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 (Prev. Soap)
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	2344 As of 18 June 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 (commercial hour w/3 breaks)
Production companies	Talkback Thames (a FremantleMedia company)
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	16 October 1984 – present
Related
Burnside *MIT: Murder Investigation Team *Beech is Back

The Bill is a British television police procedural 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 broadcast in the UK by most stations in the ITV network and nationally on ITV3; with episodes from 2001 and 2007 being shown on Alibi and Watch respectively.

History

Main article: History of The Bill

The series originally 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 the two character of June Ackland mentoring Jim Carver on his first day "on the beat" and attatched to Sun Hill police station. It was originally devised by Geoff McQueen, and impressed ITV to the point where they decided to make a series out of it. Starting as one post-watershed episode per week, featuring hour long separate storylines for the first three seasons and in 1988 it was increased to three half hour episodes per week. In 1998 it returned to hour-long episodes, now twice-weekly. The Bill became more serialised, and in 2002 when Paul Marquess took over as Executive Producer it was revamped as a soap with many veteran characters written out. The show focused more on officers' private lives (often at the expense of their work) and became reliant on sensationalist and over-the-top storylines, with officers both killing and being killed with an alarming regularity. 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 more sensational storylines were dropped and the show returned to stand-alone episodes with more focus on crime and policing. As a result, 2006 was the first year since 2001 that did not involve the death of a regular character in the series. The Bill is now 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.

Axed in Scotland

On 5 July 2009, the News of The World reported that The Bill is to be axed in the Scottish region. The reason given for this is that it is going to cost STV £30,000 an episode to screen - a price they think is too expensive. This decision has deeply enraged bosses at ITV plc, as The Bill is currently undergoing a major revamp to fit in the heart of their TV schedule. Digital Spy announced on Monday 6 July that even although STV are dropping The Bill from their schedules, Scottish viewers will still be able to view the programme via digital satellite, cable or online.

The final episode of The Bill shown on STV was "Conviction: Judgement Day" and it was aired on 16 July 2009 at 8pm. Sgt Dale 'Smithy' Smith was put to the test in court when he had to testify against Jason Devlin who was accused of people trafficking. In return for this charge, Jason tried to accuse Smithy of planting evidence. On the day of the trial, one of the children of a witness went missing meaning that the witness wouldn't give evidence, forcing Smithy to take the witness box. However before the trial was over, the child was found, forcing Jason to change his not guilty plea and drop the charge against Smithy.

Outside of the court, Sgt Callum Stone gave Smithy a dose of his own version of congratulations before walking off leaving Smithy looking thoughtful. Smithy was the last character to be shown on STV.

ITV will be repeating the Thursday episodes the following Monday on ITV3 and Wednesdays ITV1, however on 29 July 2009, "Live By The Sword" and "Die By The Sword" (the first two episodes to be screened on ITV3) will be screened back to back from 11pm.

Setting

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
• 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. 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.

List of episodes

Main article: List of The Bill episodes

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. However, all through 2009 the show will be making many cast changes which includes laying cast off and promoting on-screen characters to fill in the slots.

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. Other extras have been Steve Morley, who made 16 appearances as Sergeant Stuart Lamont between 1989 and 2001, Gail Abbott, who made 6 appearances as WPC Michelle Hughes between 1994 and 1995 and Susan Majolier who made 28 appearances as Marion, Chief Superintendent Charles Brownlow's secretary, between 1988 and 1999. Morley also made an appearance in 1985 as a protester and in 1991 as an un-named custody sergeant. In one of Lamont's appearances (6 November 1998) he was a PC instead of a Sergeant.

Senior Officers

Rank	Name	Actors	Notes
Supt	Jack Meadows	Simon Rouse
DI	Neil Manson	Andrew Lancel
Insp	Dale Smith	Alex Walkinshaw
Insp	Rachel Weston	Claire Goose	On 12 month secondment

Detective Sergeants

Rank	Name	Actor	Notes
DS	Max Carter	Christopher Fox

Uniformed Police Sergeants

Rank	Name	Actor	Notes
Sgt	Callum Stone	Sam Callis

Detective Constables

Rank	Name	Actor/ Actress	Notes
DC	Terry Perkins	Bruce Byron
DC	Mickey Webb	Chris Simmons
DC	Jo Masters	Sally Rogers
DC	Grace Dasari	Amita Dhiri
DC	Stevie Moss	Lucy Speed	Promoted to Detective Sergeant 6th August 2009
DC	Jacob Banks	Patrick Robinson
TDC	Will Fletcher	Gary Lucy	Becomes Detective Constable Summer 2009

Uniformed Police Constables

Rank	Name	Actor/ Actress	Notes
PC	Tony Stamp	Graham Cole	Leaves November 2009
PC	Roger Valentine	John Bowler
PC	Sally Armstrong	Ali Bastian
PC	Benjamin Gayle	Micah Balfour
PC	Nate Roberts	Ben Richards
PC	Millie Brown	Clare Foster
PC	Leon Taylor	Dominic Power
PC	Mel Ryder	Rhea Bailey

Civilian Police staff

Rank	Name	Actor	Notes
CSE	Eddie Olosunje	Jason Barnett

Upcoming character changes

Rank	Name	Actor/ Actress	Status	Reference
DC	Stevie Moss	Lucy Speed	Promoted to Detective Sergeant 6th August 2009
TDC	Will Fletcher	Gary Lucy	Becomes Detective Constable Summer 2009
PC	Tony Stamp	Graham Cole	Leaves November 2009
Insp	Rachel Weston	Claire Goose	Returns Summer 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.

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

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.

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. The Australian screenings are approximately seven weeks behind the UK. 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

Australia (Region 4)

The Bill is currently being released in Australia in a 12 disc wallet format. The first five 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.

Title	Series	Year of Episodes	Release Date
Seasons 1-3	Series 1-3	1983-1987	10 May 2006
Season 4 & 5	Series 4	1988	06 Dec 2006
Collection 3: Episodes 49-96	Series 5	1989	08 Aug 2007
Collection 4: Episodes 97-144	Series 5	1989	07 Nov 2007
Collection 5: Episodes 145-192	Series 5 & 6	1989-1990	09 Apr 2008
Collection 6: Episodes 193-240	Series 6	1990	08 Oct 2008
Burnside: The Complete Series	Spin-off	2000	08 Oct 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	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
Series 4 - Volume Four	40-53	1988-1989	2010

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.

Burnside

The first 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 was released 8 October 2008.

Beech Is Back

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.

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.

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.

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 a 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 notable 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