Bergerac was a
British televisionPublic television broadcasting started in the United Kingdom in 1936, and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channelsTaking the base Sky EPG TV Channels. A breakdown is impossible due to a) the number of...
show set on
JerseyJersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
. Produced by the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
in association with the
Seven NetworkThe Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...
, and screened on
BBC1BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
, it starred
John NettlesJohn Vivian Drummond Nettles, OBE is an English actor, historian and writer who is best known for playing the lead roles in Bergerac and Midsomer Murders.-Early life:...
(who later starred in British crime series
Midsomer MurdersMidsomer Murders is a British television detective drama that has aired on ITV since 1997. The show is based on the books by Caroline Graham, as originally adapted by Anthony Horowitz. The lead character is DCI Tom Barnaby who works for Causton CID. When Nettles left the show in 2011 he was...
as
Tom BarnabyDetective Chief Inspector Thomas Geoffrey "Tom" Barnaby is a fictional detective created by Caroline Graham. DCI Barnaby is featured in the Chief Inspector Barnaby book series which began with The Killing at Badger's Drift in 1987. Barnaby is also the main detective in Midsomer Murders, a popular...
) as the title character Detective Sergeant Jim Bergerac, a detective in "Le Bureau des Étrangers" ("The Foreigners Office", a fictional department, based on the real Bureau des Étrangers, for dealing with non-Jersey residents), part of the
States of Jersey PoliceThe States of Jersey Police is the professional police service of Jersey. It was established in its current form by the Police Force Law, 1974 and consists of around 240 officers....
.
Background
The series ran from 1981 to 1991 and was created by producer Robert Banks Stewart, after another of his popular detective series
Shoestring, starring
Trevor EveTrevor John Eve is a British film and television actor. In 1979 he gained fame as the eponymous lead in the detective series Shoestring and is also known for his role as Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd in BBC television drama Waking the Dead.-Early life:Eve was born in Sutton Coldfield,...
, came to an abrupt end. The BBC wanted a series to replace the popular
Shoestring and
Bergerac was thus created. The blend of holiday locations, the island's
tax exileA tax exile is one who chooses to leave a country with a high tax burden and instead to reside in a foreign nation or jurisdiction which takes a lower portion of earnings. Going into tax exile is a means of tax mitigation or avoidance.-Legal status:...
millionaire populace and, of course, some unsavoury criminals, proved a massive hit with viewers.
Like
Shoestring, the series begins with a man returning to work after a particularly bad period in his life: Eddie Shoestring from a nervous breakdown; Jim Bergerac from alcoholism and a broken leg.
As well as the fantasy elements which were incorporated into the series, a number of episodes ended with unpleasant twists, as in
Offshore Trades and
A Hole In The Bucket. The show also dealt with sometimes controversial topics - for example, in one, an old man is unmasked as a Nazi war criminal, and his age raises various moral dilemmas.
A rather implausible element of the series is that Bergerac and his colleagues, who work in a department dedicated to dealing with non-residents, often get involved in cases where there is nothing to suggest that non-residents are involved, only discovering this later.
The evocative theme tune, composed by
George FentonGeorge Fenton is a British composer best known for his work writing film scores and music for television, although he also writes music for the theatre. His real name is George Howe but he is better known by his pseudonym of George Fenton.-Selected film and television credits:Fenton has composed...
, featured a
reggaeReggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
and
accordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
refrain.
The show is still regularly repeated on channels such as Alibi,
BBC OneBBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
and
RTERaidió Teilifís Éireann is a semi-state company and the public service broadcaster of Ireland. It both produces programmes and broadcasts them on television, radio and the Internet. The radio service began on January 1, 1926, while regular television broadcasts began on December 31, 1961, making...
.
Lead character
Jim Bergerac was a complex character and presented by the series as a somewhat unorthodox cop. He was recovering from
alcoholismAlcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...
, partly resulting from an unpleasant divorce. A Jersey native, he returned to the island at the start of the series after recuperating in
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
from ill-health
dipsomaniaDipsomania is a historical term describing a medical condition involving an uncontrollable craving for alcohol. It was used in the 19th century to describe a variety of alcohol-related problems, most of which are most commonly conceptualized today as alcoholism, but it is occasionally still used to...
and major surgery on his leg following an accident caused by him drinking heavily prior to an attempted arrest. The accident is shown in episode two as a flashback: Bergerac was swigging brandy during a surveillance when he noticed his suspect and gave chase. Under the influence of his drinking, he attempted to prevent the man's escape by leaping onto his boat and got his leg crushed against the harbour wall as he slipped back. He was deemed unfit for the force as a result of this accident, but helped his old colleagues out in the recently formed "Bureau des étrangers" and was posted to that unit.
Bergerac's relationships with women were a frequent theme — often as a subplot to the main crime investigation. Bergerac's girlfriends included Francine Leland (
Cécile PaoliCécile Paoli is a French actress who is also well known on British television from the series Sharpe, Bergerac and Holby City.She played Isabelle de Chamonpierre in the 1989 television serial The Ginger Tree, based on the novel by Oswald Wynd. In Sharpe, she portrayed Lucille Castineau.-External...
) (who, in a somewhat odd twist, had originally been the fiancée of a dead colleague), Marianne Bellshade (
Celia ImrieCelia Diana Savile Imrie is an English actress. In a career starting in the early 1970s, Imrie has played Marianne Bellshade in Bergerac, Philippa Moorcroft in Dinnerladies, Miss Babs in Acorn Antiques, Diana Neal in After You've Gone and Gloria Millington in Kingdom...
), Susan Young (
Louise JamesonLouise Jameson is an English actress, best known for playing Leela, the leather-clad barbarian warrior companion of the fourth Doctor in Doctor Who. Jameson has also appeared on Emmerdale , The Omega Factor Louise Jameson (born 20 April 1951 in Wanstead, London) is an English actress, best known...
) and Danielle Aubry (
Thérèse LiotardThérèse Liotard is a French actress best known for her role in the film My Father's Glory .She is known on British television for her appearance in the series Bergerac....
). He also had several encounters with ex-wife Deborah (Deborah Grant) who had custody of their daughter Kim (Lindsay Heath).
Bergerac often displayed "insubordination" when in the Jersey police force. Due to personal differences, and increasing "independence", he becomes a private detective by the end of the series, especially following the murder of ex-girlfriend Susan Young at the start of series 8.
In keeping with his maverick and adventurous style, Bergerac regularly drove a burgundy 1947 Triumph Roadster (a forerunner of the Triumph's TR series of sports cars) which, with its long bonnet, was a vehicle totally unsuited to the narrow and winding Jersey roads with their speed limits of no more than 40 miles per hour. Two different cars were used throughout the series. The first was notoriously unreliable and John Nettles generally had to endure the fact that it would not always stop when it was supposed to. The car's engine was also horribly noisy and a separate soundtrack was utilised to enhance the supposed coolness of the vehicle. Fortunately the replacement was much more mechanically sound.
Other characters
Few of the characters were repeated throughout the entire series, but a number appeared in many episodes.
One of the most notable characters is Charlie Hungerford (played by
Terence AlexanderTerence Joseph Alexander was an English film and television actor, best known for his role as Charlie Hungerford in the British TV drama Bergerac.-Early life and career:...
, well known as having played Monty in the BBC adaptation of
The Forsyte SagaThe Forsyte Saga is a series of three novels and two interludes published between 1906 and 1921 by John Galsworthy. They chronicle the vicissitudes of the leading members of an upper-middle-class British family, similar to Galsworthy's own...
), who also happens to be Jim Bergerac's former father-in-law. Charlie is a "lovable rogue" and would-be tycoon, who is often involved in shady dealings, but is paradoxically something of an innocent. Bergerac usually had a good relationship with him (although in the first episode
Picking It Up they are not on the best of terms) and in one of the more unbelievable aspects of the series, Charlie was somehow involved in all but one of the 91 cases Bergerac was involved in, Charlie being a good source of gossip when Bergerac had to deal with tax-exiles and people in high places.
Other regular characters in the series included Deborah (Deborah Grant) , Bergerac's ex-wife, and his boss, Chief Inspector Barney Crozier (
Sean ArnoldSean Arnold is an English actor.He is best-known for his roles as Mr Llewelyn inGrange Hill in the 1970s and 1980s, and as Barney Crozier in the 1980s BBC television series Bergerac....
), previously Inspector, later Superintendent. Bergerac also had several sidekicks, who were generally detective constables. Hardly any crime could have be solved without the help of Crozier's redoubtable secretaries Charlotte (
Annette BadlandAnnette Badland is an English actress best known for her work in children's television.-Biography:Her training took place at East 15 Acting School, London...
) and Peggy (Nancy Mansfield). Many of today's best known stars can be seen in various episodes of the series.
One of the popular recurring characters was glamorous jewel thief Philippa Vale (
Liza GoddardLiza Goddard is an English television and stage actress best known for her work in the 1970s and 1980s.-Early life:Goddard was born in Smethwick, West Midlands, England...
) who went by the nickname of the Ice Maiden. She and Bergerac had an ongoing flirtatious relationship. Many people agree that the best episodes were the ones featuring the Ice Maiden character, because of the onscreen chemistry between Liza Goddard and John Nettles. Philippa Vale appeared in an almost once-a-series basis and a Christmas Special. When Bergerac was not pursuing her, they engaged in friendly bantering.
Series 7 saw the last appearance of Philippa Vale, series 8 the last of Barney Crozier, just as the character Peggy had also vanished around this time (after series 7) and regular off-duty hostess Diamante Lil (Mela White) had made her last appearance in series 5. Following the episode "Root And Branch", Jim's ex-wife Deborah moved from Jersey to England and her number of appearances dwindled. Susan Young, who had become a mainstay of the series from series 4 and onwards, had her last appearance in the first episode of series 8. The last series were thus left somewhat empty of familiar characters, often with only Bergerac himself and Charlie Hungerford remaining.
Location
The series played heavily on its Jersey location, and its supposed 'Frenchness' even in its theme tune. The early storylines were usually in and around Jersey, with short scenes shot in England and France. In later episodes however, the action strayed further and further away from Jersey, and was increasingly based in France — introduced in part through a French girlfriend.
As Jersey is a small island (nine miles long by five miles wide), most of the filming locations there can be tracked down with ease. Jim Bergerac and Susan Young's flat was located just above
St AubinSaint Aubin is a port in the Channel Island of Jersey. It opens out to a bay of the Gulf of Saint-Malo.Originally a fishing village at the opposite end of Saint Aubin's Bay from the town of Saint Helier, Saint Aubin is now the hub of the parish of St. Brelade. Its name refers to Saint Aubin of...
, a few doors along from the Somerville Hotel. Although, part of the interior was actually within another flat at
GoreyGorey is a village in the parishes of St. Martin and Grouville on the east coast of Jersey. It is one of the three main harbours of the island....
, six miles away. However, Jim's original home in the first few series was submerged when the
States of JerseyThe States of Jersey is the parliament and government of Jersey.The Assembly of the States of Jersey has exercised legislative powers since 1771, when law-making power was transferred from the Royal Court of Jersey....
flooded the valley to create the Queen's Valley reservoir in 1991. Plans for this reservoir were referred to at the start of season four, when Bergerac is forced to seek new accommodation because of them, in the process meeting an estate agent who becomes his new girlfriend (i.e., Susan).
One of the main sites of the series achieved notoriety much later. The "Bureau des Étrangers" was located at
Haut de la GarenneThe Jersey Accommodation and Activity Centre is a building in Saint Martin, Jersey, in the Channel Islands. It was formerly known as the Industrial School, the Jersey Home for Boys, and Haut de la Garenne. Its previous uses have included being an industrial school, a children's home, a military...
, a former
children's homeChildren's Home is a historic building at 427 Robeson Street in Fall River, Massachusetts.The Home was built in 1894 and added to the National Historic Register in 1983....
which in February 2008 became the focus of the
Jersey child abuse investigation 2008The Jersey child abuse investigation 2008 is an investigation into historic child abuse in Jersey. It started in the spring of 2007. Formerly, a social worker, Simon Bellwood had made a complaint about a "'Dickensian' system" where children as young as 11 were routinely locked up for 24 hours or...
. The building, on Mont de la Garenne overlooking
Mont OrgueilMont Orgueil is a castle in Jersey. It is located overlooking the harbour of Gorey. It is also called Gorey Castle by English-speakers, and lé Vièr Châté by Jèrriais-speakers....
and the Royal Bay of
Grouville-Vingtaines:Grouville is divided for administrative purposes into vingtaines as follows:*La Vingtaine des Marais*La Vingtaine de la Rue*La Vingtaine de Longueville*La Vingtaine de la RocqueThe Minquiers are part of the parish of Grouville....
, ceased being a children's home in 1983 and was re-opened as Jersey's first and only youth hostel.
The original Bureau in the TV series was located in
St Helier'sSaint Helier is one of the twelve parishes of Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. St. Helier has a population of about 28,000, roughly 31.2% of the total population of Jersey, and is the capital of the Island . The urban area of the parish of St...
Royal Square, but due to the popularity of the programme, filming was often difficult after the first season as the pretence of filming a documentary series (a rather boring subject to watch) was spoilt by public recognition of Jim's Triumph.
Windward House, Le Mont Sohier, St Brelade (under threat of demolition in 2009) with lush grounds overlooking Ouaisné and St Brelade's Bay, was a stunning location used internally and externally throughout all 9 seasons and the Christmas specials. This pink and grey building with while pillared entrance first appears in season 1, episode 6 "Portrait of Yesterday", as the home and wedding venue of the incidental characters Windward House then reappears from season 2, episode 1 as Charlie Hungerford's main residence where he is hosting a large garden fête, and then appears in almost every episode of the show - either used heavily as part of the central plot, or as a backdrop for family gatherings, drinks parties, business meetings, barbecues, marquee events, etc. The entire house was used over time - particularly the living room with French windows, dining room, conservatory and long gallery hallways. External filming regularly included the gardens, paddock, driveways, fruit gardens, greenhouse, cider press, rockery. The house becomes Bergerac's "home" when he is in between properties of his own, and due to its unique design, sums up in many people's minds what a Jersey "millionaire's" house looks like.
Noirmont Manor,
NoirmontVingtaine de Noirmont is one of the four vingtaines of St. Brélade Parish on the Channel Island of Jersey.Together with Vingtaine du Coin, it forms "St.Brélade No. 1 district" and elects one Deputy....
, is Charlie Hungerford's home throughout season one. Whilst no explanation is given in the show as to why he moves to Windward House for later episodes, Noirmont Manor is notoriously hard to reach, being down a very steep hill, and perhaps not suitable for the big BBC Film Crew vans.
As is standard practice in film and television drama shot on location, the places portrayed are not intended to create an accurate travelogue of the actual island. In the fictional story on screen, locations from different island locales were frequently edited together into the same sequence. John Nettles, in his book
Bergerac's Jersey, states that the locals were always amused by such editing.
As the series ran for a decade, directors found it increasingly difficult to find locations which had not been over-used in past episodes. While promoting his film
White NoiseWhite Noise is a 2005 supernatural horror film, directed by Geoffrey Sax. The title refers to electronic voice phenomena , where voices, which some believe to be from the "other side," can be heard on audio recordings...
in an interview with
XposeXposé is an Irish entertainment/celebrity gossip programme, broadcast weekday evenings at 6pm on TV3, with a repeat the following day at 12:50pm on TV3 and again at 6.30pm on 3e .-History and format:...
magazine, director
Geoffrey SaxGeoffrey Sax is a British film and television director, who has worked on a variety of critically acclaimed and popular drama productions in both the UK and the United States....
described how he made an effort to find new locations, only to return for the actual shoot to find camera tripod marks in the ground, another director having shot there in the meantime.
Supernatural elements
The 4th season episode
What Dreams May Come? was the start of an annual tradition of episodes with stories that bordered on the fantasy, with supernatural elements and a surreal atmosphere. Later episodes with fantasy elements included the bizarre poisoning of freemasons in
Poison, the Christmas episode
Fires in the Fall (which features a Bergman-esque representation of Death which appears, to judge from the last line, to have been real in spite of a '
Scooby-DooScooby-Doo is an American media franchise based around several animated television series and related works produced from 1969 to the present day. The original series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, was created for Hanna-Barbera Productions by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears in 1969...
' explanation having been offered a scene earlier),
A Man of Sorrows which is the only episode of the sixth series set almost entirely outside Jersey, the only episode at all to lack Charlie Hungerford and - partly because of the heroin nature of the storyline, partly because of the lack of familiar characters - a dark, humourless episode unlike any other in the series), the densely plotted
The Other Woman,
The Dig involving an apparent Viking's curse (apparently inspired by Hammer Horror movies), and
Warriors about a group who believed in the existence of Atlantis.
DVD release
Bergerac is being made available on DVD (Region 2, UK) by 2 Entertain/Cinema Club. The first series was released on 8 May 2006, including audio commentaries on three episodes. The second series was released on 13 July 2006 and the third series was released on 23 October 2006. The other series have been released at regular intervals and the final series is due for release in August 2009.
Unfortunately, mistakes occurred in the supply of the source material for the DVD releases which mean the episodes of Series 1 and 6 are highly edited versions, originally broadcast on UK daytime television. This error has been amended on the Complete DVD Box Set release, which includes all episodes in their full length.
Final episode
The final episode filmed was the 1991 Christmas Special titled 'All for Love' which was partly set in Bath. The final scene provides a strong hint about Bergerac's future after Charlie Hungerford has recommended Bergerac for the new position of heading up the Bureau des Étrangers as it is rolled out across the Channel Islands following its success in Jersey.
See also
- List of Bergerac episodes
- The Detectives
The Detectives is a British comedy television series, starring Jasper Carrott, Robert Powell, and George Sewell. It was a spoof of police dramas, which were numerous in the 1990s, and it was aired on BBC One...
, a BBCtv comedy series, one episode of which features John Nettles's last performance to date as Jim Bergerac.
- Will Smith Presents the Tao of Bergerac
Will Smith Presents the Tao of Bergerac is a British radio comedy programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2007. The programme is presented by the comedian Will Smith and concerns his obsession with the 1980s detective series Bergerac starring John Nettles. Nettles makes cameo appearances in each...
, a radio comedy series based on an obsessive fan of Bergerac
- Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
External links