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The Bill
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The Bill is a long-running British television police procedural, named after a slang term for the police. It was first broadcast on 16 August, 1983 as a pilot episode, and as a regular series from 16 October, 1984 and transmitted on ITV, at 20:00 on Thursdays and most Wednesdays. Older episodes from 2006 are broadcast regularly on Watch and episodes from 1999 on Alibi.
series 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.
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Encyclopedia
The Bill is a long-running British television police procedural, named after a slang term for the police. It was first broadcast on 16 August, 1983 as a pilot episode, and as a regular series from 16 October, 1984 and transmitted on ITV, at 20:00 on Thursdays and most Wednesdays. Older episodes from 2006 are broadcast regularly on Watch and episodes from 1999 on Alibi.
History
The series 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. Starting with one episode per week, featuring hour long separate storylines for the first three seasons, The Bill went on to be three half hour episodes per week between 1988 and 1998 because of a drop in ratings before going to two 60 minute episodes per week. 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 storylines have been dropped with more focus on crime and policing. As a result, 2006 was the first year since 2001 that has not involved the death of a police officer in the series, although the death of PC Honey Harman was filmed in 2006 but not aired until 2007.
Setting
The Bill is set in and around Sun Hill police station, in the fictional London borough of Canley in East London.The address of the station is 2 Sun Hill Road, Canley, London, E1 4KM. 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 (on Deer Park Road, SW19). The main locations used when the show is filmed on an estate are the Cambridge Estate, in Kingston, south west London and the High Path Estate, in South Wimbledon, south west London (approx 10 minutes walk from the main set). Other main estates used are Durand Close, in Carshalton, Phipps Bridge Mitcham and the Roundshaw Estate opposite Mellows Park in Wallington, London. Sometimes scenes are filmed in East London and notably the London Docklands standing in for Canley. Other scenes are filmed in Greenwich.
Cast
Working on The Bill is something of a rite of passage in British acting, many members of the profession having appeared in the series. The Bill has a large regular cast to support the number of episodes that are produced each year, indeed a number of regular cast members have appeared in other roles.
Some cast members spend decades working on the series, and become synonymous with the characters they play. In 1998, Kevin Lloyd, who played DC Alfred "Tosh" Lines, died of alcohol abuse, and, in January 2008, Jeff Stewart, who played PC Reg Hollis, attempted suicide in his dressing room on the set, both after being told that their contracts would not be renewed.
Vic Gallucci, an extra in the show who played DC Tom Baker, is in The Guinness Book Of Records for the most walk on parts. He made more than one thousand appearances over 13 years as DC Tom Baker, and can be seen in the background of many episodes.
Senior Officers
Detective Sergeants
Uniformed Police Sergeants
Detective Constables
Uniformed Police Constables
Civillian Police Staff
Upcoming character changes
Notable guests
- Singer and actress Martine McCutcheon appeared in an episode of The Bill entitled "Skeletons", on 2 July 1991 as a paper girl, and again on 16 July 1992 as Amanda Jones, in an episode entitled "A Scandalous Act".
- Spice Girl Emma Bunton appeared in an episode of The Bill entitled "Missionary Work", on 23 February 1993, as a troubled teenager named Janice.
- Actress Keira Knightley appeared in an episode of The Bill entitled "Swan Song", on 13 April 1995, as a ten-year old tearaway named Sheena Rose.
- Russell Brand appeared on The Bill in 1994 when he was 18.
- 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.
- Sarah Tansey, who played the recurring role of missing seven 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.
- Letitia Dean played suspected arsonist Amanda Ronson in "Playing with Fire" in 1997.
- Footballer Emmanuel Petit played himself in the 1998 Christmas episode
- Linda Lusardi played Don Beech's girlfriend Maggie Lyons in four 2000 episodes, and return for two more in 2004.
- Craig Charles played Martin Bailey in the 1995 episode "Honey Pot".
- Ron Moody has appeared several times, including once as husband to Mollie Sugden, where the two of them were elderly con artists.
- Sylvester McCoy has made several appearances, both comic and dramatic.
- Tom Hollander appeared in a 1995 episode, 'Getaway' as 'O'Leary'.
- Lorraine Kelly appeared as herself in 2003 when PC Cathy Bradford made an appearance on This Morning to be interviewed about PC Polly Page's conviction for murder.
- Jack O'Connell appeared in four episodes during 2005, as Ross Trescot.
- Kathy Burke appeared as a lady called Sherry Brooke in the 1989 episode "Leaving"
- Neil Reidman, who played Lt. Atillo in Dr. Who, appeared as Daryl Gilchrist in three episodes during 2000.
Production
The Bill is unusual among police shows for taking a serial format and not focusing on any particular area of police work. The show covers the work and lives of patrol and response officers on one relief in the uniform division, and the work of the CID. In its current serial format, some stories are resolved in an episode or two, whereas others can stretch over months.
A lot of effort is put in to the visual style of the series, and into making it realistic. The series includes a large amount of location filming in and around London as well as the sense of place provided by the police station building. Recorded for the series takes place at Bosun House in South Wimbledon, in London which brings its own challenges. During filming for the 2005 live episode crowds of people watching the filming can be seen across the road from the station entrance. The Bill does not have permission to use sirens When filming on location, these are added in the dubbing suite.
For verisimilitude, 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. Today, even the doors of the custody are real metal doors, however until May 2007 they were made of plywood, with the resounding "bang" also being added in the dubbing suite.
The series has not been without criticism however, 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. 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.
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. 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).
Title Sequences
The title sequence of the series have changed a number of times, however the theme music, called "Overkill", has remained albeit in a number of different arrangements.
Andy Pask and Charlie Morgan wrote the theme music. Rick Wakeman had been 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, although it only ran for two series.
Overseas broadcast
The Bill has been broadcast in over 55 different countries.
- In Australia, the series is very popular where it is usually shown on ABC1 on Saturday evenings and repeated on the digital-only channel ABC2 on Tuesday. In addition repeats older sometimes shown on ABC1 at 14:00 Monday-Thursday, usually when parliament is not in session. After broadcast, episodes are available online within Australia through the ABC iView IPTV service.
- On satellite and cable in Australia and New Zealand, older episodes are broadcast on UKTV.
- In Belgium the series is broadcast on één.
- In Denmark two episodes of the series are broadcast every afternoon on TV2 Charlie.
- In Ireland the series is broadcast on RTÉ One. RTÉ does not show it in its original hour-long duration, but instead splits one hour long episode into two half hour shows five days a week. Fans of the show and TV critics in Ireland have nicknamed it as the "Old Bill", as viewers in Ireland can watch the same episodes as the UK, on UTV.
- In Sweden the series was retitled "Sunhillspolisstation" (Sun Hill Police Station) by broadcaster TV4. It is now broadcast daily on Kanal 9 in the early afternoon with a repeat early the following morning.
DVD Video releases
The Bill is currently being released in Australia in a 12 disc wallet format, the first 5 series and up to episode 88 of series 6 have been released.
As of February 2008 the company releasing the DVDs has gone into receivership, making the release of future collections uncertain. It is understood Roadshow now have the rights in Australia
Note: The episode numbering system begins with 1988, when the series began airing continuously through the year.
| DVD Info | Release Date |
|---|
| Title | Series | Year of Episodes |
|---|
| Seasons 1-3 | Series 1-3 | 1983-1987 | 10 May 2006 | | Season 4 & 5 | Series 4 | 1988 | 6 December 2006 | | Collection 3: Episodes 49-96 | Series 5 | 1989 | 8 August 2007 | | Collection 4: Episodes 97-144 | Series 5 | 1989 | 7 November 2007 | | Collection 5: Episodes 145-192 | Series 5 & 6 | 1989-1990 | 9 April 2008 | | Collection 6: Episodes 193-240 | Series 6 | 1990 | 8 October 2008 | | Burnside: The Complete Series | Spin-off | 2000 | 8 October 2008 |
UK (Region 2)
The Originals
In the UK, The Bill has released series 1 to 3 individually and in a box set.
Note: The episode numbering system for the first three series is exclusive to that series.
| DVD Series | Episodes | Years of Series | Release Date |
|---|
| Series 1 and Woodentop | 1-11 | 1983-1985 | 6 June 2005 | | Series 2 | 1-12 | 1985-1986 | 17 October 2005 | | Series 3 | 1-12 | 1987 | 28 May 2007 | | Series 1-3 | 1-35 | 1983-1987 | 19 November 2007 |
Half-hour Format
Series 4 - Volumes 1 and 2 have been released.
Note: From series 4 the numbering system will apply to the whole of the half-hour format, when the series began airing continuously through the year.
| DVD Title | Episodes | Year of Episodes | Release Date |
|---|
| Series 4 - Volume One | 01-13 | 1988 | 30 June 2008 | | Series 4 - Volume Two | 14-27 | 1988 | 2 March 2009 |
U.S. (Region 1)
The Bill was also released in the US with the first series, but at the moment no further series are planned for release.
| DVD Series | Episodes | Year of Series | Release Date |
|---|
| Series 1 and Woodentop | 1-11 | 1983-1985 | 5 June 2007 |
Novels
A series of six novelisations of The Bill were published between 1985 and 1992, by Thames/Methuan Publishing (under the Mandarin imprint). Each book was written by John Burke, and adapted from television scripts by Geoff McQueen, Barry Appleton, Ginnie Hole, Christopher Russell, Lionel Goldstein, Al Hunter, Nicholas McInnery, JC Wilsher, Jonathan Rich and Robin Muckherjee.
The format of the books differed from the original scripts in minor details and the episodes are presented in a more serialised style, with the narrative events of separate episodes moving into and out of each other, not unlike the format used in later years by the television series.
An early taboo of the series, that the officers private lives remained off-screen, was was also broken. During the first two books, DI Galloway was seen at home with his wife and his daughter.
When the novels began to adapt the half-hour episodes (Book Three onwards) there is a noticeable jump in continuity, as the sudden influx of a larger cast of characters meant that not every "first episode" of each character could be adapted, so several characters can be seen suddenly appearing half way through with little or no introduction as to who they are or where they came from.
All the novelisations were published in paperback editions. The first two books were also published in rarer to find hardcover editions. The stories from Series Three of the tv series never received a novelisation because of various unavoidable production problems with that series.
| Novel Title | Year Published | Episode | Cover Photo |
|---|
| The Bill 1 | 1985 | Adapted select episodes of Series 1 (1984) | PC Jim Carver chasing a suspect | | The Bill 2 | 1987 | Adapted select episodes of Series 2 (1985) | Sergeant Bob Cryer in civilian clothing | | The Bill 3 | 1989 | Adapted select episodes of Series 4 (1988) | Sergeant Bob Cryer and Inspector Christine Fraser in Sun Hill station carpark. | | The Bill 4 | 1990 | Adapted select episodes of Series 5 (1989) | DC "Tosh" Lines and DC Mike Dashwood | | The Bill 5 | 1991 | Adapted select episodes of Series 5 (1989) | DS Ted Roach | | The Bill 6 | 1992 | Adapted select episodes of Series 6 (1990) | Inspector Andrew Munroe and DI Frank Burnside |
Spin-offs
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 DVD release in Australia will feature all of the episodes in a 3 disc set. It is scheduled to be released 8 October 2008.
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 a title, 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, entitled Die Wache, which utilised scripts from the series was produced for RTL Television from 1994 to 2006.
See also
External links
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