The Bill

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The Bill

The Bill logo, as seen in the commercial break bumper. The checked pattern reflects the uniform of British police
Format Police procedural/Drama
Country of origin United Kingdom
No. of episodes 2200
(as of October 2007) (List of episodes)
Production
Producer(s) talkbackTHAMES (a division of Fremantle Media)
Running time 46'40" (commercial half hour) with three part breaks
Broadcast
Original channel ITV
Original run August 16, 1983 (pilot) – present
Chronology
Related shows
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

The Bill is a long-running British television police procedural, first broadcast on 16 October 1984 and transmitted on ITV, at 8pm on Wednesdays and Thursdays. The omnibus edition of the show can be seen on ITV3. Past episodes can also be seen on UKTV Gold.

The Bill is set in and around Sun Hill police station in the fictional London borough of Canley in East London. Other police stations within the Canley Borough Operational Command Unit (BOCU), mentioned but (usually) unseen, are Barton Street, which is the location of Borough Headquarters, Stafford Row and Spicer Street. Canley is approximately contiguous with the real London Borough of Tower Hamlets, but filming takes place all over London, mainly in South London and particularly the London Borough of Merton, where the Sun Hill set is located. The main location used when the show is filmed on an estate is the Cambridge Estate, in south west London. Sometimes scenes are filmed in East London and notably the London Docklands standing in for Canley. Canley is also the name of a real district within the city of Coventry, some 100 miles north of London.

The Bill is unusual among police shows: it takes a serial format and it does not focus on one particular area of police work. The show focuses on the work and lives of patrol and response officers on one shift in the uniform division, and the work of the CID. In its current serial format, some stories are cleared up in an episode or two, whereas others can stretch over months or even in some cases approaching a year.

It started as a one-off drama for ITV entitled Woodentop; this pilot show starred Mark Wingett as PC Jim Carver and Trudie Goodwin as WPC June Ackland on Carver's first day on the beat at Sun Hill police station. It was originally devised by Geoff McQueen, and it impressed ITV so much that they decided to make a series out of it. Wingett left the cast in early 2005, while Goodwin's last episode was broadcast on 8 March 2007 (coincidentally the last episode since the serialised format was introduced by Paul Marquess to be broadcast without an episode title).

Contents

Main article: History of The Bill

Following the pilot on August 16, 1983, the first episode of The Bill was transmitted on the 16th October 1984. Starting with hour-long separate storylines, The Bill went on to be half an hour in length between 1988 and 1998 due to a drop in ratings before going back to hour-long episodes. From 1998, The Bill became more serialised, especially from 2002, when Paul Marquess took over as Executive Producer. Under Johnathan Young, who took over as executive producer in 2005, the more sensational story lines have been dropped, with more focus on crime story lines.

See also UK Police Ranks for explanation of the titles shown here.

Main article: List of The Bill characters

Main article: Recurring and minor cast of The Bill

  • Series 1,2 & 3 (Yrs 1983-87) have been released in a 12 disc collectors edition wallet (Episodes 1 - 38 episodes) - released on 10 May 2006
  • Series 4 (1988) has been released (called Seasons 4 & 5 - 1988) in a 12 Disc collectors edition wallet ( Episodes 39 - 86 episodes) - released on 06 Dec 2006
  • Collection 3 (First half of Season 5 - 1989) - 12 disc collectors edition wallet (called Episodes 87 - 134) - Released 8 August 2007.
  • Collection 4 (Continuation of season 5-1989) 12 Disc collectors wallet (Episodes 135 - 182) - released 7 November 2007.
  • Collection 5 (First half of Season 6 - 1990) 12 Disc collectors wallet (Episodes 183 - 230) - TBC

  • Series 1, 2 & 3, (Yrs 1983-87) have been released.

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • PC Billy Rowan was the first officer to die in his first episode (Cop Killer Part 1, 05/07/07).
  • 2006 is the first year since 2001 that has not involved the death of a police officer in the series.
  • The first line spoken in Woodentop was Jim Carver (Mark Wingett), saying "Okay Carver, let's do it" as he got out of bed. They were also the final words spoken by the character when he left the series in 2005.
  • The fictional telephone number of the station located on the notice board at the front desk is 020 7511 1642.
  • In the 2005 live episode, since the action was filmed live at the Sun Hill set, crowds of people watching the filming can be seen across the road from the station entrance. Also, in the scene where the car flips over, a boom mike operator can be seen running across the screen, apparently unaware that he is being filmed.
  • Burnside (Christopher Ellison) was originally called "Tommy" when he guest starred in series one and two, but when he appeared as a regular character from 1988 onwards his first name was changed to "Frank". This was because there was a real-life "Tommy Burnside" serving in the Metropolitan police at the time.
  • As of November 2007, Jeff Stewart (PC Reg Hollis) is the last remaining original cast member from the first episode in 1984.
  • Trudie Goodwin left in March 2007, after playing WPC/PC/Sgt. June Ackland since 1983 in the pilot Woodentop.
  • Long-standing cast member Mark Wingett (PC/DC/DS Jim Carver) left the series in February 2005, but returned briefly for Goodwin's leaving storyline.
  • Original cast members Peter Ellis (Chief. Supt. Charles Brownlow) and Eric Richard (Sgt. Bob Cryer) left in 2000 and 2001 respectively, although both returned briefly for guest starring spots, as did Larry Dann (Sgt. Alec Peters).
  • Several members of the current cast have appeared in The Bill in the past as other characters:
  • Comedian/Presenter/Actor Russell Brand appeared on The Bill when he was 18, as seen on Brand's new show Ponderland which aired Oct 24th 2007.
  • Jesse Birdsall, the actor who played Gillian Taylforth's (Sgt Nikki Wright) character's husband in 'Footballer's Wives' once appeared as a criminal who blackmailed DS Phil Hunter.
  • Daniel Radcliffe, most notable for being the leading actor in the Harry Potter films, appeared in a single 2002 episode as a boy who helped his mother with voluntary work for a local charity, and had been tricked by his friends into believing that one of the Sun Hill officers was a "child snatcher".
  • Sarah Tansey, who played the recurring role of missing 7 year old Amy Tennant's stepmother Ruth Barker, is married to Hywel Simons, who played Sergeant Craig Gilmore until 2003.
  • In a storyline where Gina Gold had a romantic fling with councillor Peter Harris, who turned out to be married, Roberta Taylor played opposite her real-life husband Peter Guinness.
  • In an episode on 15 February 2007, the actor playing a criminal involved in a car dealership scam was called Bob Cryer.
  • The Bill has been broadcast in over 55 different countries, and is very popular in Australia, where it is shown on the ABC twice on Saturdays at 8:30pm, with older repeats also shown on ABC at 2:00pm Monday- Thursday, and onUK.TV.
  • In New Zealand, the series is shown on UKTV twice a week
  • In Sweden the show was retitled "Sunhillspolisstation" (Sun Hill Police Station) by broadcaster TV4. Now it is broadcast on Kanal 9 using The Bill, daily at approx. 15:00 with a repeat the following morning approx 04:00.
  • It screens in Ireland on RTÉ One, which is currently showing episodes from 2003. However, RTÉ does not show it in its proper hour long duration, but instead splits one hour long episode into two half hour shows five days a week thus only showing two and a half episodes each week. Fans of the show and TV critics in Ireland have nicknamed it as the "Old Bill", although viewers in the Republic can watch the same episodes as the UK, on UTV.
  • In Belgium the series is broadcast on één.
  • "The Bill's" theme music is called "Overkill", written by Andy Pask and Charlie Morgan. There are several versions of this theme. The first, used between 1984 - 1987, featured a guitar riff, with synthesizer, bass and drum accompaniment, with "middle-eight" sections performed on synthesizers. The second is a remix of the first, used between 1988 - 1998. Instead of the guitar riff, it was replaced with a more bouncy saxophone riff, and is better known than the original. Both versions were written in the irregular time of 7/8 with the exception of the "middle-eight" sections which were written in 4/4. The current arrangement is by Lawrence Oakley.
  • Rick Wakeman was offered the chance to write the theme tune either for this series or for "Lytton's Diary" (1985). He chose the latter, believing that it had the best potential of the two to be a long running series. It ran for two seasons. The job went to Andy Pask and Charlie Morgan who wrote "Overkill".
  • The CAD room (Computer Aided Dispatch) was the centre of all radio communications for Sun Hill police, until 2006. In 2007 the Met revamped their communications (with radios changing from analogue to digital). Now there is an external control centre adjoining Sun Hill station called IBO or Integrated Borough Operations which provides all the local knowledge to the officers on the beat.
  • The police uniforms used in the series are genuine and are locked away for security reasons every night with no complete uniform being locked in any one cupboard.
  • Real police officers took such a dim view of previews they were shown from the first series of The Bill that they refused to attend the launch party. The Police Federation later attacked the programme for implying that racial prejudice existed within the Force.
  • When filming on location, The Bill does not have permission to use sirens. These are added in the dubbing suite.[1]
  • In the early days of The Bill a local resident registered her protest at what she deemed to be a stereotypical portrayal of council estates as hotbeds of crime. She held up filming by stationing herself in the background with an ironing board, iron and basket full of laundry.
  • The doors of Custody used to be made of plywood, with the resounding "bang" also being added in the dubbing suite. In May 2007, they were changed to metal doors, which lock fully.[1]
  • The Bill is recorded at Bosun House which is the building portrayed as Sun Hill Police Station instead of a studio set. Bosun House is situated in South Wimbledon, London
  • In November 2006, thieves stole editing machines and master tapes from the shows studios in Merton, South West London. Posing as a worker and wearing a high-visibility jacket, one of the thieves followed a real worker into the studios and took the equipment, walked out with it and was driven off in a getaway van.[2] Two episodes (468 and 469) were dropped from the schedules in late December 2006, and it is rumoured that the stolen tapes contained scenes from these episodes. The scenes were re-filmed, with the episodes being re-edited to fit continuity with present story lines and were transmitted Wednesday 9 May (Episode 468, renamed Blood Money) and Thursday 10 May (Episode 469, renamed To Honour and Obey).

The Bill has spawned three spin-off productions.

The first of these was known as Burnside. It lasted a single series of six episodes, the first of which debuted on 7 July 2000. The series focused on the newly promoted DCI Burnside as a member of the National Crime Squad. It was created and produced by Richard Handford.

The second spin-off debuted in 2001, and also lasted only six episodes, although was more of a break away from the regular Bill (it was shown in the Bill timeslot) than a complete spin-off. Beech is Back focused on dodgy ex-DS Don Beech, still on the run from Claire Stanton who wants him brought to justice for the murder of her boyfriend DS John Boulton. None of the episodes were given titles, with each being part of a single six part serial. At the end Beech is brought to justice and sent to prison, although he would return in The Bill three years later.

In 2003, ITV debuted the third spin-off of the show, entitled MIT: Murder Investigation Team. The first episode investigated the drive-by shooting of Sgt. Matthew Boyden, who had been at Sun Hill for eleven years. The first series consisted of ten one-hour episodes. The second series was filmed in 2004, but not shown until mid 2005, and consisted of four ninety-minute episodes. It featured Eva Sharpe (Diane Parish) from The Bill, who had transferred to MIT. (Before it was broadcast, it was also rumoured to feature Chris Simmons as Mickey Webb, who had recently departed from The Bill, but these rumours turned out to be false). The series was created by Paul Marquess. The second series was produced by Johnathan Young.

A German version of The Bill, utilising original Bill scripts was produced for RTL Television from 1994 to 2006. It was called Die Wache. [3] [4]

  1. ^ a b Silver, Rachel (1999). The Bill: The Inside Story: Behind the Scenes of Britain's Top Police Drama. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-257137-1. 
  2. ^ Nathan, Sara; Colin Robertson. "The Bill's master tapes stolen", The Sun, 2006-11-10. Retrieved on 2007-06-04. 

The Bill at TV.com

v • d • e
The Bill
Storylines Woodentop • The Don Beech Scandal • Beech on the Run • The Sun Hill Fire (2002) • The Sun Hill Fire (2005)
Production staff Geoff McQueen • Charlie Morgan • Andy Pask
Related articles Live episodes • Characters • Cast members • Deaths • List of episodes • Sun Hill • Title sequences
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bill"
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