Damien Molony 'screamed' when he got Jim Bergerac role
Damien Molony, who plays Jim Bergerac in the UandDRAMA reboot, was so happy he got the job, he screamed in a London restaurant
Damien Molony “screamed” a Canary Wharf restaurant down when after he got the call to play Detective Sargent Jim Bergerac.
The 40-year-old actor was so excited after show writer Toby Whitehouse told him he will be playing the lead character in the Jersey-based '80s crime drama reboot, that it left diners fearing something bad had happened.
He exclusively told BANG Showbiz at the 'Bergerac' London Premiere at the Curzon Hoxton cinema on Wednesday (19.02.25): "I was in Canary Wharf. I was in a restaurant. It was the day after the European Rugby Final. So I was a little bit dusty.
"And Toby, our writer, rang me and said, 'We'd love you to play Bergerac,' and I screamed.
"I was just so happy, so I rang everyone I knew, basically. I wasn't really allowed to tell people.
"I went three weeks of keeping schtum, and people would ask me, 'What are you guys doing for the summer?' And I would usually just say, 'I'm going to do some work in Jersey, and people were putting two and two together."
Agreeing that people were probably left wondering what was happening as he screamed, he added the same thing happened when he got cast as Gabriel the plumber in Channel 4's Northern Ireland sitcom, 'Derry Girls'.
Damien said: "The same thing happened with 'Derry Girls' when they told me I was going to play the plumber.
"I screamed."
From 1981 until 1991, Det. Sgt. Jim Bergerac was played by John Nettles.
Despite him previously admitting he did not want to be a part of the reboot, and then gave his blessing for the new actor to take on the role, Damien did not feel worried about filling those big shoes.
He said: "Honestly, I was so excited because it's so rare that you get a job that already has a huge fan base, and so to kind of crest that wave of positivity was just a lovely, lovely way to start the job.
"And, of course, you want to pay honour and homage to the original because it ran for 10 series', and TV shows don't run for that long anymore.
"But, also, it's also about putting your own stamp on it, and Toby's done a wonderful job of having all of those wonderful references and homages to the original, but also making it it's own thing."
'Bergerac' is available on U and UandDRAMA from February 27.
