Bergerac is back with a brand-new face! Brassic star Damien Molony plays Jim Bergerac in U&Drama's reboot of the classic 1980s detective drama that made a household name out of original star John Nettles.
Set in Jersey, the new version of the series portrays Jim as a grieving widower who is battling alcoholism and struggling to properly care for teenage daughter Kim (Chloé Sweetlove) in the wake of his wife Rachel's death — prompting his mother-in-law Charlie Hungerford (Zoë Wanamaker) to step in and take more of an active parenting role. Realizing that his life is spiraling out of control, Jim returns to work and asks to be assigned to the investigation into the murder of Cate Wakefield (Anna Mawn), daughter-in-law of wealthy entrepreneur Arthur (Steeltown Murders star Philip Glenister).
Unlike the previous iteration, in which each episode was an individual story, the new Bergerac — written by Being Human creator Toby Whithouse — follows one investigation across all six episodes, as Jim attempts to find Cate's killer while battling his own demons and trying to prove to both Kim and Charlie that he's fit to be a father again.
We caught up with Damien to find out more...
Damien Molony interview for Bergerac
How does your Jim Bergerac differ from the original?
"I think in the original, Jim and his wife were divorced. Obviously Jim is a detective, but he's also an alcoholic, and what I think Toby did so well is that making him a bereaved widower justifies the alcoholism. It means we start the series and he is at complete rock bottom, masquerading as 'I can do this, I can look after my daughter, I can go to work, I can function as a normal human being'. The decision that his daughter makes to move out of the house and move in with her grandmother rather than stay with her own father was actually what got me excited about the show in the first place when I got the script, because it is a fantastic whodunnit that races across six episodes, but really the heart of it for me is it's about a heartbroken dad who can't look after his daughter. He decides to take on this investigation because it's a distraction from his trauma, but also as a way that, if he can get back up and running on this, he can convince his daughter to come home."
What's Jim's relationship with Charlie like?
"Speaking to Zoë before we started shooting, we both imagined that they had this wonderful relationship when Jim's wife was still alive — lots of teasing and jokes and banter, a little bit of joshing each other and rivalry. Now that they have lost the central figure of that family unit, it just isn't working, and neither of them are brave enough to make that first step. Colm McCarthy, our director, described it so well: he said 'it's like two people without skin just rubbing up against each other' — that horrible pain that comes from wanting to be close to someone but not being able to engage with it."
Another character who has been reimagined from the original is Detective Barney Crozier — what's he like in this version?
"There's this wonderful rivalry between them that I don't think Jim is totally aware of! Robert Gilbert is brilliant as Crozier, there's something so wonderfully insecure about his character, which I love — he would be at his computer, but you could just see this side-eye where he was pretending everything was cool. In story terms, he has worked his way up through the ranks of the police force, but I don't think he has the same renegade spirit that Bergerac has — that same sense of not being afraid to upset the cart when Bergerac has got a scent for something not being quite right. So when Jim comes back and they have to sort of job-share together, I just loved playing off Robert in that — it was actually very difficult to keep a straight face. You pity Crozier to a certain degree; he is very capable, and in any other detective series, he would be the lead role!"
What sort of reception did you get when you were filming on location in Jersey?
"We were filming in lots of public places: there was a big chase scene in Royal Square in St Helier, so everyone was excited to see what was going on, and when they worked out that it was Bergerac filming there, everyone was just so happy that it was back because they had so many wonderful memories about it. Whether they had been supporting artists in the original series, which it seems like so many people from Jersey were, or they'd come across John when he was filming here — the amount of times I'd get into a taxi and they'd say 'let me tell you about the time I had John Nettles in the back of my cab...'!"
Did you meet up with John before you started filming?
"I didn't actually touch base with John until after we had shot it, so I suppose it was nice to meet him once the pressure was off, to a certain extent. We both approached the character in our 40s, but they are slightly different characters. I had lunch with him recently, and he was so lovely, he's seen the first episode and said some really nice things about it; I assume it brought up many happy memories for him about the character. We did an interview, talking to each other in a café, and he finished it by saying 'Bergerac has been so incredibly good to me, and I just hope it is as good to you', which I thought was a really lovely sentiment."
The original Bergerac ran for 10 years on BBC One. Would you like this version to be a long-runner too?
"I would love to do some more! I was thinking the other day that over six episodes, I've actually only solved one crime — John Nettles had solved six at that point! So I'm really hoping there's a few more cases for me to get my teeth stuck into..."
- Bergerac begins on Thursday February 27 at 9pm on U&Drama. The whole series will be available to stream on U from Thursday February 27.
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