The Bill title sequences
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The Bill's title sequences have varied greatly over the 26 years it has been on air.
Woodentop
The series started as an episode for ITV as part of its Storyboard strand of one-off dramas entitled Woodentop. The episode began with the regular Storyboard title sequence and an introductory scene with PC Jim Carver which was followed by the title caption of the episode.
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The title sequence for ITV's Storyboard strand of one-off dramas
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The title caption for the Woodentop episode
Opening Credits
The first series in 1984 has its own unique title sequence, featuring images of the feet of two uniformed officers walking towards the camera interspersed with shots of the streets of Sun Hill. Then the camera zooms in on the male officer's helmet and the title of the show appears, followed by the credit 'devised by Geoff McQueen'.
For the second series in 1985, the titles were completely changed: now, they began with a shot of the Area Car approaching the camera with blue light flashing and siren wailing, and then its tyres screeching as the music began: the camera would end up with a close-up on the blue light atop the car. Two-second filtered action shots of various members of the cast were then shown, interspersed with images of the blue light. "The Bill" and "Devised by Geoff McQueen" would then appear over a hold shot of the light, and then the episode would begin.
The 1988 titles removed the filter effect, and were updated to reflect cast changes. The first rework of the theme tune: "Overkill", debuted in 1988. It also introduced another trademark to the titles: Sergeant Bob Cryer was always the last person to be shown. In this title sequence, he is talking and nodding. The 1991 sequence differs as it does not actually feature the area car driving towards camera, and simply begins with the police light spinning before cutting through the cast footage. The credit "The Bill" is shown over a shot of the new area car driving past camera, and Cryer is now shouting at someone. In 1993, the title sequence changed once again to one closer resembling the one seen in 1988, with a new area car driving towards camera again and Cryer is shouting at someone (Same as the 1991 titles but slightly longer).
In 1996, an ingenious addition was made. Separate title sequences were created with specially-filled footage: one for episodes that took place during the day and one for those set at night. Again, a new Area Car in the credits, and the timing of the music was subtly changed. Instead of kicking in immediately after the screech of tyres, it now begun at the same time. In both title sequences, Cryer looks up for the camera.
In 1998, in the second major revamp of the old titles were thrown out entirely, in favour of new opening titles featuring images of generic police things: dayglo jackets, hats, a suspect being interviewed, and a map in CAD (Computer Aided Dispatch) among other things. The Bill's current logo was introduced along with the new titles. The music was made sound more 'ethnic' by the addition of a few background notes from a sitar or balalaika.
The titles were changed in 2001 to show cast members moving in slow motion, fading in and out of each other with a blue filter effect and the music was remixed to take it back closer to the 1988 Pask/Morgan mix of "Overkill". This was updated in 2002 to take into account the huge cast turnaround.
With characters arriving and departed so rapidly by this stage (9 officers died in 2002), the 2003 titles vaguely resembled the 1998 ones, removing the cast members, and showed police related images over a checkerboard effect.
On the 3 January, 2007 to bring in the new year, the episode opening titles were revamped once again, paying homage to the original 1984 titles. The 2007 ones have shots of London, interspersed with police work and shots of Sun Hill Police Station. The break bumpers and music were also updated.
On 26 July, 2009, the opening titles saw the biggest changes in the show's history with the theme music being changed dramatically and the titles showing a new area car speeding round the streets of London with the the shows name flashing on the screen one word at a time followed by the episodes title.
Sgt Cryer's Expressions (1988-1997 Titles)
Between 1988 and 1997 Sgt. Bob Cryer was always the last person to be shown in the title sequences, these are his expressions.
| Year | Expression |
|---|---|
| 1988-1990 | Talking, nodding and giving a reprimand |
| 1991-1992 | Shouting |
| 1993 Only | Shouting (Longer version of the 1991-1992 Expression) |
| 1994 Only | . |
| 1995 Only | Head rises |
| 1996-1997 | Looks up to face the camera |
Closing Credits
Possibly the most iconic part of The Bill's presentation was the closing titles between 1984 and 1998, featuring two pairs of policeman's feet -- male and female, side-by-side -- "plodding" away from the camera along a cobbled street. These accompanied the opening titles of the 1984 credits, but were kept on after the original opening sequence was scrapped. The feet were originally intended to be those of Trudie Goodwin (June Ackland) and Mark Wingett (Jim Carver), but they were too busy filming other scenes so two extras were recruited instead -- Karen England and Paul Page Hanson.
The length of the closing credits in the earlier years last over one-and-a-half minutes, with the length slowly being cut down to around 36 seconds by the mid 90s. Three versions of the credits were filmed.
In 1998, the "plodding feet" closing was scrapped, and replaced with police images. 2001's closing sequence featured police images in the style of the 2001 opening credits. Eventually, by late 2002, ITV's new policy on credits had come into force and from then on, the closing credits have adorned the ITV default backdrop. In 2007, the closing credits were renewed, now becoming clips of a camera inside an area car driving around London.
In the 1988 & 1989 closing credits no matter how dominant his role Sgt. Bob Cryer was always the first person to be credited, unless he was not in the episode. A good example of this is in the 1989 episode "Duty Elsewhere" where Sgt. Cryer had only one line and P.C. Haynes had the whole plot with several lines, Sgt. Cryer was still credited first.
Music
The Bill's theme music is called "Overkill" written by Andy Pask and Charlie Morgan. 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.
There are several versions of Overkill. The first used for the 1984-87 titles, featured a guitar riff, with synthesiser, bass and drum accompaniment, with "middle-eight" sections performed on synthesizers. It was reworked in 1988 with a new arrangement of instruments. This version (of various lengths) was used throughout the 1988-1998 titles. A bouncy prominent saxophone riff was introduced, and is better known than the original. Both versions were written in the irregular time of 7/4 with the exception of the "middle-eight" sections which were written in 4/4. Later in 1998, Mark Russell arranged a new version of the theme. It was "jazzed" up to make it more soapy sounding, to go along with the new revamp of the series. The saxophone became more prominent, (or "stressed out"), and had a metre of 4/4 instead of the irregular 7/4. The "middle-eight" sections were omitted from this arrangement, as with the rest from this point on.
New music came with the 2001 titles, arranged by Miles Bould & Mike Westergaard. The theme became darker in tone and was performed with electronic instruments. There have been two recordings of this arrangement. One which cuts out some of the beginning riff, and the other which uses the full main riff. The arrangement which came with the 2003 titles was a pumped up version of the original 1984 version of Overkill; this has been changed slightly for the 2007 titles. The current arrangement is by Lawrence Oakley.
The original 1984 version of "Overkill" was released as a 7" vinyl single in 1985. It featured a 'B' side containing the track "Rock Steady", which was also written by Pask/Morgan. The vinyl was distributed by Columbia Records.
It has been announced that the "Overkill" theme tune will be dropped in favour of something more dramatic when the show moves to 9pm at the end of July. Series producer Tim Key has stated the new theme tune will contain two motifs of the original theme but, will be very subtle.[1] So far, the new theme, along with the revamp, have been poorly received by many viewers.[2][3]
British team of composers 'Simba Studios' will score the new 9PM episodes.
References
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