DC Gary Best
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Acting Detective Constable Gary Best was a character in the long-running ITV cop-drama The Bill. He was played by Ciaran Griffiths.
Gary Best arrived to the beat in 2002, shortly after the events of The Sun Hill Fire. At that time he was a probabtionary police constable, being puppy-walked by the veteran PC Tony Stamp. While not perceived as the sharpest tool in the box, Gary made up for that with his enthusiasum, and his eagerness to learn. A cocky lad from Manchester, there are a vary of reasons which inspired Gary to join the police force, mainly the fact that if he wasn't in uniform, he'd most likely be on remand. Gary also had a troubled upbringing, consisting of his violent father knocking him and his little brother about, something which only stopped when Gary reached the physical maturity to be able to hit his dad back. When he hit his late teen years, Gary took the decision to report his dad to the police for domestic violence, a decision which ultimately divided his family and made Gary an outcast. Shortly afterwards, he decided to join the Met.
Gary was a popular recruit to Sun Hill, and he had no problems fitting in or making friends. His weakness was thinking with his heart - never having been one to stand back and assess a situation, Gary had a tendency to rush into things. When his father was released from prison, he tracked down Gary on the outside and attempted to bond with his son, and make amends for what he'd done. Initially pushing him away, curiousity eventually got the better of him, and he headed to his father's current workplace to talk to him. Unfortunately, his father had operating as an undercover snitch for Inspector Gina Gold at the time, and by turning up in full uniform, Gary compromised the whole job. Gary's father volunteered to go in his son's place as a hostage, at which point he was forced into a van at gunpoint and driven away. This was the last time Gary ever saw his father, as he was found dead shortly after.
After a successful undercover operation in which he'd given the goods on his criminal brother, Gary Best was accepted as a trainee DC by the Met. Still fresh from probation and incredibly wet behind the ears, some of Gary's colleagues old and new found this a bit hard to swallow. It was clear that Gary immediately let his new found power go to his head, jumping through hoops in an attempt to impress his senior officers and bag a good result, with several directed jokes at uniform about directing traffic. He was more than often paired with DC Suzie Sim, who treated him much like a schoolboy. He saw her behaviour as bullying, and after an outburst directed at her in front of all of CID, his popularity was stripped of him.
Shortly after his allegations, Gary found himself working with Suzie on a drugs operation which got out of hand when the criminals were revealed to have handguns. Attempting to protect his colleague, Gary was shot and nearly paralysed. Reunited with his estranged mother on his hospital bed, she encouraged him to leave Sun Hill behind and transfer to Manchester, where he could be with his family.
