Les Misérables

In 2000, French television adapted Victor Hugo's 1862 novel as the miniseries Les Misérables, which shares the book's name. It ran on TF1 from 4 to 11 September 2000 in four parts of ninety minutes each. Co-produced by France, Italy, Germany, Spain and the United States, it is counted as the 25th screen version of the novel. Critics praised it, yet it changes the story a lot.

The story is set in France during the early nineteenth-century Restoration. Jean Valjean (Gérard Depardieu) serves about nineteen years for stealing a loaf of bread. Freed, he is hounded by Inspector Javert (John Malkovich), who believes a criminal never changes. Valjean takes in and raises Cosette, the daughter of the destitute Fantine; Virginie Ledoyen plays her as an adult. The cast also includes Christian Clavier, Jeanne Moreau, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Asia Argento and Enrico Lo Verso.

The series departs from the novel in places. It adds a subplot in which Javert goes undercover as a student at Marius's law school, and it reimagines Cosette's maid Toussaint as a large mute male servant who robs Valjean. Josée Dayan directed, Didier Decoin wrote it, and TF1 and GMT Productions produced it. A two-part, 86-minute English version was shot in parallel, the cast redoing each scene in English.