The Bill - History

History

The concept of The Bill was originally conceived by Geoff McQueen in 1983, then a relatively new television writer, as a one-off drama. McQueen had originally titled the production "Old Bill". It was picked up by Michael Chapman for production company Thames Television, who retitled it "Woodentop" as part of Thames' "Storyboard" series of one-off dramas and was broadcast on ITV under the title Woodentop on 16 August 1983. "Woodentop" starred Mark Wingett as Police Constable Jim Carver and Trudie Goodwin as Woman Police Constable June Ackland of London's Metropolitan Police, both attached to the fictional Sun Hill police station.

Although originally only intended as a one-off, "Woodentop" impressed ITV to the extent that a full series was commissioned, first broadcast on 16 October 1984 with one post-watershed episode per week, featuring an hour-long, separate storyline for each episode of the first three seasons. The first episode of the full series was Funny Ol' Business – Cops & Robbers. With serialisation, the name of the show changed from "Woodentop" to The Bill.

The series changed to two episodes, each of thirty minutes, per week in 1988, increasing to three a week from 1993. In 1998, The Bill returned to hour-long episodes, which later became twice-weekly, at which point the series adopted a much more serialised approach. When Paul Marquess took over as executive producer in 2002, as part of a drive for ratings, the series was revamped, bringing in a more soap opera type feel to many of its stories, and with many veteran characters written out, leading to the Sun Hill fire during 2002. Marquess stated that the clearout was necessary in order to introduce "plausible, powerful new characters". As part of the new serial format, much more of the characters' personal lives were explored, however, as Marquess put it, the viewers still "don't go home with them". The change also allowed The Bill to become more reflective of modern policing with the introduction of officers from ethnic minorities, most notably, the new superintendent, Adam Okaro. It also allowed coverage of the relationship of homosexual Sergeant Craig Gilmore and PC Luke Ashton, a storyline which Marquess was determined to explore before rival Merseybeat.

In 2005, Johnathan Young took over as executive producer. The serial format was dropped and The Bill returned to stand-alone episodes with more focus on crime and policing than on the personal lives of the officers. 2007 saw the reintroduction of episode titles, which had been dropped in 2002. In 2009, The Bill moved back to the 9 pm slot it previously held and the theme tune, "Overkill", was replaced as part of a major overhaul of the series.