Nettles anger at Bergerac repeats ban: Actor criticises BBC for refusing to show re-runs because show featured children's home linked to Jimmy Savile

Series used Haut de la Garenne on Jersey as a police HQ

The building has since been dubbed the Jersey House of Horrors

It f ollows alleg ations that child abuse to ok place there

Savile visited the home and it is feared he abused youngsters there

Actor John Nettles has criticised the BBC for cancelling re-runs of Bergerac

John Nettles criticised the BBC yesterday for cancelling re-runs of Bergerac – because they feature a children's home linked to Jimmy Savile.

The 1980s detective series used Haut de la Garenne – dubbed the Jersey House of Horrors – as police HQ.

A child abuse investigation found that former residents had been molested. Savile visited the home and it is feared he abused youngsters there.

BBC2 said it had postponed re-runs of the show because of 'the sensitive nature of the public hearing into incidents at Haut de la Garenne'.

Nettles fumed: 'It seems to be a little bizarre that exterior Haut de la Garenne shots can't be used. It means you can't photograph or film anywhere where there is a suspicion that a crime has been committed.

'It just shows how far the BBC is bending over backwards to apologise for the Jimmy Savile scandal.

'How it can be connected by viewers with Jimmy Savile and the Yewtree inquiry is beyond belief. It's just unfortunate that viewers have to suffer for it.'

The Haut de la Garenne home, which was unoccupied at the time, featured as a police station in six of the show's nine series.

BBC2 bosses had planned to re-run the entire back catalogue of Bergerac, which ran from 1981 to 1991 and made Nestles, who played Jim Bergerac, a household name.

But after running the first three series, corporation chiefs have 'postponed' the remaining six, which all feature Haut de la Garenne as the fictional HQ.

A fresh inquiry looking at allegations of abuse in children's homes and fostering services in Jersey from 1960 to the present day is due to start this year.

The former Haut de la Garenne children's home in Jersey has been the subject of a major child abuse investigation. It was used as a police HQ in Bergerac

A spokesman for the BBC said: 'Due to the sensitive nature of the public hearing into incidents at Haut de la Garenne and out of respect for the victims, the BBC has decided, for the moment, to postpone episodes of Bergerac.'

Haut de la Garenne began in 1867 as an industrial school for 'young people of the lower classes of society and neglected children'.

It closed in 1986 and was the centre of a huge police inquiry in 2008 which revealed numerous instances of child abuse against past residents.