This week, for the 17th episode of Série Series l'émission, Marie Barraco & Pierre Zéni welcome scriptwriter Marie Roussin and actor and author Olivier Marchal, two craftsmen of quality popular series.
After training in scriptwriting and production (UCLA, CEEA) and initial experience of collective writing on series ( Les Bleus, Odysseus...), Marie Roussin took part in the creation of the series Cut! (France Ô), then joined Frédéric Krivine's writing team on Un Village Français (France 3), from season 5 to the end of the series. She then took part in the scripts of various popular French series, including season 6 of Fais pas ci, Fais pas ça (France 2) and Hôtel de la Plage (France 2), before returning to the USA to work on season 3 of the series Borgia (Canal+) under the writing direction of Tom Fontana. In 2015, she became writing director for the first two seasons of the French adaptation of Les Bracelets Rouges (TF1). She is also the creator and showrunner of Mixte, Amazon Prime's first French series, due for release on June 14, 2021.
While working in the police force, Olivier Marchal drew inspiration from the thrillers of his youth to write short stories and poems. It was when he sold his first screenplays that he left the police force to devote himself to his career in broadcasting. He didn't leave his first vocation completely behind, however, and over the years became one of the leading figures of the "cop" character on French television, whether as a writer for Commissaire Moulin (TF1), Central Nuit (France 2), Flics (TF1), Braquo (Canal+), Section Zéro (Canal+) or as an actor for Police District (M6), Les Rivières Pourpres (France 2) or more recently La Promesse (France 2).
In this episode, Marie Roussin and Olivier Marchal look back on their careers and their writing processes, which reflect the plurality of authors' techniques. They also discuss the importance of quality popular series, great sagas and strong, diverse characters.
