Channel Island hopping
Thursday, March 13, 2025 at 9:36 I was interviewed on BBC Radio Guernsey yesterday.
Like the UK, the island’s government is considering further restrictions on smoking and the sale of tobacco.
According to reports, the public supports extending the smoking ban to a number of outdoor spaces. There is also support for raising the age of sale from 18 to 21.
Whenever I appear on Radio Guernsey, or Channel Island News (BBC1), I am reminded of my one and only visit to the island 20 years ago.
I went at the invitation of a local hotelier who was campaigning against the proposed indoor smoking ban. He had organised a public meeting and wanted me to speak, which I did.
Unfortunately his campaign (Support Our Smokers) couldn’t prevent the ban which was introduced in 2005 when Guernsey became the first place in the British Isles to prohibit smoking in indoor public places.
Jersey followed on January 2, 2007, but unlike Guernsey I’ve never been there.
I wouldn’t say it’s on my bucket list but it’s the only significant part of the British Isles I’ve never visited so I ought to make the effort.
Funnily enough, I am currently watching the new series of Bergerac on U. At the same time I am dipping in to the ‘classic’ series that starred John ‘Midsomer Murders’ Nettles in the Eighties.
Aside from the rather grainy picture, I am enjoying the original more than the reimagined version of the Jersey detective.
In the original he was a recovering alcoholic and divorced but had a string of glamorous girlfriends. In the new version he is a recovering alcoholic but recently widowed with a daughter and intrusive mother-in-law, and the programme spends far too much time addressing his personal struggle, which is boring, frankly.
Apparently, the authorities in Jersey hope to enjoy a tourist bounce on the back of it, but the charm, humour and fun of the original series are noticeably lacking, so I’m not sure who would want to jump on a plane (or ferry) and follow in the ‘new’ man’s footsteps.
I’m not saying it’s bad but it doesn’t stand out in a crowded field of TV coppers, and it doesn’t help that a significant character in the new series is played by an actor who appears as a not dissimilar character in the current series of The Bay (yet another police series) on ITV.
Confused? I was.
Reader Comments (3)
I've never seen The Bay but I do enjoy a good crime drama.
I enjoyed the new version of Bergerac but only because I watched it as something new and tried not to compare new with old. That way madness lies because classic always comes out best.
There isn't much point in making a carbon copy remake but I sensed the echo of John Nettles in Damien Maloney's performance and the original series in the car, of course, which is the iconic symbol of the series.
The original was much more light-hearted and made at a time when we could laugh at things a little politically incorrect without being made to feel guilty. The country has become dark and humourless so it's obvious it would be reflected in a modern remake.
I must have watched the old series of Bergerac in 2018 because it inspired our visit to Jersey in the summer of that year. I noted that while smoking was banned in the open air on the whole outdoor and indoor Mount Orgueil site, there was a portrait of Sir Walter Raleigh smoking a pipe proudly displayed in one of the rooms.
Smoking and tobacco and ways in which the residents found ways to smoke during the Nazi occupation was also on display in the German War Tunnels now a museum to the occupation.
A sign on display there read: "Freedom is not just a word to those who have lost it." (Frank Keiller)
It seems Jersey is proud of its history of resistance but not enough to foster any kind of tolerance for people who smoke today thanks to the new occupation of anti smoker fanatics.
Jersey is not yet quite as intolerant as Guernsey wants to be. I always regretted not visiting Guernsey during our trip and now as it makes clear that not all tourists are welcome in its new future, I probably won't be going there at all.
My wife enjoys The Bay. It's OK but I wouldn't recommend it. Like a lot of police dramas today it lacks humour. It needs a stronger, more interesting, leading character too.
Re Guernsey, I once wrote that 'It did strike me as ironic that an island that 60 years earlier had been liberated from the Nazis had now succumbed to another form of fascism - health fascism'.
One legacy of the Second World War is that Germany is arguably one of the last countries in Western Europe to fully embrace lifestyle socialism. This is probably due to a fear of appearing too dictatorial, but I think the few pockets of resistance are gradually being picked off.
As new generations become further away from the tyranny of Nazism and Fascism, so the Orwellian concept of Freedom meaning Slavery becomes the new "truth."
If you can handle watching dramas with subtitles, there are some amazing foreign series on All4.
There are dramas from Scandinavian countries, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, and European countries like Germany, France and Italy to mention just a few.
We have just finished R.I.P Henry which I would recommend. It's a light-hearted Norwegian drama about an arrogant surgeon who discovers he has a brain tumour and tries to hide it from his colleagues. It's worth watching and an added bonus is the dramatic Norwegian scenery.
It is quite hard to find light-hearted UK drama these days. I love All Creatures Great and Small both old and new. The difference between them is that the old classic version used to make me laugh out loud, and sniffle occasionally, while the new version makes me smile occasionally but more often leaves me in floods of tears due to its hearty helping of sentimentalism designed to push my tear buttons and leave me an emotional wreck by the end of each episode.
We both really enjoy watching Turkish historical dramas with English subtitles. They are certainly different to anything else we have watched in the UK - and as costume dramas go, we also recently enjoyed the Italian "Il Gattopardo" on Netflix.