The Bill AXED

Elmo

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/mar/26/the-bill-itv

After 27 years it comes to an end. Well done ITV. Now what about Emmerdale.

1984 - 2010

Minstrel27

Elmo wrote: »

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/mar/26/the-bill-itv

After 27 years it comes to an end. Well done ITV. Now what about Emmerdale.

Change the channel if you do not like the programmes.

Elmo

Minstrel27 wrote: »

Change the channel if you do not like the programmes.

One of the reasons I never watch ITV

Time moves on programmes come and go, all for the better.

BlaasForRafa

The last decent story line of that involved the Don Beech character and that was how many years ago?

It became a refuge for out of work soap actors and went into a massive quality decline in recent years.

Minstrel27

Elmo wrote: »

One of the reasons I never watch ITV

Time moves on programmes come and go, all for the better.

Living TV should be shut down so as I do not watch anything on it.

Elmo

Minstrel27 wrote: »

Living TV should be shut down so as I do not watch anything on it.

Yeah can't agree more.

However ITV isn't closing they are deciding that The Bill had lost viewers (they must know what a remote control is) and of course that the show had been on for 27 years, unlike other police procedurals of the same era that have been replaced by other dramas. If anything it is probably the longest running police procedural in TV history. Hopeful Law and Order will be axed soon.

We can now be nostalgic about The Bill.

mike65

At its best the Bill was great but being great is not something its been for a long time, the last ding-dong storyline was the mother loving psycho-killer cop Mark Fowler.

lord lucan

I used to love it when it started and watched it up until the mid-90's but then they start tinkering with it and it went ****e imo.

Richard Dower

Hopefully this will spell doom for ITV....pathetic channel, programming and presenters.

RayM

It's a shame really, because it's the last of the old 'Thames' programmes. It's been declining for at least ten years though, and every chance they get, ITV f'cked it around the schedules and replaced it with celebreality crap or soccer matches. It seems to have deteriorated with every revamp (and it's had a lot of revamps). Explosions, fires, lesbian kisses, cop-killers, cops shagging/killing each other, more explosions, more fires... Utter drivel.

The 30-minute self-contained episodes were the best. I would have thought such a format would suit modern channel-surfers, but clearly ITV preferred to have a crap attempt at creating a British 'CSI' instead.

The Bill - (Ar)rest in peace :pac:

anotherlostie

I loved The Bill back in the days of Burnside and co. Back when the murder of an officer like Viv Martella was a huge shock (I remember that episode was watched by 18 million - compare that to today's 4 million). It really became a soap back when Paul Marquess took over and I lost interest after that.

At least RTE will finally get to catch up with ITV now!

DublinWriter

Now what will ex-Eastenders actors do?

Richard Dower

DublinWriter wrote: »

Now what will ex-Eastenders actors do?

Do you want fries with that?

The Sparrow

DublinWriter wrote: »

Now what will ex-Eastenders actors do?

Holby City.

Elmo

DublinWriter wrote: »

Now what will ex-Eastenders actors do?

Dancing on Ice and any Irish Chat Show.

jimmyw

A right shower of c***s they are. I don't care but I still loved this show even with the new time and format. I am f****n devastated.No f****n danger they will take off that f****n x factor crap though and other ****e :mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:.New programmes my arse!!!!!!!

Rollercoaster

IMO The Bill was the only TV show worth watching on any channel. Personally my all time favourite TV show over the last 30+ years.

I have seen nearly every episode on UTV and find the re runs boring as I always know what’s going to happen next

All the revamps over the years have kept the show modern and interesting

However, there is only one consolation for me: I was disappointed when I recently left UPC (Chorus /NTL) for Sky Plus as I could no longer record The Bill on UTV with Sky Plus. Now I won’t need to record UTV and Sky Plus was a great choice for me

irlirishkev

I'll miss The Bill. Watched it for years. I really liked the new format aswell. Really annoyed it's been axed, while there's so much other shyte left still showing.

Elmo

irlirishkev wrote: »

I'll miss The Bill. Watched it for years. I really liked the new format aswell. Really annoyed it's been axed, while there's so much other shyte left still showing.

I agree that you should lament the lose of the show, however I do think that as it had been on the air for 27 years that it really had had its time. Who's to suggest that another better long running series won't appear, however lets hope that it won't be 27 years long.

ITV need to revamp its entire schedule of programming not just The Bill. ITV is far to reliant on the old reliables and sh1t celebrity reality TV.

The Bill had a very long an successful run of 27 years, and is possibly the longest running Police Procedural in the world.

When it started out first it was a very different show. It depicted the lives of the ordinary bobby on the street and how the organisation of the police force worked, it was interested in passing the case from Police Officer to Detective and rarely relied on the day to day lives of the police involved. As time went on it revamped and for me it became too much of a soap opera to be enjoyable so I stopped watching, this was in the late-1990s and mid-2000s when UK TV was a wash with a long list of Soap Operas (Casualty, Heartbeat, The Bill - all slowly took on that format - as 5 day week soaps became far more present with Family Affairs, Crossroads, Hollyoaks and Doctors all appearing).

I don't know what the series was like after the revamp but unfortunately the revamp wasn't enough for viewers like myself who had in enjoyed the early half hour shows of the 1980s and 1990s. Even the talk of catching a serial killer didn't light up my interest in the mid-2000s.

And just to explain one of the many soap opera themes just read Gabriel Kent's storyline. It reads like a daytime american soap.

Sorry for the Fans but not sorry to see this show move on, and hopefully leave room for better and new drama.

SprostonGreen

I used to love The Bill back in the mid 90's, there were some great characters:

Burnside, Bob Crier, Dave Quinlan, Jim Carver, Reg, Polly, June Ackland, Martello, Tosh Lyons.

Then they started tinkering with it and started bringing the personal lives of the cops into the story and then a whole load of pretty beautiful actors were brought in. It lost its way ages ago.

ArmaniJeanss

Final episode tonight after 28 years.

irlirishkev

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Final episode tonight after 28 years.

1 Hour special at 11pm later on - "Farewell The Bill".

Can't believe it's the end..

Gavin "shels"

Pretty decent finish to it, been watching it years so was pretty sad it being the last ever episode.:(

irlirishkev

Nice finishing scene.. I liked the way they followed smithy out of the building, passing all the characters, and finished up with the DI upstairs..

I'll miss it..

jimmyw

Very sad day.I am devastated:mad:.I used to watch it when it was on for half an hour a long time ago.I then did not look at it for years, until 2008 when I BECAME unemployed, and while surfing one morning I came across it and instantly became hooked.I then discovered that it was still on ITV and so I watched it on both channels without fail.I then discovered that it was on the "Alibi" channel and had to watch that, Phew!. I really loved it even after the revamp but I was concerned that it would not be the same, but I need not have worried because it was still good.I know you are probably thinking that you sad git get over it its only a tv series but to me it was great.I for one will miss it anyway and thanks for the enjoyment I got from it. End of an era, so long THE BILL

ArmaniJeanss

Final episode after 28 years.
Specially commissioned bit of music at the end, combining bits of all the various themes over the 3 decades.
Special once off credits with dedications to various people who've worked on the program.
A nice touch.

But someone in UTV thinks we'd actually prefer to have 3/4 quarters of the screen taken up with a stupid Whats On Next ad,
and that silly clunt telling us to listen to their morning radio internet show for all the latest Ulster entertainment news.

Shower of fckers, first up against the wall when the revolution comes.

Elmo

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Shower of fckers, first up against the wall when the revolution comes.

I am guessing The Bill will return after the Revolution?

As a series it had its time. Catch up now on RTÉ Player http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1079296