Now,says Karyo,“he’s growing old. He’s still full of energy,but there is this obsession with his job and the tragedy that he’s going through with the family. He’s fighting with his wife. She’s trying to bring him back,but he’s so much in his pain and guilt that he wounds himself. He has to realise how blind and selfish he is. He’s turning in on himself and he gets out of this weird cycle by jumping on a case.”
The case that rouses Baptiste into action involves the husband and sons of the British ambassador to Hungary,Emma Chambers (Fiona Shaw),who vanish from a mountain resort. Baptiste sees the news story,arrives uninvited and attaches himself to the investigation. He starts nosing around and quickly proves more skilled than the local police assigned to the case.
“His focus is very rational,” Karyo explains. “He’s patient,he takes his time. He has good insight into people,he has empathy and a kind of humour and irony,and he’s able to have distance.”
Karyo credits the Williams’ brothers writing with keeping the series alive. “It’s so exciting,their imagination and how they write. It’s never cliched,it’s always surprising. They’ve so much confidence in me and what I can offer as an actor and the mission that they are giving me is so bold. They’re really giving me material.”
They’ve also given him an exciting parade of co-stars,with Shaw (Killing Eve,Fleabag,My Left Foot) as the most recent luminary. The first season ofThe Missing found Karyo in France and London with Nesbitt,O’Connor and Ken Stott;the second featured Keeley Hawes and David Morrissey as the parents of a teenage girl missing in Germany. In the first season ofBaptiste,the retired detective was in Amsterdam tracking the niece of an Englishman (Tom Hollander) and asked to lend his skills to an investigation involving his former girlfriend (Barbara Sarafian),now the city’s police chief.
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The seasoned actor,who has worked steadily since the ’80s,says the changing roster of co-stars has made this job constantly stimulating and that working with Shaw was a pleasure. “The duet with Fiona works very well. In each series,there’s a lot of interaction with the co-stars,and she’s bold,as a character and as an actress,so strong. I really enjoyed coming on set and thinking,‘wow,now I’m going to dance with Fiona again today and she’s great’. She doesn’t take anything for granted,always questioning,so it’s exciting.”
Karyo has worked with some famed film directors,including Eric Rohmer,Luc Besson,Jean-Jacques Annaud and the Taviani brothers,as well as with Australians John Hillcoat (To Have and to Hold) and Ian Pringle (Isabelle Eberhardt). He’s also a singer-songwriter who’s released two albums:Ce Lien Qui Nous Unit in 2006 andCredo in 2013.
With this unexpectedly enduring TV project,the Williams brothers have given him with a welcome challenge:“It’s great for me as an actor. It’s the same character,but he’s not at the same stage. Starting out as that shiny,sparkling character,he’s now in a different state of mind.”
Baptiste (new season) is on BBC First,Tuesday,8.30pm.