STEAL AWAY (LUPIN - SERIES ONE & TWO)

Until this year, it is safe to say the gentleman thief Arsene Lupin was probably not that well known in the English speaking world.

Originally created in 1905 by the French writer Maurice Leblanc, the master of disguise featured in 17 novels and 39 novellas, having originally been serialised in a magazine.

He inspired a cheeky novella where Leblanc introduced him to Sherlock Holmes, until Arthur Conan Doyle objected to the appropriation of his famous sleuth.

Leblanc promptly changed the character's name to Herlock Sholmes.

Lupin has appeared in 25 movie adaptations over the years in France, Germany, Japan, Mexico and the US from the silent era to well into the 21st Century.

Jean-Pierre Leaud, Romain Duris and the 1930s Hollywood actors Lionel Barrymore and Melvyn Douglas are among those who have played him on the movie screen.

There have been 12 television dramas inspired by him, six theatre productions in Paris, London and New York, eight comics featuring Leblanc's character and three video games.

However this year, Lupin broke new ground with a streaming series inspired by the character on Netflix and it quickly earned the distinction of becoming the most successful non English speaking drama this year on the platform - only to be overtaken by South Korea's 'Squid Game' in the autumn.

Adapted for the small screen by Georges Kay and François Uzan, Netflix's version reimagines Lupin in the present day as an avenging, gentleman thief.

Omar Sy, who some Francophile audiences may know from the 2011 comedy drama hit movie 'Les Intouchables,' is cast as a modern day version of Leblanc's hero.

Always one step ahead, we first see his character Assane Diop in the Paris projects facing some serious heat from a group of loan sharks.

Assane talks his way out of a tight corner by involving them in a daring heist he is planning at a high profile auction in the Louvre.

The object he has set his sights on is a stunning necklace belonging to the influential Pellegrini family who his Senegalese father, Fargass Assande's Babakar Diop used to work for as a chauffeur.

We later learn Assane has a particular beef with Herve Pierre's corrupt businessman Hubert Pellegrini and his wife, Nicole Garcia's Anne who set Babakar up for allegedly trying to steal the necklace.

Babakar went to jail and died behind bars, with Assane going to a foster school clutching the Arsene Lupin book he received among his father's possessions.

Devouring Leblanc's story about the gentleman thief and modelling himself on its hero, Assane makes it his mission to find out what happened to his father and to right a terrible wrong.

ThIs leads him to the Louvre where he assumes the identity of a suave businessman Paul Serrine who successfully bids for the necklace.

His plan to get the loan sharks to steal the necklace before he has to fork out the money appears to go awry when the gang double crosses him.

The gang, however, are apprehended while Assane manages to make off with the real necklace.

As Vincent Londez's Captain Romain Laugier and Shirine Boutella's Lieutenant Sofia Belkacem lead the investigation into the disappearance of the necklace and try to piece together what happened, a colleague, Soufianne Guerrab's Detective Youssef Guedira realises the heist bears similarities to a theft in Leblanc's book.

Even though he works out that Paul Serrine is an anagram of Arsene Lupin, his theories about the connection between the books and the incidents they are investigating are ridiculed by his colleagues.

Determined to understand how his father ended up behind bars, Assane manages to smuggle himself into prison and speak to Francois Creton's Etienne Comet who is seriously ill but worked in the prison library.

Comet directs him to a copy of 'The Confessions of Arsene Lupin' containing annotations by Babakar that reveal he was tricked by Anne Pelligrini into signing a confession to the attempted theft of the necklace.

Smuggling himself out of jail, Assane confronts Anne who admits to forcing his father into signing the confession at the behest of Vincent Garanger's Inspector Gabriel Dumont who is now a Police Commissioner and an ally of her husband's.

Assane kidnaps Dumont and under interrogation the police commissioner reveals his suspicion that Babakar was innocent and that Hubert staged the attempted robbery in an elaborate insurance fraud.

During the interrogation, however, Assane accidentally reveals his identity and quickly has to flee the scene.

Now intent on exposing Hubert 's corruption to the French public, Assane's path leads him to Anne Benoit's veteran journalist Fabienne Beriot whose career was trashed after she came close to unearthing Pelligrini's misdeeds.

However the police are on his tail and Hubert Pelligrini is not the kind of businessman to wave the white flag.

Hubert uses Dumont to keep tabs on the investigation and also deploys Adama Niane's assassin Leonard Kone to silence Fabienne and eventually Assane, even targeting our hero's Lupin-mad teenage son, Etan Simon's Raoul.

Split into two seasons of five episodes each, 'Lupin' could easily come off as frothy Gallic nonsense.

However Kay and Uzan's series thrives on its sophisticated central premise of a Lupin fan on a quest for revenge, paying homage to Leblanc's gentleman thief.

It surfs on the charm of its lead actor, Omar Sy who has a whale of a time as a modern day version of the gentleman thief.

There are shades of James Bond and Bruce Wayne about the Parisian den where Assane houses all his best gadgets and disguises.

And the consummate ease with which he tricks his way into prison or a concert hall has the tongue in cheek playfulness of the Paul Newman and Robert Redford in the conman classic 'The Sting'.

The series is breezily directed by Louis Leterrier and Marcela Said who deliver a confident, pacy thriller that knows when to go dark without ever getting too dark.

Assane encounters setbacks but we never doubt he will come good in the end and it is a testament to the quality of the writing that even in the most preposterous of set ups we are very much invested.

Sy is a splendid choice as the hero - suave, endlessly charismatic, intelligent without being cocky.

He is complemented by Ludivine Sagnier as his estranged wife Claire and Etan Simon as his son.

Antoine Gouy is also delightful as Assane's co-conspirator and longtime friend from his school days, Benjamin Ferel.

Mamadou Haidara, Ludmilla Makowski and Adrian Valli de Villebonne do sterling work as the teenage versions of Assane, Claire and Benjamin, while Fargass Assande engages our sympathies in those flashback sequences as Babakar.

Ricky Tomlinson lookalike Herve Pierre is everything you would want from the chief villain, while Vincent Garanger revels in the role of a corrupt cop.

Clotilde Hesme impresses too as Hubert's daughter Juliette, while Lea Bonneau shines as her flirtatious teenage self.

Adama Niane brings an air of desperation to his menacing role of Hubert's assassin, while Stefan Crepon makes quite an impression in the final episodes as the mysterious stockbroker Philippe Courbet.

Vincent Londez, Shirine Boutella and especially Soufianne Guerrab also make the most of their roles as the detectives trying to keep up with Assane, while Nicole Garcia is effective as Juliette's ashamed mum.

Smoothly shot by Christophe Nuyens and Martial Schmeltz and fantastically edited by Jean Daniel, Fernandez Qundez, Richard Marizy and Audrey Simonaud, 'Lupin' is one of the most enjoyable drama series you will see all year.

With its elaborate confidence tricks and its thrilling action sequences, Kay and Uzan's 10 episode series could easily have jumped the shark just like 'Bloodlands' and 'Vigil' managed to do this year with outlandish set pieces 

It doesn't and a lot of that is down to the writing and direction which knows exactly how and when to deliver its twists without ever treating its audience like a heroin addict looking for a score every 20 minutes.

The door is open for more 'Lupin' adventures and Sy has pretty much hinted the saga is not over.

Those episodes cannot come quickly enough. 

(Season One of 'Lupin' was made available for streaming on Netflix on January 8, 2021 and Season Two on June 11, 2021)