Bergerac actor back for work on Occupation
Saturday 21st February 2009, 9:58AM GMT.
ACTOR John Nettles is planning to make a major documentary for prime-time television about the Occupation of the Channel Islands, with Jersey as its main focus.
The documentary is likely to take two years to be fully researched and he is going to seek sponsorship from the BBC, ITV or another source for its funding.
Mr Nettles, who has announced that he will retire from the successful detective series Midsomer Murders next year, told the JEP that he intended to take a sympathetic look at that particular time in the history of the Channel Islands.
‘The Occupation was a fascinating time and some of the stories that I have heard have been of extraordinary courage, stoicism and wonderful compassion,’ he said.
One of the inspirations for him planning to take on this challenge was his reading of the book A Doctor’s Occupation, by Dr John Lewis.
• Mr Nettles is the subject of the Saturday Interview in today’s Jersey Evening Post. Picture: Bentley Provudctions Ltd
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welcome back john you may find the island much more expensive and the population has gone up to about 100,000 since you were last here in the 80s
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Don’t you people ever shut up and stop complaining?
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@AD
And what is qrong with the comment from “jim”. Has not the island become more expensive?
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Flymo,
Yes its called inflation. I’m pretty sure lots of places have become more expensive since the 80s. I’m also sure wages have increased alot since the 80s.
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…and healthcare, the quality of our island schools, the quality of our States housing. Our roads are vastly better, we are finally funding income support centrally rather than the old parish “begging bowl if you work for the parish” method. Our airport is modern and can cope with a bit of fog and for all the moaning abour fares, you can get to England and France in a 1/3rd of the time it used to take.
Not to mention the fact that for most of our population the general standard of living is markedly higher than it was 20 years ago.
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Sorry, the island is far more expensive than the 80′s. I have lived here for most of my life. Taxes have rise hugely
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…anyway, how did someone turn a story about our much loved Jim Bergerac documenting the occupation into a rant against our island?!?
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Flymo
Hasn’t everywhere become more expensive?
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(7) if you wait long enough I am sure it will turn into an anti 4×4 rant too…!
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All the other comments aside, anyone that ever met John Nettles all those years ago will say that he was a fun person and a total gentleman.
If he is making a documentary about Jersey, you can bet it will be something that as a community we can be proud of. Sure, there are a lot of things wrong with Jersey at the moment…there always has been. But the things that are wrong are fixable and the things that are right are fundamental to what makes the island special and the people that live here decent and moral.
I suspect from what I’ve read that this will be a celebration of the triumph of the human spirit over adversity and not some half hearted attempt at investigative journalism.
Welcome back and I hope you bask in the warmth of our welcome.
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The island has progressively gone downhill since the early 1980′s I doubt Jim would recognise much of it now. It used to be cheap and a lovely happy place to live then along came progress and we are where we are now.
It has lost much of its quaint charm under mass immigration and overdevelopment all in the name of progress. It has become a place of greed and self service. Hopefully when finance goes things will return to what they were like in temps passe. Money doesn’t mean happiness never has and never will. You can get by on very little if you get used to it. Too many people earn a lot and spend a lot net result treading water, what is the point?
Jersey is now in a little bubble where everything is overpriced and often poor quality. Yes people earn more than elsewhere but why not halve the cost of living and then you could halve wages, or is this too simplistic an answer?
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There was as much money and greed going on in the eighties in Jersey than there is today – the Bergerac storyline was practically based on it! In fact I’d go further and say Jersey was a lot more dodgy then than it is today in terms of financial regulation and deals for 1(1)ks and the like – may be that’s why Jersey was cheaper and ‘better’ as you say.
This documentary is a good thing and will only promote Jersey – I hope they find the sponsorship they need.
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There’s an old saying “you don’t realise what you have until you don’t have it” and all the moaning and bitterness about the island and finance is obviously from people with a lot of time on their hands.
Yes it isn’t the cheapest place in the world, any place would be considerably more expensive than the 80′s, yes we have problems, but if it wasn’t for finance (and no I don’t work in the finance industry) you would have a lot more to moan about!
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Dear John,
First of all, we wish you the very best of luck and every success in your new venture.
You may be interested in a biography published in 1984 by my mother Mauyen Keane, from Athenry in Galway, who spent the war years as a nurse in Jersey. It’s called ‘Hello, Is It All Over?’ She stayed in Jersey during the occupation and met my father, Georg, who was a doctor with the medical corps in the German army.
The book, a story where love triumphs in adversity, and which took the couple back to war-torn Germany where they married in secret, was critically acclaimed and reached number two in Ireland on the bestseller list at the time, but it’s out of print now. However, my family and I can make it available to you if you are interested in using it!
With all good wishes,
Greg
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