Bergerac (TV Series) Ninety Per Cent Proof (1983) User Reviews

Best Bergerac ever

[richard-artes · 10/10 · 25 November 2023]

This is the best Bergerac I saw. Deals with alcoloism, arson and deception. Detection work, a chase scene and a bit of old fashioned police brutality. Brilliant. I was on the edge of my seat!

Josette Simon is also in this episode, as a baraster, uncredited, which is a shame. Why was she missed off the credits? Too many ex Blake's 7 actors in one episode?!?

I've rewatched them all after 40 years, and John Nettles is still a great actor. His character doesn't change much into Midsummer Murders, but he can still play a convincing policeman. He deserves an OBE for service to British culture!!!!!

Ninety Per Cent Proof

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 15 October 2019]

It is the start of the third season and a starry young cast. John Gordon Sinclair, Carol Royle and Ray Winstone all appear.

Jim Bergerac is spending all day in court over an arson case. Jerry LeFevre is accused of setting his hotel on fire for the insurance money. Bergerac stopped LeFevre's car which contained empty containers that smelled of petrol.

LeFevre's lawyer wants a jury trial and argues the evidence is flimsy. LeFevre's son went out with Bergerac's ex wife. It all looks like Bergerac is being vindictive.

Later that evening, Bergerac helps a drunk Irish lady who claims her ex husband is stalking her. While he goes out to investigate a potential sighting of him, she is found dead in the hotel room and later Bergerac is found extremely drunk.

When he returns to the hotel room later on, there is no dead body and LeFevre's son is there with another lady. It looks like a set up to discredit Bergerac.

Brian Clemens wrote a very different adventure. Bergerac has to clear his name and prove to everyone that he has not fallen off the wagon. A priest drops by to help him, a fellow recovering alcoholic just like Bergerac.

Of course credibility is strained as Bergerac storms in everywhere like a bull in a china shop and rarely engages his brain. He makes it very easy for the LeFevre's to discredit him.