Spiral

Originally in 2002, Alain Clert asked his daughter Alexandra, a criminal defense lawyer, to think about a series showing how the judicial system works; the project was supposed to be an anthology series (one episode = one story), and the pilot, which was filmed but never broadcast, was called Intrigues au palais.

Alexandra Clert found this initial concept too bleak, which led the production and Canal+ to completely rethink the project, resulting in the serial drama Engrenages.

The original French title Engrenages has no simple literal translation: the English title Spiral takes up the expression 'a spiral of violence', while retaining the French connotations of mechanical traps or cycles of dependency ('the drug trap').

Season 2 was based on the story of a real police officer, Éric de Barahir, who later participated in writing seasons 2, 3 and 4 of the series.

The character of Joséphine Karlsson, a criminal defense lawyer played by Audrey Fleurot, was inspired by the real lawyer Clarisse Serre.

Jean-Pierre Colombi, a retired former commander of the Anti-Banditry Squad, was a technical advisor on the series before joining the set directly from season 5 onwards, after an appearance in the final episode of season 4.

From season 5 onwards, the writers began working on the new season while shooting of the previous season was still underway, and the team of consultants (judges, lawyers, police officers) was expanded to strengthen the realism of the series.

Season 7 is dedicated to the memory of producer Alain Clert, father of Alexandra Clert (creator of the series and former criminal defense lawyer), who died on 29 May 2018 at the age of 76.

Engrenages won the International Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 2015 and was sold to nearly seventy countries, making it one of the first French series to achieve such export success.