There is an Honorary Police (French: Police Honorifique) force in each of the 12 parishes of Jersey. Members of the Honorary Police are elected by the voters of the parish in which they serve, and are unpaid.
Honorary Police officers have, for centuries, been elected by parishioners to assist the Connétable of the Parish to maintain law and order. Officers are elected as Centeniers, Vingteniers or Constable's Officers, each with various duties and responsibilities.
Until the 19th century the Honorary Police provided the only civilian law enforcement in Jersey. However, in the early part of the 19th century, crime was widespread among the urban population in Saint Helier (around 25,000 people) and paid Police officers for the Parish of Saint Helier were appointed in 1853 and their remit was later extended to serve the whole Island as the States of Jersey Police. However, even today the SOJP cannot charge anyone with an offence - charges have to be brought by the Centenier of the parish in which the alleged offence was committed - and as such the Honorary Police continue to have a significant role in policing.
The Centenier
by Alan Downer
The first of three crime dramas set on the Channel Island of Jersey, featuring Centenier Richard Hammond, whose role is to stick his nose into open-and-shut cases and thereby rile the local plods ...
Early one Monday morning, a man's naked body is found floating in Bon Nuit [oh, the irony] Bay. Simple - midnight skinny-dip, bumps his head on the jetty and drowns. Case closed. But Centenier Hammond's not having any of it and soon opens a seedy can of charity garden parties, theatrical luvvies and filthy foreigners ...
Approx. 85 minutes. Broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 13th February 1982 (Saturday Night Theatre)
96K
Cast :
Richard Hammond : Steven Pacey
Paula Hammond : Rosalind Adams
Joan Langley : Dilys Laye
Tom Langley : Nicholas Courtney
Tony Baxter : John Warner
Liz Baxter : Miranda Forbes
Justin Chichester : George Parsons
Julia Whitney : Patience Tomlinson
Bruce Welland : Chris Jenkinson
Sophie Lyons : Glynis Brookes
Andreas Wolf : Jonathan Elsom
Det. Sgt. Leclair : Geoffrey Matthews
Inspector Ouzin / Mr. Moulin : David Goodison
Police doctor : David Brierley
Mrs. Hayley : Olive Crowe
Rosemary Matthews : Stella Forge
Constable Ted / Barman : Stephen Garlick
Directed by David Johnstone
A Bumper Year for Dahlias
by Alan Downer
The second of three crime dramas set on the Channel Island of Jersey, featuring Centenier Richard Hammond, whose role is to stick his nose into open-and-shut cases and thereby rile the local plods
A girl is found dead in a hotel room with an apparent overdose of sleeping tablets. Case closed. But irritating meddler Richard Hammond, never one to miss an opportunity to get his stutter centre-stage, suspects she's been raped and strangled and had been mixed up in Jersey's Mafia-organised pornography racket. Who'd have thought it .... in the cuddly old Channel Islands? Anyway, thanks to Hammond's suspicions we have enough hokum to fill ninety minutes or thereabouts ...
Approx. 85 minutes. Broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 2nd November 1985 (Saturday Night Theatre)
128K
Cast :
Richard Hammond : Steven Pacey
Paula Hammond : Rosalind Adams
Guillaume : David Gower
Mrs. Guillaume : Dilys Laye
Helen Bissont : Natasha Pyne
Nicky Custance : Alan Thompson
Dr. Elston : Reginald Marsh
Det. Sergeant Renout : Patrick Horn
Det. Inspector Leclair : James Kerry
Det. Constable Plummer : Jamie Roberts
Directed by David Johnstone
The Deep End
by Alan Downer
The third of three crime dramas set on the Channel Island of Jersey, featuring Centenier Richard Hammond, whose role is to stick his nose into open-and-shut cases and thereby rile the local plods
Our hero Centenier Hammond espies a pair of right villains attempting a supermarket blag. Hammond cahallenges the rascals and gets a black eye for his impertinence, but in true have-a-go-hero spirit he manages to nab one chummy, banged to rights. Yes, they really do talk like that. Meanwhile, Chummy Number Two has legged it and appears to be sending Hammond letters of the 'or else' ilk ...
Approx. 85 minutes. Broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 4th March 1989 (Saturday Night Theatre)
160K
Cast :
Richard Hammond : Steven Pacey
Paula Hammond : Rosalind Adams
... and others.
Replies
Thank you, Sir!
Thanks Rick
looking forward to this.am off work sick so a bit bored!
Thank you Rick for once again showing us that crime is truly universal. From the Mornington Peninsula of Australia (the Disher series) to Jersey and all stops in between. Very good and many thanks. Cheers, Dave.
These are really wonderful. Now I want to go to Jersey (the island, I mean; I get to the state fairly often!)
Thanks.
Wow, these were excellent!
I dl'd them, intending to parcel these long dramas
out over the next week. Instead, I listened on the way to work, then left the headphones on.
I snubbed my co-workers, skipped a meeting and listened to all three in one day.
That's what I need to give up for Lent: audio gluttony.
The dramas are well paced. Hammond is a bit of a stiff, following righteousness
as simply the proper thing to do. He plucks at that proverbial loose thread until all
that remains of the sweater is a pile of yarn. Many around him are live-and-let-live
types, willing to accept moral compromise to preserve the status quo. Not Hammond.
He values truth over justice, regardless of the consequences, the wrecked lives, prison
terms and social fabric rent asunder. He reminded me of Edward Woodward as the fiery
constable in The Wicker Man, relentlessly pursuing every lead, before meeting his fate
in that flaming cage.
Joseph Campbell said "Once you know the difference between right and wrong,
there are a lot fewer choices you need to make".
His wife sounds quite dishy, acting as his sounding board and sometimes his active
agent. Curiously, there is a lot of nudity, with bathtub scenes and skinnydipping in every play,
usually something you don't notice in radio drama, so the splashing and waves sound
effects were quite vivid.
Would you believe Tim that the BBC recorded over these and they were only saved by people like you and me that record and collect. besides being an excellent set their very existence in private collections and their nonexistence in the BBC's library shows the stupidity in beurocratic institutions. ------------------------------- Rick
Thanks for the download.
Thanks. (I hope they don't use those fake thick French accents in these -- always had a bit off trouble with them).
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