in Switzerland and met Madame Laroche-Viseul who was six months pregnant. After she gave birth to Clémence, she suggested that Fernand and his wife adopt the baby and come and work forher. As the Fernands were not able to have children, they were at first overjoyed. However Fernand found that his wife began to devote all her attention to the girl and neglected him. Like in the original, Fernand's wife died some years before the events in the episode.

After the guilty verdict in the trial of Claire Laroche-Viseul, Fernand dies in a car crash. Unlike the original this accident had significance. Lampion notices that the car Fernand was driving was too expensive for a person in his station. Someone must have been paying him off to buy his silence. Lampion and Larosière believe they may have missed something and restart the investigation which finally clears Claire.

Fernand is portrayed by Philippe Soutan.