Retirement Plan

Bergerac has his hands full with some Spanish gangsters, some French thieves and an irate gardener.

It's another 90 minute Christmas Special but the A-plot, a member of a crime syndicate trying to retire to Jersey and being targeted for death by his old associates, isn't strong enough to fill out the extended runtime. (In fact, Bergerac has no involvement in it at all until about two fifths of the way through.) So it's padded out with the pursuit of some high class thieves and Susan getting a stalker. The starry cast often flit in and out of the plot.

There's some good stuff though. Hungerford gets in on the action as the gangsters insist he needs their "protection". Bergerac and Susan seem on good terms at last after the cathartic events of the season finale. And there's a tense climax, although it's characteristic that the denouement depends on a character that we've only seen briefly beforehand.

There seem to be two versions of this episode. The one available on DVD is five minutes shorter and is missing a number of scenes and characters, including more of the plotline about Lubeck's involvement with a rival crime lord.