I tend to agree with you about the presence of the new guy (can't remember his name) not being the same as John Nettles. He's not a bad actor, he's just not the Barnaby that the show was grown on. But I liked Sgt Troy and DS Jones more than I liked the more recent guys too. I also think original Barnaby's wife did a better job at solving the cases for him that new Barnaby's wife does, the new one just doesn't come across as natural in the role of expert case solver and wife.
Bergerac was brilliant. We used to get a lot of first run UK cop shows on our local ABC but these days most of our free to air channels seem to cycle through the old classics. The Bill didn't need to be repeated it went forever anyway, but these days we still get regulars like Morse, George Gently, Rosemary and Thyme, Silent Witness, Foyles War, Endeavour, Lewis, Frost. I've seen a lot of them when they first aired, but still watch some of them when I'm channel surfing and find nothing else to watch.
I also liked the little more off beat ones like Wire In The Blood, Life On Mars, Jonathan Creek and New Tricks.