For me, the single defining cop show of the 1980s was Bergerac. You can forget your Dempsey & Makepeace and your Cat’s Eyes, Bergerac was the cop for me. He was a man who was troubled by his demons who overcame alcoholism to take on the criminal tidal wave was ashore on Jersey’s picturesque beaches. OK, so some of the stories got ridiculous, but I still enjoy watching the first few series when they air on UK Really Old. It is my guilty pleasure and I am a Bergerac anorak, I admit it. I have no shame.
A few weeks ago, the current run of repeats came to an end on UK TV Old and it got me thinking if, like Doctor Who, the show could be revived for a modern audience. After catching ten pitiful minutes of John Nettles wasting his time in Midsomer Murders, I decided that I would write a script for fun. I’ve never written a TV script before, so I settled in front of the laptop for a couple of afternoons, bashing out a story that would thrill and scare in equal quantities.
This was to be a modern Bergerac. The early episodes were pretty gritty and quite violent, so I got to work putting that stuff back in. I am also a fan of two great crime movies “Get Carter” starring Sir Michael Caine and “The Squeeze” starring Stacey Keach (it is a totally overlooked cult movie that features some tough moments as well as using a track from Olias of Sunhillow by Jon Anderson as part of the soundtrack – weird!), so I wanted this new script to be gritty like them.
OK – I know this will never get made and I wrote it for the pure pleasure of it. If you are a fan of Bergerac, download it, print out a copy and go to bed with it. I am sure you will be entertained – or at least horrified by it.
Here is “The Return of Bergerac”
And for the Googlebots: Bergerac, Jersey, John Nettles, Terence Alexander, St Helier, BBC TV, detective series 1980s