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The Bill: Difference between revisions
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Britain's longest running police drama (1983 pilot called "Woodentop", then a regular series which ran from 1984 until 2010), ''The Bill'' told the story of A-Relief, one of the regular shifts in the divisional police station of Sun Hill, located in the fictional borough of Canley, East London. The series followed both uniform and plain clothes officers -- though the storylines were usually skewed more towards the uniform branch -- as they investigated crimes around "the manor". These crimes could be anything from high-end drug deals and gun running, right down to petty shoplifting, or relatively minor domestic squabbles between neighbours.
Originally a [[Police Procedural]] whose strict aim was to show the dull minutiae of policing, its modus operandi was not unlike that of ''[[Hill Street Blues]]''. The use of [[Leave the Camera Running|long single camera takes]], shooting the series on raw videotape rather than glossy film, and the ubiquitous use of [[Steadicam]] gave viewers a genuine insight into what it must be like to work inside a real police station. The series became widely seen as a [[Crime
It began as a series of twelve [[Dramatic Hour Long]] teleplays in the literal sense of the word - the original pilot episode was written as a one-off televised "play for today", and there was [[Backdoor Pilot|no immediate intention]] of creating a series out of it. It switched to [[Dramatic Half Hour|half hour long]] episodes in 1988 following [[Executive Meddling|network pressure]], and it was in this format that it became widely known. However, in 1998 it changed back to [[Dramatic Hour Long|hour long]] episodes again, whereafter it reformatted itself to become a [[Television Serial]]. Its this kind of flexibility to change and adapt with the times that had been largely attributed to its long term success. From 1988 to 2009 it ran throughout the year with approximately 90 episodes per annum (mostly two per week, but other major TV events, i.e. football, ''[[Britain's Got Talent (TV)|Britains Got Talent]]'' or award shows meant that many weeks had just one), a rate of production matched in the UK only by the major soaps. This might be a large reason why it eventually came to be regarded as a soap opera, even before [[Crime
For most of its life the show went out at 8pm, before the [[Watershed]] - which had affected specific on-screen content. However, in 2009 it was moved to a once weekly 9pm slot, which meant a cut in episode numbers per year to about 50, and an increase in the amount of violence it may show on-screen. It also ditched the classic [[Theme Tune]], added a "film effect" filter over the action (as part of a move to broadcast it in high definition for the first time), and acquired regular background incidental music, although [[Narm|Narmish]] examples had occasionally appeared in some past episodes. The overall effect was described by some as making things feel a little too ''[[CSI]]''-like.
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** That said, ''foot chases'' are ubiquitous in this show, as in [[Once an Episode]]. Officer will walk towards suspect, who will then try to leg it, with varying results.
* [[The City Narrows]]: The (fictional) setting of the series is based on London's poorest borough. How much the episode in question portrays this on screen [[Depending On the Writer|Depends on the writer]], to the extent where Sun Hill can be relatively middle class at times; and nothing short of a lawless [[Wretched Hive]] at others.
* [[Cliff Hanger]]: [[Once an Episode|At the end of every single episode]] broadcast between 2002 and 2007, the period in its history when [[Crime
* [[Clumsy Copyright Censorship]]: Sadly, the Region 2 (UK) DVD releases of older episodes appear to suffer from this. The episode "Snout", for example, originally opened with DI Burnside listening to ''Every Breath You Take'' by [[The Police]], on his car radio while driving to work. He even sings along (badly) to the chorus of the song. Both the licenced song, and the overlay of Burnside's singing it, are missing on the Region 2 DVD, redubbed with generic music.
* [[Compilation Movie]]: The earliest commercial releases of the half-hour episodes on VHS videotape were almost exclusively made up of compilations of two or three episodes edited into a single "movie". Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.
* [[Council Estate]]: And how!
* [[Crime
* [[Crossover]]: For the 25th anniversary, the show did a crossover with German cop show ''SOKO Leipzig''.
* [[Da Chief]]: Several characters have this role. <s>DCI</s> Superintendent Jack Meadows and DI Manson in particular.
* [[Dangerous Workplace]]: One non-fiction work dryly commented that "Sun Hill has a hearse permanently parked in the station carpark", due to the high instances of character deaths in the [[Crime
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Jo Masters.
** Of course, the legendary DCI Frank Burnside was the ''original'' deadpan snarker in the series. Just look at the quotes [http://www.burnsidefiles.com/statements.html on this fansite] to see what I mean.
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* [[Girls Behind Bars]]: More than one occasion.
* [[The Great British Copper Capture]]: Frequently played straight.
* [[Hello Again, Officer]]: In the episode "Killer On The Run", the episode begins this way.
* ~Hey, It's That Guy!~ Nearly every actor in Britain has a bit-part in ''[[The Bill]]'' at some point of their career. It's said as a joke that if you have three British actors at a table, two of them will have been in ''[[The Bill]]'' (The other one was in ''[[Taggart]]''.)
* [[IC Number]]: ''"Sierra Oscar, we're looking for an IC-3, medium build, wearing a red baseball cap and grey sweatshirt..."''
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* [[No Communities Were Harmed]]: The first three seasons very explicitly took place in Tower Hamlets, and were actually filmed in and around those real-life locations. Industrial disputes at a nearby printing plant in 1986 led to the crew having to move to a location in North London instead, and Sun Hill was then rechristened as being in a fictional borough called 'Canley', where it has remained ever since.
* [[Novelization]]: 6 compilation volumes of the TV scripts were written between 1984 and 1990, by author John Burke.
* [[Old
* [[Only Known By Their Nickname]]: Although it was once established that his given name was actually Alfred, DC Lines was usually referred to on-screen only by his nick-name, "Tosh".
* [[Only So Many Equity Members]]: There's a joke that if three members of the UK actors' union Equity meet in a pub, at least two will have been in ''[[The Bill]]''.
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** Many of the coppers are played by soap stars.
** This can result, when watching episodes from the 1980s and 1990s, in a certain amount of [[Retroactive Recognition]].
* [["On the Next..."]] / [["Previously On..."]] - Became a regular part of the format (as in [[Once an Episode]]) in 1998. The 2009 revamp stopped doing recaps of previous episodes, but still kept the end-of-episode trailer for "next week".
* [[Oop North]]: Most noteably in the episode "Cast No Shadow", set almost entirely in Manchester and its surrounds. Likewise, the two-part story "Thug On The Tyne" took place entirely in Newcastle.
* [[Outlived Its Creator]]: Geoff Mcqueen, who wrote the original [[Pilot Episode]] and created the series, died in 1995. The series he created kept going until 2010.
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** The CID branch usually prefered the more concise ''"[[Stock British Phrases|You're nicked, you slag!]]"''.
* [[You Look Familiar]]
* [[You Talkin' to Me?]]
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* [[Necro Cam]]: Completely averted, even with denouements.
* [[One Steve Limit]]: In a rare example of this trope being averted, between 1988 and 1989, there were actually two characters named Anthony: PC Tony "Yorkie" Smith, and PC Tony Stamp.
* [[Three
* [[The War On Terror]]: The two plots involving terrorism post-2001 turned out to be, respectively, a Far Right attempt to stir up racial hatred and a [[Mad Bomber]].
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[[Category:Crime and Punishment Series]]
[[Category:The Bill]]
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