A Hole in the Bucket

"A Hole in the Bucket" is the third series' most oblique hour, built around a secret Bergerac is asked to keep. Crozier, heading to an Interpol conference in Stockholm, hands him a case with instructions to tell no one: a woman, Liz Phillips, is arriving in Jersey, and she has made a statement that has put her in danger. She gave evidence against Frankie Webster, a casino owner and high-class pimp — evidence that sent him down — and his people are looking for her. Bergerac, whose leave is cancelled, meets her in secret, sends flowers to make contact, and begins the delicate work of keeping a protected witness alive on an island where everyone knows everyone.

Bill Craig's script keeps the threat diffuse and the trust at the centre. Colette O'Neil plays Liz with a wary, watchful intelligence — a woman who has already been through the machinery of giving evidence and does not want to do it again. The episode is less about a single crime scene than about the strain of the protection itself: Bergerac juggling his cancelled leave, his half-explained absences, and the growing suspicion of the people around him. Ian Toynton directs at a measured pace that suits the material.

The London thread — a man called Skinner, hired to track Liz down, his price rising with each phone call — gives the hour its pressure, and the series shows its hand early: Liz is not just a witness, she is a person with her own reasons for running. The episode is at its best in the quiet scenes between Bergerac and Liz, where the professional and the personal blur in exactly the way they always did in this series.

It is a contained, slightly tense hour rather than a landmark. It does not rely on a large ensemble or a complex plot, and the interest lies in Bergerac's judgement — whom to trust, how far to go, and what to tell the people he is lying to. The third series had opened with Bergerac's own credibility in question; this second episode continues the theme of the detective acting on private knowledge. A steady, character-led entry that shows the series could build an hour around a single decision and its cost.