Bergerac

Bergerac

This 80s gem comes to us from the scenic island of Jersey and stars good old Cornish boy John Nettles (now better known for top German TV hit, Midsummer Murders) as recovering alcoholic Jim Bergerac. Jersey native Bergerac rails against his island’s transformation from a tight knit pastoral fishing community to the arch-Thatcherite tax haven where Dave Cameron’s dad hid all of his money, all the time driving around in his trademark vintage sports car solving the palest of white collar crime.

Now, all good detectives have demons, and Bergerac’s comes in the classic form of a drink problem that resulted in the break-up of his marriage and a serious accident that is partially revealed through flashbacks in the course of the first series. Unlike most TV detectives, Bergerac beats his alcoholism, demonstrated well by a particularly strong 3rd series episode in which he is kidnapped and forced to neck a bottle of whisky.

Bergerac is also joined by a host of recurring characters, the most notable of which is his ex-father in law, the delightfully dodgy tax exile Charlie Hungerford, who manages to be instrumental in all but one of Bergerac’s 91 cases. We also meet a string of 80s-haired girlfriends, the first of which he seems to have stolen off his dead best friend (best not judge); his annoying ex-wife and adolescent daughter; and his police colleagues, led by the combative Inspector Crozier.

Bergerac’s cases, first as a Detective Sergeant of the absurdly titled and completely fictional ‘bureau des étrangers’ of the Jersey police and then as a private detective, span the full 80s gauntlet of shady financiers with giant beige computers, crooked arms dealers supplying apartheid era South Africa, the New York mafia (yes, they make the Jersey/New Jersey joke, they go there), shady sheikhs, and the usual common villains.

Even though some of the storylines may seem corny to the discerning 21st century viewer (because they really are), Nettles’ likeability and light comic touch carries the series, and makes Bergerac prime 80s TV viewing. Just don’t let the sax nightmare of a theme tune put you off!