6.06-6.07
+ 1988 Christmas Special: Retirement Plan
It’s worked out well that during
Bergerac’s shortest series, various commitments have meant a number of evenings where I haven’t had time to indulge in a daily episode. The Christmas special alone had to be deferred for a couple of nights until I could commit to over ninety minutes of screen time. At this point, early episodes from the Sixth Series already feel like dimming memories, even though it’s only been a couple of weeks, really.
It’s been a mixed bag of episodes, really. The London-based
A Man Of Sorrows necessarily saw a different tone, feeling darker both figuratively and literally. Not only did it feel as though a large part either took place at night or in dingy indoor settings, there was also the underlying violence and the drug addiction angle which led to the episode’s grim, downbeat ending.
It did feel like one of those “moveable feast” episodes that lacked the specific identity associated with this series, and felt as though it could be an episode of any other Eighties crime series set in a large city. The loss of familiarity from location is compounded by the somewhat necessary absences of Charlie and Susan, but I found this to be a strength. Typically, the writers shoehorn Charlie in particular into every storyline by having him associated through his social network with a key player. Even away from Jersey, it’s typical for Charlie to rock up with a grin on his face. Both the following episodes do this in spades and each time I happily suspend disbelief, but there’s no escaping it’s contrived to the point of silliness. I applaud the bravery of having an episode away in which the only two regulars are Jim and Crozier. Somehow it raises the stakes by creating a sense of isolation and unfamiliarity. Special mention goes to Jack Galloway playing
Bergerac’s contact Alan Hallowes who is simultaneously corrupt and tragic. It’s a nice performance and there’s good chemistry with John Nettles.
In some ways,
Private Fight is
Ninety Per Cent Proof redux. There, Jim was spiked with alcohol. Here it’s cannabis. Addictive receptors so stimulated, Jim then goes out and gets drunk. The result is the same: Crozier dresses Jim down and relieves him from duty. Once again he is supported by a Hungerford (Deb then, Charlie now) and eventually all the pieces come together and Jim is vindicated.
I find these episodes a little curious in the way they exploit Jim’s most vulnerable area while still giving an “out” for him. Since Jim was sober by the time the series commenced, his drinking only being seen drunk in flashbacks, they’ve allowed for a portrayal of Jim’s alcoholism without Jim himself being responsible for poisoning his system. It appears that it would be viewed as too significant a chink in his armour should Jim pick up a drink himself - and, hand on heart, I’m happy with this decision as it’s too obvious and lazy. And yes, it’s good to see a recovering alcoholic who doesn’t pick up a drink every couple of years for an injection of predictable drama. Still, though, it’s interesting that even with that choice made there has evidently been some desire to explore what Jim is like with a drink inside him.
It was used to good effect here in evolving this year’s key interpersonal arc: the ongoing rift between Jim and Susan, first putting more distance between them and eventually bringing them closer together as, in the closing moments, Jim cuts off Crozier’s call by unplugging the phone from the wall to stay in bed with Susan, finally putting her ahead of his work.
This is brought into the Christmas special, where Susan is staying at Jim’s place due to work being done on her own home (Charlie quipped that he knew there had to be
some reason why she would choose to stay with Jim). Of course, Chekov’s Gun is alive and well, so Susan is really here so that she can be placed in jeopardy by episode’s end when Jim is away. I had a problem with this scenario because Susan reacted like a virgin in a slasher film. Hearing a strange noise downstairs while Crozier is on the other end of the phone, Susan tells him that everything is fine. And there’s a lot of screaming. Still, we see a resourceful side to Susan with her reasoning with her attacker long enough for Jim to return and pick up the baton. Susan crying hysterically while Jim gives a daft one-liner was reminiscent of the ending to that episode where Susan almost became so much landfill.
As Christmas specials go, I’d say this is the least-compelling so far. It was a decent story, but did feel stretched a little thin at times and may have benefited from being fifteen or twenty minutes shorter - possibly even standard length. The crime syndicate meant there were a number of killings in the episode, but it ultimately felt too far removed from the usual
Bergerac. There was a more intimate story which tied in with the main one, but it was pushed aside until the last act so it felt the focus was wrong.
Jim had been drinking in the previous episode, while in the Christmas special we see him acting drunk. In fact, Jim is playing a very different character altogether - a carefree wide boy with no visible moral compass - in order to gain access to a mobster’s yacht. And while it’s stretching it to think that acting is yet another of Jim’s talents when it comes to crimebusting, there’s no denying it’s fun to see John Nettles playing Jim playing a grinning spiv in a white suit.
The episode also features two actors who played very different characters in contemporaneous soaps half a dozen years earlier: at one end of the scale we have Sue Lloyd, best known for playing one of the poshest characters in a gentle soap remembered for its cardboard sets. At the other end, we have Daniel Webb who had played one of the scuzziest characters in a gritty soap filmed entirely on location. Sadly, there was no Barbara Hunter/Gavin Taylor crossover, but it was nice to see both: she as an affluent jetsetter who connects with Charlie (at episode’s end it appears they’ll be spending time together) and he as a contract killer (I hadn’t realised he could swim until I saw him fix a death in a swimming pool).
The Christmas special saw a new font for the supers and closing titles, perhaps a sign that we’re continuing to move with the times.
So, here we are: two-thirds of the way through the series. So far so watchable. I believe Series Seven is the last with Peggy and the last full series with Susan, so I’ll make the most of that. I also know there’s also a return on the horizon (albeit a one-off, I think), so that should be a treat.
