Channel hopping with Bergerac
MARION McMULLEN looks at how crime investigations in the sunshine began 40 years ago with Bergerac
UNCONVENTIONAL top cop Detective Sergeant Jim Bergerac once noted: “Jersey is an island. It’s nine miles by five and, if you drive very slowly you can take a whole hour to go right round it. But when you get back, there’s still the same old restaurants and bars, discos and boutiques. Same sad faces waiting to be faced.”
John Nettles first appeared as the casually attired detective in the BBC’s new crime drama on October 18, 1981.
He was part of the Bureau des Étrangers, which investigated crimes involving visitors to the island.
Writer and creator Robert Banks Stewart had scripts for TV series Shoestring that were never filmed and they became the basis for Bergerac.
Jim was a recovering alcoholic and divorcee, but he beat Eddie Shoestring in the car stakes. He drove a classic Triumph Roadster instead of a Ford Cortina.
John, who had previously played the boyfriend of Nerys Hughes’ character Sandra in BBC sitcom The Liver Birds, said: “It was a very happy time in my life and one that I would not forgo for the world. Put it this way, if you’re working in a place where you get up for a shoot day at 6.30am, stroll down to the beach, have a swim followed by a nice breakfast and then roll up on the set to film – you can’t get better than that.”
Bergerac remained on screen for a decade and 87 episodes were made featuring guest stars like Warren Clarke, Call The Midwife’s Stephen McGann, Harry Potter actor Michael Gambon as a computer genius and Blackadder’s Baldrick Tony Robinson as a character called Shlomo Denkovitz. Comedian Norman Wisdom also appeared as a safe cracker.
Liza Goddard was so popular as cool jewel thief Phillipa Vale that she appeared in six episodes over the years to run rings around Bergerac. John said: “We used the same plot over and over again, but that didn’t seem to matter.”