The Bill

This article is about the British TV series. For the Polish punk rock band, see The Bill (band).

The Bill
File:The Bill titles.jpg The Bill logo (January 2007–July 2009)
Genre	Police procedural/Drama
Created by	Geoff McQueen
Starring	Present cast
Theme music composer	Andy Pask Charlie Morgan
Composer	Simba Studios
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	25 As of 2009
No. of episodes	2361 As of 10 September 2009 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	Lloyd Shirley (1984-87) Peter Cregeen (1987-89) Michael Chapman (1989-98) Richard Handford (1998-2002) Chris Parr (2002) Paul Marquess (2002-05) Johnathan Young (2005-current) Jörg Winger (2 episodes in 2008)
Production locations	London, England
Running time	22-24 minutes (commercial ½ hour w/1 break) 42-46 minutes (Current Format) (commercial hour w/3 breaks)
Production companies	Talkback Thames (a FremantleMedia company)
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	16 October 1984 – present
Related
Bureau Kruislaan *Die Wache *Burnside *Beech on the Run *Beech is Back *MIT: Murder Investigation Team

The Bill is a British police procedural television series made by Talkback Thames, and 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. As of July 2009, The Bill is recorded in HD and broadcast on the majority of the ITV network, as well as being shown on ITV HD and ITV3. Episodes from 2001 and 2008 are broadcast daily on Alibi and Watch respectively.

History

Main article: History of The Bill

The Bill started as a one-off drama for ITV, entitled Woodentop. The pilot show starred Mark Wingett as Police Constable Jim Carver and Trudie Goodwin as Woman Police Constable June Ackland, with Ackland mentoring Carver on his first day "on the beat", attached to the fictional Sun Hill police station. .The Bill was originally devised by Geoff McQueen, impressing ITV to the point where they decided to commission an entire series. Starting as one post-watershed episode per week, featuring hour long separate storylines for the first three seasons. In 1988, this was increased to three episodes of thirty minutes per week. In 1998, the series returned to hour-long episodes, now twice-weekly, at which point it became more serialised. When Paul Marquess took over as Executive Producer in 2002, the series was revamped as a soap with many veteran characters written out. The years 2002 to 2005 saw the highest death toll of police officers in the show's history. When Johnathan Young took over as executive producer in 2005, the serial format was dropped and the show returned to stand-alone episodes with more focus on crime and policing. 2006 was the first year since 2001 that did not involve the death of a regular character in the series. The Bill is now filmed and broadcast in HD and has returned to its original post-watershed format of one hour-long episode per week, with its iconic theme tune replaced and the addition of incidental music to the show.

Setting

The Bill is set in and around Sun Hill police station, in the fictional London borough of Canley in East London. Other fictional 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
• Spicer Street.

The fictional 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. Locations used when the show is filmed on an estate are:

• Cambridge Estate, in Kingston, south-west London
• High Path Estate, in South Wimbledon, south-west London (approx. 10 minute walk from the Sun Hill set)
• Durand Close, in Carshalton
• Phipps Bridge Mitcham
• 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 or Croydon. For the first time, The Bill visited the Met police's multi-million pound multi-purpose police training centre located in Gravesend, Kent.

Episodes

Main article: List of The Bill episodes

Live Episodes

The Bill has broadcast 2 live episodes. The first was in 2003 to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the pilot "Woodentop". The second was in 2005 to celebrate ITV's 50th birthday.

2003

The live episode in 2003 was episode 162, broadcast on 30th October 2003 at 8pm. Detective Constable Juliet Becker and Constable Cathy Bradford are being held hostage by a man called Mark. As they are being held hostage in a carrier in the station yard, Juliet Becker manages to raise the custody suite alarm. When the rest of the station arrive outside, Mark lets everyone know that he intends to kill Juliet Becker. Just then the police get permission to break into the carrier and they find that Juliet has been stabbed. She is rushed to hospital, but attempts to resuscitate her fail.

2005

The live episode in 2005 was episode 349, broadcast on 22nd September 2005 at 8pm. This was the episode that revealed that Constable Gabriel Kent was false. It was revealed that he is operating under his brothers name and his real name is David Kent. In this episode the real Gabriel Kent arrived in Sun Hill to meet his mother, Sergeant June Ackland.

In this episode, the police station is playing host to a reception party and as the police arrive, they are taken hostage by a distraught father who's son was killed by a stolen car. A struggle ensues in which a shot is fired making other police in the building not at the reception, aware of the incident. After civilians have been evacuated, Superintendent Prosser encourages Constable Dan Casper to try and overpower the man. As he does so, both Constable Casper and the real Gabriel Kent are shot. The real Gabriel Kent is rushed to hospital where the false Gabriel Kent threatens him in order to keep the identity switch a secret.

Specials

A crossover episode with the German series SOKO Leipzig was produced, in cooperation with the ZDF, under the title "Soko Leipzig: The Bill - Entführung in London" (German title). It was broadcast both in Germany and the UK on November 12, 2008, and September 4, 2009..

As of 2009, 25 series have been made.

Cast

Main article: List of The Bill characters

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.

Notable Past Cast Members

In this list are actors who have either appeared on The Bill for some considerable length of time, or have had The Bill make a significant impact on their careers.

Billy Murray (actor) appeared in The Bill for 5 years playing Don Beech. The character was a corrupt policeman, the main crime he committed was the murder of his fellow colleague DS John Boulton. This caused the character to go on the run, he is still on the run and his current whereabouts are unknown. Since leaving The Bill, Billy has had a varied career including a stint on EastEnders as Johnny Allen and has appeared in two films, Rollin' With The Nines and Rise of the Footsoldier.

Ciaran Griffiths played temporary Detective Constable Gary Best for 3 years, the character leaving after he was shot and nearly paralysed in a drugs operation, transferring to Manchester to be closer to his family. As well as appearing in The Bill, Ciaran has appeared in numerous other television programmes including Shameless, Coronation Street and Clocking Off as well as a few films.

Russell Boulter played DS John Boulton for 5 years. The character ended up on the wrong side of DS Don Beech and was murdered by him. Since appearing in The Bill, Russell has also appeared in Casualty, Judge John Deed, Heartbeat, Mobile, Waking The Dead and currently narrates Deep Wreck Mysteries on the History channel.

Tony O'Callaghan played Sergeant Matt Boyden for 12 years from 1991-2003. The character left after he was shot dead by his daughters boyfriend so she can profit from insurance money to fund her drug habit. Tony O'Callaghan has also appeared in The Magnificent Evans, Family Affairs, Holby City, Doctors and Shameless.

Peter Ellis played Chief Superintendent Charles Brownlow for over 16 years from 1983 to 2000, the character leaving after he tendered his resignation in light of the Don Beech scandal. In 1983 Peter appeared in the play Trafford Tanzi opposite Toyah Wilcox.

Christopher Ellison played DCI Frank Burnside for 5 years, the character leaving in 1993 to join the Metropolitan Police. Since leaving The Bill, Christopher has enjoyed a guest stint as Len Harker in EastEnders. He has also appeared in Minder, Casualty, Judge John Deed, Doctor Who audio adventure The Game and, of course, Burnside.

Mark Wingett played DS Jim Carver from 1983 to 2005. After building up gambling debts, the character left Sun Hill knowing he would only make the same mistakes if he stayed. Since leaving, Mark has also appeared in EastEnders, the British version of American Chopper and Spartacus.

Eric Richard played Sergeant Bob Cryer from 1984-2001, the character leaving when he was accidentally shot by then PC Dale Smith after being held hostage at a school. Tom Chandler used this as an opportunity to force Cryer out of the force so he left Sun Hill. Prior to appearing in The Bill, Eric appeared in a number of TV programmes including Open All Hours, Made In Britain and Shoestring.

Natalie J. Robb played PC Andrea Dunbar from 2004-05, she was a policewoman who led a double-life as she was actually a journalist posing as a policewomen researching a story on whether or not the Police had become too soft with criminals. This role was apparently thought of by The Bill after a BBC1 Panorama programme of the same nature. Andrea was one of the policewomen killed in the 2005 station fire. Since leaving The Bill, Natalie has appeared in a number of television programmes including EastEnders, Emmerdale and Waking The Dead.

Larry Lamb (actor) played Senior Crown Prosecutor Jonathan Fox for 4 months in 2004. The character developed a relationship with Inspector Gina Gold, but, realising the force would always come first in her life, requested a transfer to another station. Since appearing in The Bill, Larry has appeared in a number of television programmes including EastEnders and Gavin & Stacey.

Daniel Flynn (actor) played Superintendent John Heaton from 2006-09, the character leaving to take charge of a specialist unit targeting human trafficking. As well as The Bill, Daniel has appeared in a number of television programmes including Goodbye Mr Chips, Peak Practice and Murder in Mind.

Scott Maslen played DS Phil Hunter from 2002-07, the character leaving to transfer to Special Ops. Since leaving The Bill, Scott has been playing the character of Jack Branning in EastEnders.

Stephen Beckett played PC Mike Jarvis from 1993-98, the character leaving when he transferred to the Diplomatic Protection Group. Since appearing in The Bill, Stephen has appeared in a number of television programmes including Heartbeat, Doctors and Casualty.

Todd Carty played PC Gabriel Kent from 2003-05, the character leaving when it was discovered that he was operating under a false identity. He jumped to his death after a violent confrontation with then Sergeant Dale Smith. As well as appearing in The Bill, Todd has appeared in a number of television programmes including EastEnders, Grange Hill, Heartbeat and Holby City.

Kevin Lloyd played DC Tosh Lines from 1988-98, the character was written out and left accepting a position in the Coroners Office. A week after his dismissal from The Bill, Kevin Lloyd died.

Andrew Paul played PC Dave Quinnan from 1989-2002 when the character left to transfer to SO10 Covert Operations. Since leaving The Bill, Andrew has enjoyed a brief stint on EastEnders as Maxwell Moon and on Where The Heart Is until the programme was axed in 2006.

Michael Higgs played PC Eddie Santini from 1998-99, the character leaving after being gunned down due to his part in a murder. Since leaving The Bill, Michael has been in a number of television programmes including EastEnders, Silent Witness and Double Time.

Diane Parish played DC Eva Sharpe from 2002-04, the character leaving to join the Murder Investigation Team. Since The Bill, Diane has appeared in Murder Investigation Team and is currently playing Denise Wicks in EastEnders.

Jeff Stewart (actor) played PC Reg Hollis from 1984-2008. In 2008 the character was written out with the character handing in his resignation after seeing one too many of his colleagues killed in a bomb blast. Jeff has not been seen on television since the character was axed.

Over it's 26 year history, The Bill has seen some 174 policemen, policewomen and civilian staff pass through it's doors. The current cast is listed below :

Senior Officers

Rank	Name	Actors	First Appearance
Supt	Jack Meadows	Simon Rouse	1990
Insp	Dale Smith	Alex Walkinshaw	1999
DI	Neil Manson	Andrew Lancel	2003

Detective Sergeants

Rank	Name	Actor	First Appearance
DS	Max Carter	Christopher Fox	2007
DS	Stevie Moss	Lucy Speed	2008

Uniformed Police Sergeants

Rank	Name	Actor	First Appearance
Sgt	Callum Stone	Sam Callis	2007

Detective Constables

Rank	Name	Actor/ Actress	First Appearance
DC	Mickey Webb	Chris Simmons	2000
DC	Terry Perkins	Bruce Byron	2003
DC	Will Fletcher	Gary Lucy	2005
DC	Jo Masters	Sally Rogers	2005
DC	Grace Dasari	Amita Dhiri	2007
DC	Jacob Banks	Patrick Robinson	2008

Uniformed Police Constables

Rank	Name	Actor/ Actress	First Appearance
PC	Tony Stamp	Graham Cole	1985
PC	Roger Valentine	John Bowler	2004
PC	Benjamin Gayle	Micah Balfour	2007
PC	Sally Armstrong	Ali Bastian	2007
PC	Nate Roberts	Ben Richards	2007
PC	Millie Brown	Clare Foster	2008
PC	Leon Taylor	Dominic Power	2008
PC	Mel Ryder	Rhea Bailey	2008

Civilian Police staff

Rank	Name	Actor	First Appearance
CSE	Eddie Olosunje	Jason Barnett	2008

Upcoming character changes

Rank	Name	Actor/ Actress	Status	Reference
PC	Tony Stamp	Graham Cole	Leaves 5th November 2009
DC	Will Fletcher	Gary Lucy	Leaves December 2009
PC	Sally Armstrong	Ali Bastian	Leaves 2009
PC	Kirsty Knight	Sarah Manners	Arrives February 2010
DC	Jo Masters	Sally Rogers	Transfers to Uniform and promoted to Sergeant, January/February 2010

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.

Effort is put in to the visual style of the series in order to make the programme 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. 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 realism, 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. 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, an iron and a 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.. It is believed, but has not been confirmed, that the tapes stolen included episodes 468 and 469 which were subsequently dropped from the schedule. These episodes were re-filmed, re-edited and eventually transmitted on Wednesday 9th and Thursday 10th May 2007.

Title sequences

Main article: The Bill 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.

The Bill's regular titles along with the iconic theme tune "Overkill" were dropped when the show moved to 9pm, being replaced with a slower, more emotional piece of music, and a title sequence following a police car through London. The new theme tune contains two subtle motifs of the original theme.

Broadcasting

England

The Bill now airs on ITV 1 at 9pm every Thursday evening for one hour .

Scotland

The Bill used to air on Scottish channel STV. On 5 July 2009, the News Of The World reported that The Bill was to be axed in Scotland.. The final episode of The Bill shown on STV was "Conviction: Judgement Day" and it was aired on 23 July 2009 at 8pm.

Digital Broadcasting

Due to the broadcast cancellation in Scotland and its major revamp to coincide with its scheduling, ITV 3 now repeat the show on Monday nights .

Overseas broadcast

The Bill has been broadcast in over 55 different countries.

• In Australia, the series is very popular where it is shown on ABC1 on Saturday evenings and was repeated on the digital-only channel ABC2 on Tuesday until September 2009. The Australian screenings are approximately seven weeks behind the UK. In addition repeats of older episodes are shown on ABC1 at 14:00 Monday-Thursday, when Parliamentary Question Time is not being broadcast. 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 the series was retitled "Lov og Uorden" (Law and Disorder). Two episodes of the series are broadcast every afternoon on TV2 Charlie.
• In Ireland the series is broadcast on RTÉ Two. RTÉ shows episodes from 2005. An hour long episode is shown once 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

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	06 Jun 2005
Series 2	1-12	1985-1986	17 Oct 2005
Series 3	1-12	1987	28 May 2007
Series 1-3	1-35	1983-1987	19 Nov 2007

Half-hour format

Series 4 - Volumes 1, 2 and 3 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 Jun 2008
Series 4 - Volume Two	14-26	1988	02 Mar 2009
Series 4 - Volume Three	28-39	1988	11 May 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 Jun 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 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 Monroe and DI Frank Burnside

Spin-offs and related shows

The Bill has spawned several spin-off productions and documentaries.

Bureau Kruislaan

Bureau Kruislaan was a Dutch series based on The Bill. It was produced by Joop van den Ende for VARA from 1992 to 1995. In the last year, the show received a nomination for a Gouden Televizier Ring, a Dutch award for the best television programme.

Die Wache

A German version of The Bill, entitled Die Wache, which utilised scripts from the series was produced for RTL Television from 1994 to 2006.

Burnside

This spin-off 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. A DVD was released in Australia 8 October 2008 and features all of the episodes in a 3-disc set.

Beech On The Run

Beech on the Run is a one-episode spin-off that continues the story of ex-DS Don Beech, living in Australia with associations to crime to fund his life of luxury. However, Claire Stanton is hot on his tail - determined to bring him to justice.

Beech Is Back

This sequel to spin-off Beech On The Run debuted in 2001. It lasted only six episodes and was more of a break away from the regular Bill (it was shown in that timeslot) than a complete spin-off. Beech is Back again 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.

MIT: Murder Investigation Team

In 2003, ITV 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.

The Bill Uncovered

A series of The Bill Uncovered documentaries were produced to reflect the stories of select characters and events (broadcast on ITV 2 and ITV 3):

• The Bill Uncovered : Des and Reg (2004) - The story of the unusual friendship between PC Des Taviner and PC Reg Hollis and intercut with clips from Des's first day at Sun Hill to his death in a Sun Hill cell.
• The Bill Uncovered : Kerry's Story (2004) - The story of PC Kerry Young, who met her death outside Sun Hill.
• The Bill Uncovered : Jim's Story (2005) - The story of DC Jim Carver - from his first day at Sun Hill (in the pilot "Woodentop").
• The Bill Uncovered : On The Front Line (2006) - Supt. Adam Okaro recounts the extraordinary events that have surrounded Sun Hill over the years. Only shown in Australia - a planned UK broadcast was cancelled.

See also

• List of regular The Bill actors who have appeared in other roles
• List of guests on The Bill

External links

• The Bill at itv.com
• The Bill at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show
• The Bill at TheTVDB
• The Bill Wiki, an external wiki
• The Bill at the BFI's Screenonline