Funny Ol' Business - Cops and Robbers

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

"Funny Ol' Business - Cops and Robbers" is an episode of the long running British Police drama The Bill, broadcast on the ITV Network. This is the first regular episode of the very first series.

[edit] Synopsis

PC Jim Carver and PC Edwards collar a man found breaking into parked cars, Carver's first arrest. But it turns out that the man they've nicked, whose name is Lennie, is a snout (informer) for a Detective Sergeant from a neighbouring police station who convinces DI Galloway to push for the man's release. Carver learns a valuable lesson in office politics.

[edit] Main Credits

[edit] Notes

  • This episode sees the introduction of nearly all the regular cast for the next ten years (or longer): Chief Superintendent Brownlow, Sergeant Bob Cryer, Sergeant Alec Peters, PC Reg Hollis, WPC Viv Martella and - perhaps most notably - Detective Sergeant Burnside are all introduced.
  • Alec Peters is credited merely as "Duty Sergeant", although he is referred to by his familiar name. He appears in this and the following series of episodes to be the night duty Sergeant, whom Cryer regularly takes over from in the morning. There appears to be a rotating roster for the Sergeants at this stage, although this would eventually be abandoned in favour of one or more of them being on duty at the same time.
  • Burnside is referred to by the given name Tommy. This would change to "Frank" by the time he became a regular in the fourth series. He and Cryer have a prior history, although we aren't made privy to what exactly that history is in any great detail. Cryer sees him as a bent copper, an image which Burnside doesn't seem too eager to disprove. When waiting alone up in CID for Galloway to return, he is seen to be rifling through the DI's things ... proof that he was after the top job even this early in the series?
  • The infamous The Bill theme music (Overkill by Andy Pask and Charlie Morgan) debuts here also, along with a title sequence unique to series one, showing two officers on the beat. It was originally intended that these be Jim Carver and June Ackland, the two characters central to the Woodentop episode. In the event those actors were busy filming elsewhere, so the plodding feet belonged instead to background extras Karen England and Paul Page Hanson. They would preface the end credit sequence for the next 15 years.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../f/u/n/Funny_Ol%27_Business_-_Cops_and_Robbers_2ba2.html"