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March 29, 2024, 03:46:31 PM

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The haunting melancholy of Bergerac - a study of loss through nostalgia

Started by BlodwynPig, November 11, 2017, 04:45:05 PM

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gilbertharding

Ah, Bergerac...

There used to be a load of pages on the internet paying tribute to Charlie Hungerford. I think they were put there by the Thick of It actor Will Smith - but I didn't know that at the time, and they've gone now.

I haven't really watched it since it was on first time - and I realise now I missed the last few series due to becoming a young man with much better things to do on a Saturday night than stay in and watch tv with my parents.

I recognise the slow decline though - I've pieced it together from catching occasional episodes on re-run on Yesterday. Was there a series where he had retired from the police to work on a farm in France?

It's a similar trajectory to Blakes 7. The last series should have had the strapline "There's only four of them, and none of them's Blake."

BlodwynPig

Well I was talking about an existential decline rather than a decline in quality. However, the Series 5 Christmas episode did seem to herald a change in the writing. A middling episode with some pathetic Benny Hill chase scene (The Ice Maiden again!). Jim temporarily rises from his eternal angst to have sex in a cellar with the Ice Maiden "good, that", while Susan is away "finding herself". All a bit sordid and typically late-80s. You can see why John Major's government was full of sex scandal. Episodes like this tearing down the layers of pathos and introspection that helped stave off this sort of 70s innuendo.

BlodwynPig

Anyone know what happened to Barney Crozier's teeth after series 1 - I suspect he had them smashed out during a fight trying to get into Rada or something. Unsettling.

gilbertharding

I totally got what kind of decline you meant. Loss of innocence. The inevitability of autumn. The last series of Blakes 7.


I never noticed Barney's teeth. A reverse Dennis Waterman?

BlodwynPig

Quote from: gilbertharding on November 14, 2017, 03:59:26 PM
I totally got what kind of decline you meant. Loss of innocence. The inevitability of autumn. The last series of Blakes 7.


I never noticed Barney's teeth. A reverse Dennis Waterman?

Sorry, I realised that when wandering in the gloaming.

Namtab

https://m.facebook.com/JIM-BERGERAC-204541809596907/

I love that this page is essentially a five year one person crusade to get a French translated Bergerac.

BlodwynPig

Series 6 ep 1 sees no real dip in quality and the sadness persists with Jim being kicked out by Susan who really has a great part mixing sadness, longing and love together in a heady melancholic brew.

The episode features Ron Lacey - the melting nazi in Indiana Jones who incidentally was married to Mela White who played Diamanté Lil in series 1-4.

Glebe

Quote from: gilbertharding on November 14, 2017, 10:05:08 AMIt's a similar trajectory to Blakes 7. The last series should have had the strapline "There's only four of them, and none of them's Blake."

Just watching that at the moment, whole series is up on YouTube (in 360p, alas).

BlodwynPig

Had a night off last night and intended to watch No. 10 of Krzysztof Kieślowski's Dekalog - sacked it off and will return to Bergerac tonight.

BlodwynPig

Blimey, another appearance by Phillips Vale, a vulnerable Susan and a gay horse. Times are a changing!


BlodwynPig

Although I did laugh at Jim saying "it takes all sorts" upon discovering that horses can be gay. That was the phrase du jour for describing gays back in the late 80s, a transitionary term between the outright abusive or mocking language and the period of acceptance in mainstream broadcasting - animals were not exempt it seems

BlodwynPig

Also getting more tolerant of the casio funk version of the theme tune, which sounds like a cross between The Bill and Byker Grove

BlodwynPig

2 episodes in one night, a rare treat.

Insider trading, pig farming, elderly gays on Sark and Charlie birching himself in a sauna with James Cossins. A tremendously brutal and surprising episode

BlodwynPig

Great ending too - the inspiration for KLFs Hebridean exploits?

BlodwynPig

Last night's episode was the one I was waiting for, the first of only two episodes not to feature Charlie Hungerford.

It was another classic - a change of tone, going all London Noir complete with stubble faced Bergerac and a number of serious red herrings.  Inspector Wexford makes an appearance as a hard drug importing nutcase and Crozier gets more air time by killing a Spaniard in the first few seconds of the show. Jack Galloway gave a great turn as a heroin addicted stooge copper and I found his scenes quite affecting - the episode had a classic Morse feel to it, with "the man of sorrows" (Jack) listening to Handel's Messiah (first in a church, sang by a choir boy, then at home in a heroin stupor).

The ending was great, cloak and dagger stuff in Leadenhall Market. Brilliant.

You really get the sense that this episode marks the transition point for Jim - he's alone now, both in his personal and professional life.

Shaky

It's slightly bizarre that you attempted to derail any indepth discussion of Twin Peaks but are seemingly happy to talk at length about Bergerac.

I mean, it had it's moments but... it's Bergerac, for Christ's sakes.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: Shaky on November 20, 2017, 12:53:37 PM
It's slightly bizarre that you attempted to derail any indepth discussion of Twin Peaks but are seemingly happy to talk at length about Bergerac.

I mean, it had it's moments but... it's Bergerac, for Christ's sakes.

I didn't attempt to derail Twin Peaks. Sorry if it was taken that way, I just thought some of the analysis was too much, but you are right, maybe I should have just not said anything. Happy to hear your take on Bergerac good or bad.

I mean there is a world of difference between my reviews of Bergerac episodes and my feelings, akin to Hedgehog's extensive reviews and feelings about each episode of TP, and subsequent overanalyses of minutiae that "I believe" diminishes the show. It was not right of me to be snipey and I should have allowed the analysis to carry on unhindered, but I felt queasy seeing such dedicated effort put into something that really defies analysis.


phes

enjoyed the show description on a certain torrent site

QuoteAlcoholic and divorced father of a young daughter, DS Jim Bergerac is a true maverick who prefers doing things his own way, and consequently doesn't always carry out his investigations the way his boss would like

BlodwynPig

Quote from: phes on November 20, 2017, 02:37:38 PM
enjoyed the show description on a certain torrent site

Couldn't be further from the truth funnily enough. ;)

BlodwynPig



monkfromhavana

I watched the first episode last night. First thought was that Jersey airport needs to review its safety procedures, keeping barrels of flammable liquid right next to the runway.
Secondly, if I was Jim, I'd accept redundancy and spend a year snuggled up with Francine 'recuperating'.

BlodwynPig

Quote from: monkfromhavana on November 21, 2017, 01:40:42 PM
I watched the first episode last night. First thought was that Jersey airport needs to review its safety procedures, keeping barrels of flammable liquid right next to the runway.
Secondly, if I was Jim, I'd accept redundancy and spend a year snuggled up with Francine 'recuperating'.

If there's one thing you'll learn about Jim - he rarely makes the right decision.

Also you'll note how bad a copper he is, especially when "surreptitiously" tailing a suspect in his vintage bergerac coloured 1949 Triumph Roadster.

Francine was a delight, but even back in Series 1, the hint of sadness, especially with Jim's love life, is there.

Susan returns in last night's episode (another Noir style thriller and again Jim is doped by criminals and ends back on the sauce) and the melancholy is ramped up. I swear the musical score every time Susan rejects Jim is intensified for maximum gut wrench. There is a bittersweet end to the episode as Susan returns to Jim's bed, but I doubt it will be for very long.

monkfromhavana

Episode 2 - Standard early 80s "my wife says i fancy schoolgirls" from the police doctor. Bet he was a regular on Ted Heath's yacht.


BlodwynPig

Quote from: Mr Banlon on November 22, 2017, 01:42:18 PM
https://youtu.be/fd3f_3EWk1s?t=121

Series 8 credits it would seem - Banlon, already twanging my sadness string - Crozier with a beard, the two hapless cops raised to main credits, no Susan!

BlodwynPig

Quote from: monkfromhavana on November 22, 2017, 01:28:40 PM
Episode 2 - Standard early 80s "my wife says i fancy schoolgirls" from the police doctor. Bet he was a regular on Ted Heath's yacht.

I loved the early police doc, proper laissez-faire, smoking in the autopsy room!

monkfromhavana

Bergerac 3 - I enjoyed this one, apart from the fact that Francine wasn't in it much. She forgot her copper fiance who died pretty damn quickly. Prunella & Brian Hall gave it that Fawlty Towers goes to Jersey theme.

Plenty of evidence to support Blodders' theory that Jim wasn't good at following people. The front end of the roadster always left poking out. Will Jim get his medical in the next episode?

I did enjoy the languid funk that accompanied Jim in disguise (massive shades) whilst following the guy. I wonder what kind of fetish the other hydrofoil passengers thought he had after he opened the toilet door after his quarry has just left to take in a lungful of poo odour and slamming the door shut before his quarry had got back to his seat.

Crozier's a nasty bastard isn't he? I don't like him.