Jim Bergerac is a recovering alcoholic, divorcee and father of a young daughter. He is a detective sergeant with the Bureau des Étrangers, a department for non-residents in Jersey, Channel Islands. Jim likes doing things his own way, a true maverick, and consequently doesn't always carry out his investigations in the traditional manner, the way his boss, Barney Crozier, would have preferred. But Jim's winsome grin and chirpy optimism always win through, and in a way he still manages to remain on fairly good terms with Crozier despite their differences. Jim gets his fair share of women during the series, but more than anything else he is married to his job, which becomes increasingly difficult for some of them. In the later series Bergerac leaves the police to become a private investigator.
Philippa Vale gives sanctuary to a Canadian Olympic track star whose life has been threatened when he refuses to boycott an international hearing concerning drug abuse by athletes. Jim and Susan break off their relationship.
A team of archaeology students are carrying out an excavation on a piece of land reputed to be cursed. Soon one student is attacked by an unseen force and one later turns up dead. Charlie owns the land and suddenly falls ill when the students start to excavate the land. Bergerac refuses to believe that a Viking's curse is at work and works with the expedition leader to find the truth. However in a rather confusing climax as she and Bergerac finally complete the excavation only to be attacked by the same unseen force. Bergerac later awakes where a rational explanation is given for what occurred by a recovered Charlie.
When a fugitive from South Africa appeals to Karen Markham for help, she finds herself caught up in something she cannot control.
An eccentric Scotland yard detective arrives in Jersey for a holiday and to harass an island resident whom he considers a villain responsible for crippling his former partner.
The discovery of a dead body in an empty cottage sparks off a nightmarish case for Jim and his partner, an unorthodox London detective.
Lil's ex-husband, a journalist, returns to Jersey on the trail of a big story he believes will embarrass Charlie Hungerford, who's running for a position in the House of Deputies.
Bergerac investigates the death of a scuba diver who washes up on the beach and discovers the disappearance of a French film star's wife.
When a retired scientist gets a demand for a million pounds, Bergerac has a race against time to find the extortioner before his threat of destruction is carried out.
A convict who has just been let out on parole brings his son on holiday to Jersey without telling the boy's mother or his probation officer.
When Jim and Danielle are at a party in France, they witness a shooting, shortly before seeing somebody running off. Jim decides to put his detective skills to use and investigates, desperate to find the missing link.
A retired Army major and former POW receives death threats, and sees his ghostwriter killed, when he tries to publish his memoirs of the Korean War.
Jim enlists the aid of a lady psychologist in tracking down someone who has been anonymously calling Charlie and blaming him for a former business associates death.
Jim suspects the dancing instructor of a leading Jersey socialite of stealing her diamonds.
A French private detective is murdered in Charlie's study and Bergerac is sent to Provence to discover why.
Bergerac travels to France to investigate the death of a Jersey resident and prematurely reveals the marriage plans of the eccentric heir to an old Jersey family fortune.
Jim is assigned to protect a spoiled tennis star who has received several death threats.
Jim investigates a dead sailor and drums of an illegal toxic pesticide, both of which were found, washed up on the beach.
Bergerac is summonsed back to Jersey, where Charlie persuades him to help a friend find his missing wife. But there is another player in the game that Jim hasn't counted on.
One of Charlie's friends is suspected of tipping off a pair of London thieves who've started a crime spree in Jersey, as to which houses have valuables in them and when the owners will be gone.
Jim faces brutality charges when he investigates a drug courier who had his package lifted by a pickpocket, who's now trying to sell the stuff himself.
A disappointed beauty pageant contestant accuses a popular comic of raping her after voting against her in the beauty contest.
The publicity surrounding the mugging of a lovable old liar endangers a plan to burgle a safe containing a fortune in diamonds.
One of the stars of a film being made about the German occupation of Jersey finds his life being threatened.
Susan is asked to put a small unremarkable bungalow called ""Ocean View"" on the market. Quickly several parties put down offers and as the price escalates Jim tries to work out why...