Yesterday evening, France 2 finished broadcasting Sambre. The opportunity to see Jonathan Turnbull one last time in the striking role of Enzo, inspired by the “rapist of the Sambre”. We tell you more about the actor who revealed himself in the mini-series.
A new face that bursts the screen. Since the start of its broadcast in mid-November on France 2, Sambre has been both a critical and popular success.
The six episodes of the mini-series attracted between 3 and 3.7 million people, allowing the two to rank second in audiences during its first two evenings of broadcast, and first during the final evening.
Since then, Sambre has even allowed France 2 to break a record in replay which dated from 2019, with almost a million additional people on D+8 for the launch evening of the mini-series.
A mini-series inspired by a dramatic true story
As a reminder, Sambre is freely inspired by the so-called “Sambre rapist” affair. At the end of the 1980s, in the north of France, women were raped early in the morning, always in the same way, on the same road, along the Sambre river.
The police, who do not understand the scale of the case, do not make the connection between them. The justice system quickly finds itself overwhelmed by the accumulating files.
It will take thirty years to arrest a man who never stopped attacking women during this period and who is responsible for at least fifty rapes or sexual assaults.
Adapted from the eponymous work by journalist and screenwriter Alice Géraud, Sambre traces the hunt for the “Sambre rapist” between 1988 and 2018 and the way in which the latter managed to slip through the cracks throughout this time.
Each episode takes a different point of view, alternating between that of a victim, the justice system, political authorities, scientific teams, the police, or even the rapist.
The cast of the mini-series includes, among others, Alix Poisson (Parents instructions, Jeux d’influence, Germinal), Pauline Parigot (HPI, Sentinels), Noémie Lvovsky (Life Does Not Scare Me, Camille Repeats), Clémence Poésy (Harry Potter, In Therapy, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon), as well as Olivier Gourmet (The Promise, Rosetta, An Intimate Conviction).
Already seen in Sentinels And See Paris again
But the one who appears to be the revelation of the series is, without a doubt, Jonathan Turnbull, whose performance as Enzo, the character inspired by the “rapist of the Sambre”, was noticed.
Born in 1994 in Morocco, Jonathan Turnbull moved to France with his family during his adolescence. Not at all predestined to become an actor, the young man enrolled in the Florent course after participating in a theater course. He ultimately continued on this path under the influence of those around him, who made him aware of his talent.
Since 2017, Jonathan Turnbull has appeared in several films (Mes provinciales, Ronde de nuit), but it is mainly thanks to a series, Sentinelles (OCS), in which he plays one of the main roles, that Jonathan Turnbull has become known in 2022. The same year, the young man plays in Revoir Paris, alongside Virginie Efira and Benoît Magimel.
In 2024, Jonathan Turnbull is expected in season 2 of Sentinelles, but also in the international series Paris has fallen (Canal+), with Tewfik Jallab (seasons 7 and 8 of Engrenages, Oussekine, Pax Massilia), Ritu Arya (Last Christmas , Umbrella Academy), or even Emmanuelle Bercot (Mon roi, Polisse, L’Abbé Pierre, une vie de combats).
If Sambre ended last night on France 2, we should, however, still see a Jonathan Turnbull moment on the small and big screen…