Bergerac, U&Drama review - the Jersey 'tec is born again after 34 years

They stopped making the BBC’s original Bergerac in 1991, so you can hardly complain that this reboot is premature. John Nettles became closely identified with the titular detective Jim Bergerac before he decamped to Midsomer, murder capital of the world, and has declared himself impressed with Damien Molony’s performance as the born-again sleuth (pictured below, Molony picks up the baton from Nettles).

So, we’re back among the picturesque architecture, broad sandy beaches and French-sounding place names of Jersey, where we find Chief Inspector Bergerac in a troubled frame of mind.

His wife Rachel has recently died, leaving him with teenage daughter Kim (Chloe Sweetlove) to bring up and battling a serious alcohol problem. When in doubt he’s liable to reach for his hip flask, and can sometimes be spotted loitering with intent outside a friendly off-licence.

He’s been batting aside the efforts of a therapist called Pete (Aidan McArdle) to make him sit around discussing his “feelings”, and finally reaches the conclusion that a nice bit of police work is the best therapy for his shell-shocked state of mind. Evidently Bergerac had been Jersey’s ace detective, though naturally there are doubts about whether he’s in a fit state to pick up where he left off. However, when news comes in of the murder of Cate Wakefield, daughter-in-law of the wealthy businessman Arthur Wakefield (Phil Glenister), police chief Uma Dalal (Sasha Behar) decides to give him a go, though only in a supporting role to lead detective Barney Crozier, played by Robert Gilbert. (Pictured below, Bergerac's famous Triumph Roadster rides again).

This proves a little awkward, since Crozier evidently has an axe to grind – he resents the fact that Bergerac is regarded as a better detective, and has little inclination to give his rival a friendly leg up. In fact he even sets a sneaky little trap for Bergerac, luring him into falsely suspecting a weirdo called John Blakely and cunningly obscuring the fact that Blakely had a foolproof alibi.

This new Bergerac differs from the original in that it follows a single story over its six episodes, rather than tackling a new case every week. Obviously that means viewers lose out on the instant gratification, but it also gives screenwriter Toby Whithouse more scope to explore character, motivation and so forth.

He does it pretty well too, equipping all the major characters with plausible light and shade and keeping the cogs of the plot ticking along nicely without feeling forced (though the way the opening scene was edited to make it look as though Bergerac had murdered his own wife seemed like a pointless bit of misdirection). Molony’s portrayal of the eponymous investigator mixes shrewdness with glimpses of impatience and acerbity, which is understandable enough given his state of mind, and the way his instincts and energy pick up speed as the case develops lends the narrative a pleasing sense of momentum.

Glenister’s rather sinister performance as Wakefield helps to impart a lurking sense of menace, while Zoë Wanamaker (pictured right with Molony) delivers a drily amusing turn as Charlie Hungerford, Bergerac’s mother-in-law (back in the day, Bergerac had a father-in-law called Charlie Hungerford, played rogueishly by Terence Alexander). A little bit of class warfare is injected into the mix by the new Charlie’s eagerness to have her granddaughter enrolled in the swanky St Bernadette’s girls’ school, a notion grumpily rejected by Bergerac. Charlie and his ex-wife were evidently a little more to the manor born than our man-of-the-people sleuth.

Not quite so plausible is gauche local news reporter Chloe Havron (Ayesha Antoine). She comes barging in with questions like “are you a corrupt cop who pursues vendettas by framing innocent men?” which obviously nobody is going to dignify with an answer. But overall, this has winning potential.

• Bergerac airs on Thursdays at 9pm on U&Drama and the whole series streams on the U platform from 27 February

• More TV on theartsdesk