Le Mystère Daval (TF1): why did the TV movie divide opinion before it was broadcast?

A new news story adapted to the screen. This Monday, September 12 is broadcast Le Mystère Daval, the telefilm event to discover on TF1, returning to this media affair which shook France in 2017. That of Alexia Daval, who died burned and murdered by her husband Jonathann, the latter having been sentenced to twenty-five years in prison in November 2022.

Among the actors, we find Michèle Bernier and Jérôme Anger in the role of Isabelle and Jean-Pierre Fouillot, the parents of the victim. As well as Thierry Neuvic in the skin of captain Da Costa in charge of the investigation, or even Liam Baty who plays Jonathann Daval and Maud Baecker who will play the role of Alexia.

A protagonist that the actress, revealed in Tomorrow belongs to us, greatly dreaded playing. “It’s quite disturbing and very delicate to embody a real character, with a tragic destiny”, entrusted to Télé 7 Jours, the one who fears the reactions of families and loved ones. “Always, when it comes to a true story, but we have tried to be as close as possible to reality”.

Freely inspired by The Alexia Daval Affair – the true story of journalists Laurent Briot and Christophe Dubois, the idea behind the fiction “was to show as rigorously as possible the course of this investigation”, explained the actress to our colleagues. Before the broadcast of the fiction this evening at 9:10 p.m. on TF1, many Internet users expressed their reaction on social networks.

“It will be without me. To puke to make a TV movie on that. And the parents, it’s not better”, “But what a zero idea to make a TV movie on the Alexia Daval affair seriously! Frankly, a little respect for Alexia’s family, no? I certainly won’t be watching Le Mystère Daval”, said these disgruntled individuals on Twitter. Another Internet user, who would have seen the fiction before its broadcast, tells. “I watched it last night, despite a somewhat abrupt end, it was very interesting. The resemblance, in particular, to the actor of Jonathan Daval was striking”.

On the side of those close to the Daval affair, the reactions are also divided. “It’s going to stir everything up again,” said Martine Henry, Jonathann Daval’s mother with L’Est Républicain. “We have no choice, we can’t oppose it, but we don’t need that”. One of his lawyers, Randall Schwerdorffer, says he will be in front of his post to follow the TV movie. “Of course I will watch this fiction. I am interested in seeing how other eyes who have seen this affair from the outside can synthesize it, analyze it and transmit it to the public. look like a spectator. A spectator who experienced the reality of this story like an actor”, according to his comments reported for France Bleu.

As for the parents of Alexia Daval, they would have refused and expressed their disagreement to take part in the fiction with the production, according to Marianne. It remains to be seen whether this media affair will bring together as many viewers as for A French affair, returning to the Grégory Vuillemin affair. The mini-series broadcast in six episodes in the fall of 2021 had attracted an average of 3.10 million followers on TF1, according to Purémedias.