History of The Bill
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The History of The Bill is a long and varied one, and many things have happened in the programme's 23 year run.
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[edit] Pilot
It started as a one-off drama for ITV entitled Woodentop: this pilot show starred Mark Wingett as PC Jim Carver and Trudie Goodwin as WPC June Ackland on Carver's first day on the beat at Sun Hill police station. It was originally devised by Geoff McQueen, and it impressed ITV so much that they decided to make a series out of it. Goodwin continues to star on the now twice-weekly show, while Wingett left the cast in early 2005.
[edit] The originals
The first proper episode of The Bill was transmitted in 1984 and, with the exception of Carver and Ackland, the cast was almost totally revamped (PC Dave Litten is still played by Gary Olsen and Colin Blumenau played the same character with a slightly different name — Taffy Edwards rather than Taffy Morgan). The character of DI Roy Galloway was retained but recast. The first episode also features an appearance by Christopher Ellison playing DS Frank Burnside (although his first name here is Tommy). The Sub Divisional Officer was Chief Superintendent Charles Brownlow.
The original format was shows of fifty minutes in length. Only 35 episodes were made in the first three series of The Bill, and these are known as 'the originals'. The first series 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'. All this is accompanied by the first version of the iconic title music: written by Andy Pask and Charlie Morgan and entitled "Overkill".
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 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 originals are also noted for their extremely long end credits, which last over one-and-a-half minutes and feature the plodding feet again, this time walking away from camera. There have been three versions of these "walking feet"; Paul Page-Hanson's size nines appeared twice.[1]
These early 50-minute shows were broadcast after the watershed time, allowing for gritty and adult storylines that frequently featured nudity, drug use and brutal violence on-screen. The characters would also liberally swear. The tone of the series stuck very close to the realistic depiction of police life, with Geoff McQueen's creedo being very much that it focus on the mundane and the ordinary aspects of working at a police station. Where other police drama series would tend to focus on major murder investigations, The Bill at this stage was a series proud to focus on the paperwork afterwards.
[edit] Changing to half-hour format
After the conclusion of the 1987 series, the decision was taken to drastically change the format. The Bill would now run year-round, and instead of one 50-minute episode, two 25-minute episodes would air every week. Contrary to popular belief, although it was produced and broadcast in a manner more familiar to serialised television, most of the episodes were still stand alone stories, with each story rounded up in the half-hour time. The series was moved to an earlier timeslot, and as such the swearing and violence was toned down to a greater extent. Focus would now be given to telling compelling stories, although there was still a major focus on the mundanity of police life.
The title sequence was also updated. The same Area Car was used, but with new cast shots to reflect changes, and the first remix of "Overkill", by Pask & Morgan: this version would become better known than the original. 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 series continued relatively unchanged (except for cast) until 1992: This sequence is unique in that 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. From January 1993 three half-hour episodes were shown each week. In 1994, 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 started looking up in amazement.
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.
Throughout this era, the focus of the show remained broadly the same: very much focused on police work, with very few personal stories for the characters unless they were on their way out. Episodes would often feature interesting crimes which were wrapped up by the end of the episode. A common plot feature would be an episode following two incidents in parallel, that started off seemingly unrelated would end up directly related. The twist was usually in how.
By 1995, however, there were already moves to bring the series into a more serialised style. In a three-part storyline June Ackland faced a stalker, and at the end of this one of the officers was killed off. Rather than moving on as in the past, the choice was made to include a funeral episode and other ongoing plots. But on the whole the format in this period remained remarkably consistent.
[edit] The 1998 revamp
The second major revamp of the show took place in 1998, as Richard Handford took over as Executive Producer of the show from Michael Chapman. Handford had worked variously on the series in the capacity of Line Producer since 1992, and had an intimate understanding of how the series format had been used in the past. This said, the show's focus was altered so that interactions between the officers became as important as the solving of crimes. The look of the show was also updated. 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 theme tune was also completely revamped, with a change from the original irregular time signature of 7/8. Episodes moved to being 1 hour long later in 1998, though for quite a while the times & days the episodes were shown varied, along with the number of episodes a week (for a period in Spring 2002, only one episode was shown a week), but by late 2002, it had finally settled at 8PM on Wednesdays & Thursdays, which is still the case as of March 2007.
In late 2000, Handford made sweeping changes to the cast. Chief Superintendent Brownlow (Sun Hill's first Sub-Divisional Officer) was removed and replaced by the smooth, enthusiastic Superintendent Tom Chandler.
Nearly the whole of CID was replaced, following the explosive exit of DS Don Beech (Billy Murray), who always bent the rules slightly. Beech finally crossed the line — lying in court in exchange for a £20,000 bribe paid by a gangland boss. CIB became aware of his corrupt activities and placed undercover officer DS Stanton at Sun Hill to expose him. Beech came undone when his relationship with arch villain Fallon spiralled out of control. So he fled to foreign climes (which led to a one off special, Beech on the Run, which was filmed exclusively in Australia, home to one of The Bill's largest audiences, and his own six part series Beech is Back).
PC Eddie Santini also appeared in the dock, charged with murder. He was acquitted (although he had killed the victim accidentally) but was later shot dead in cold blood by another corrupt officer.
More changes followed in 2001, as Sgt Bob Cryer was forced into early retirement by an accidental shooting — the perpetrator was the now Duty Sgt Dale Smith, at that time assigned to SO19. He was replaced by Duty Sgt Craig Gilmore. PC Des Taviner arrived as the new Area Car Driver: he was to form an odd-couple friendship with long-standing PC Reg Hollis that would provide some of the series' greatest moments. The titles were changed again to include static cast photographs and the music was remixed to take it back closer to the 1988 Pask/Morgan mix of "Overkill". The series was also shot in Widescreen ratio for the first time.
Also, a new trend emerged: no more would cases be solved in 25 or 50 minutes: now, they spanned many episodes, and quite often a minor offence dealt with by Uniform a few weeks ago would re-appear as part of the major case in CID.
[edit] Serial Format (2002)
In late 2001 Handford left the show, with his last on-screen credit as producer on the episode Set in Stone in January 2002. Chris Parr (who at the time was Head of Drama at talkbackTHAMES) temporarily took over as executive producer until Paul Marquess was appointed. Marquess, unlike Handford, had never worked on the series before and was more famous for helming the soap opera Brookside. As soon as Marquess took over, there was a complete revamp of the show's cast, format and formula. The series adopted its now familiar serial format, with the iconic separate episode titles used since 1984 dropped in favour of each episode being known only by a number. The last episode to have its own given title was "Set in Stone", broadcast on 31st of January 2002. There followed a six-part storyline which had no on-screen title but is familiarly known as "Quinnan" (for the character who leaves in its duration, PC Dave Quinnan). The first to use the new format was #001, broadcast on 28th of February 2002. As of 2006 there have been over 400 episodes using the new numbering system.
The new serialised format allowed for storylines to continue indefinitely, with no need for an immediate resolution. This allowed for more prolonged story arcs. In the first of these, six officers were killed in an explosion negligently caused by PC Des Taviner in April 2002 - Insp. Andrew Monroe, PC Sam Harker, PC Di Worrell, PC Ben Hayward, DC Kate Spears and DC Paul Riley. PC Taviner would escape for two years before finally being forced to face the music. There was also the decision not to replace the Chief Inspector, a rank that Marquess found desk-bound and boring, following the murder of Chief Inspector (Operations) Derek Conway (although there is still a space in the station carpark marked 'CI Ops'). In some recent episodes a memorial plaque to this long serving character can still be seen outside the police station.
While the series remained fairly grounded in the early days of the new serial format, gradually more sensational and soapy storylines were introduced, many of these aimed to boost the show's ratings. The earliest of these took place in 2002 where viewers witnesed a gay kiss between PC Luke Ashton and Sgt. Craig Gilmore. More of these particular scenes would follow, for example with the lesbian kiss between DS Debbie McAllister and DC Juliet Becker. The show later went on to tackle homosexual marriage in the police force, with the partnership registry of PC Lance Powell and Sgt. Mark Rollins in 2005. Other sensational aspects of the show were the manner in which characters were killed off - such as the death of PC Cass Rickman at the hands of a serial killer, and that of Superintendent Tom Chandler who shot himself after raping his wife DS Debbie McAllister. Chandler was replaced by Superintendent Adam Okaro, a black Superintendent played by Cyril Nri. The misguided PC Gabriel Kent became the most prominent character in the darker and sensational storylines, joining the series in early 2003 and lasting out the remainder of the Marquess era as an increasingly unhinged individual. Arguably the most controversial storyline during the Marquess period was the relationship between PC Kent and what viewers assumed was his adopted mother, Sgt. June Ackland. PC Kent often stretched viewer credibility with the crimes which he was willing to commit in order to keep his secrets, including deliberately killing his colleague PC Kerry Young while managing to avoid the evidence ever pointing back to him.
Another sensational storyline of Marquess's tenure came when the station suffered another explosion in February 2005, three years after the previous, this time caused by disaffected PCSO Colin Fairfax, who drove a van into the front of the station, killing DC Ken Drummond, (who was in the back of the van), SRO [[Marilyn Chambers (The Bill)| and PC Andrea Dunbar (an undercover journalist). A few months after the episode aired, Paul Marquess was signed away by Endemol, the makers of Big Brother, to head their new drama division. His replacement was Johnathan Young, whose name has appeared on the credits since September 2005.
[edit] 2005 and beyond
Johnathan Young's retooling of the programme has led to noticeable changes in the show. Sensational plotlines have been dropped, and whilst personal storylines remain, more time is spent on crime-based stories. Although the serial format remains in place, the storylines are generally more self-contained and are often dealt with in two or three episode blocks. An example of this might be the 'nightclub disaster', a storyline in March 2006 which took place over only two episodes. The Bill has more frequently featured self-contained episodes, focusing on one or more crime storylines wrapped up in one hour. In this way, the programme more closely resembles the earlier period helmed by Richard Handford.
On the 3 January 2007 to bring in the new year, the episode 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 up Sun Hill Police Station. The break bumpers and music were also updated.
Because of the more compact and less serialised format adopted under Johnathan Young, episode titles were reintroduced, beginning with Episode # 490 which was titled "Sweet Revenge" - broadcasted on 21 March 2007. A spokesperson for the programme commented on how the titles summed up the 'essence' of an episode.
[edit] References
- ^ Silver, Rachel (1999). The Bill: The Inside Story: Behind the Scenes of Britain's Top Police Drama. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-257137-1.
