Dolmen (miniseries) explained

Genre:	Crime miniseries
Screenplay:	Marianne Le Pezennec Nicole Jamet
Story:	Nicole Jamet Marie-Anne Le Pezennec
Director:	Didier Albert Eric Summer
Starring:	Ingrid Chauvin Catherine Wilkening Yves Rénier Xavier Deluc
Theme Music Composer:	Frédéric Porte
Country:	France
Language:	French
Num Seasons:	1
Num Episodes:	6
Runtime:	90 minutes
Company:	TF1 Marathon Productions
Network:	TF1

Dolmen is a French TV miniseries consisting of six 90 minute-long episodes, and starring Ingrid Chauvin.^[1] It was written by Nicole Jamet and Marie-Anne Le Pezennec, and broadcast for the first time between 13 June and 18 July 2005 on TF1.^[2]

Synopsis

The story is set in Ty Kern, an island off the coast of Brittany (which is, in real life, Belle-Île-en-Mer). In Ty Kern, four families are connected by ancient rivalries and secrets: the Kersaints, the Le Bihans, the Pérecs, and the Kermeurs. Marie Kermeur, a young police lieutenant, returns to the island to marry her childhood love, Christian Bréhat. But on the day before their wedding, strange events begin to happen. The bloody corpse of a seagull is brought in by the tide, Marie is assaulted by strange nightmares during the night, her brother Gildas is found dead, and menhirs near the town begin to ooze blood.^[3]

Aided by an inspector from the mainland, Lucas Fersen, Marie decides to clarify these strange phenomena. It is at this time that a series of deaths begin to occur.

Cast and characters

Family tree

Kermeur family

Proprietors of a hotel.

• Marie, lieutenant of the Gendarmerie in Brest (Ingrid Chauvin)
• Millic, Marie's father (later known not to be so) (Jean-Louis Foulquier)
• Jeanne, Marie's mother (later known not to be so) (Martine Sarcey)
• Gildas, Marie's other brother (Luc Thuiller)
• Loïc, Marie's brother (Manuel Gélin)
• Nicolas, Loïc's son (Tom Hygreck)

Pérec family

• Yves, medical doctor and mayor (Marc Rioufol)
• Chantal, Yves' wife (Catherine Wilkening)
• Aude, daughter of Yves and Chantal (Lizzie Brocheré)

Kersaint family

• Arthus, Châtelain (Georges Wilson)
• Pierre-Marie ("PM"), Arthus' son (Hippolyte Girardot)
• Erwan de Kersaint, Arthus' son and Marie's real father (both secrets later to be revealed) (Yves Rénier)
• Armelle, Pierre-Marie's wife (Laure Killing)
• Juliette, daughter of Pierre-Marie and Armelle (Emilie de Preissac)

Le Bihan family

Owners of a faïencerie (factory for fancy pottery)

• Yvonne, head of the business (Nicole Croisille)
• Pierric, Yvonne's mentally handicapped son (Chick Ortega)
• Gwenaëlle (often shortened to Gwen), Yvonne's daughter (Micky Sébastian)
• Philippe, Gwenaëlle's husband (Didier Bienaimé)
• Ronan, son of Gwenaëlle and Philippe (Thomas de Sambi)

Other characters

• Christian Bréhat, Marie Kermeur's fiancé, a famous Yacht racing captain (Xavier Deluc)
• Anne Bréhat, Christian's sister, owner of a café at Ty Kern (Brigitte Froment)
• Lucas Fersen, major in the Brest Gendarmerie (Bruno Madinier)
• Patrick Ryan (false identity adopted by Erwan de Kersaint), Irish novelist
• Stéphane Morineau, head of computer forensics for the Brest Gendarmerie (Richard Valls)

Technical details

• Directed by: Didier Albert
• Screenplay: Marianne Le Pezennec and Nicole Jamet
• Production: TF1 and Marathon Productions

Filming locations

• Port of Ty Kern: port of Sauzon, Belle-Île-en-Mer.
• Faïencerie Le Bihan: the faïencerie HB-Henriot, Quimper.
• The lighthouse: the lighthouse of the Kermorvan peninsula, at Le Conquet.
• Site de Guénoc (English: Guénoc place—the bleeding menhirs): built with concrete on a metallic structure on the Kermorvan peninsula, near the lighthouse at Le Conquet.
• Château des Kersaint (the castle of the Kersaint family): Château de Kerouartz, in Lannilis. It is an early 17th-century mansion, where a woman was, in fact, murdered.

International broadcast

• Basque Country: ETB2, October 2006 — November 2006
• Belgium: RTL TVI, June 2005 – July 2005
• Germany: RTL 2, November 2006
• Hungary: RTL Klub, 2006 summer
• Italy: Rete 4, August 2006 – September 2006
• Portugal: RTP1, August 2006
• Switzerland: TSR, June 2005 – July 2005
• Poland: TVP 1, February 2006
• Russia: TV3, May 2007
• Finland: MTV3, June 2007 — August 2007
• Slovenia: POP TV, July 2007 — August 2007
• Portugal: RTP1, December 2007
• Czech Republic: TV Nova, January 2008
• Catalunya: TV3, January 2008
• Netherlands: Misdaatnet (Dutch commercial crime TV network), May 2011
• United States: MHz WorldView, September 2013

References

1. Web site: Ty-Kern, une île très connue, mais peu visitée... . https://web.archive.org/web/20090122181059/http://www.elfes-bretagne.net/?Ty-Kern-une-ile-tres-connue-mais . dead . 22 January 2009 . elfes-bretagne.net . 11 May 2020 . fr . Ty-Kern, a well-known but little-visited island....
2. Web site: Dolmen . a-suivre.org . 11 May 2020 . fr.
3. Web site: Dolmen - Das Sakrileg der Steine . zweitausendeins.de . 11 May 2020 . de . Dolmen - The sacrilege of stones.