Comments on: New beat for The Bill

By: Glenn Aylett

Glenn Aylett — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 17:27:10 +0000

Nice to see the good old regional variations are alive and well in Scotland after England buried them years ago. However, this could be a case of sour grapes as ITV plc are considering ditching Taggart, which is STV’s biggest money spinner. Either way Scots fans being denied The Bill and both nations losing Taggart is a retrograde move.

By: Graham Kibble-White

Graham Kibble-White — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:10:37 +0000

If you live in Scotland, Dorothy, that might be why you’re having difficulty find it. STV have opted not to screen the show. But it will air on ITV3 – if that’s any use. The first two episodes will go out on Wednesday 29 July between 11pm and 1am.

By: Dorothy Little

Dorothy Little — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:01:03 +0000

I looked everywhere last night to try to find what side the Bill was on – where was it on and at what time?

By: Jon Haw

Jon Haw — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 11:03:57 +0000

It is a long time since I watched it, Jason – maybe I should give it another go. But I just hope “grittier” doesn’t just mean “a bit more swearing”…

By: Jason

Jason — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:14:00 +0000

Jonathan Haw clearly hasn’t watched the Bill for very long time or is watching some other program as The Bill hasnt gone into peoples private lives and lost its SOAP style format ages ago. Its much better that it gets a 9pm slot as its already grittier format can be taken to another level. Shame it cant be made into a 2 hour weekly slot though like some other dramas.

By: Chris Allen

Chris Allen — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 23:57:28 +0000

Lorraine Heggessey, CEO, added: “This is a huge vote of confidence from ITV in the show and is a genuine first on UK television”

In what way?

I used to like the original 1-hour Bill, but soon lost interest when it was on week after week after week after week after week after week after week….. etc.

By: Jonathan Haw

Jonathan Haw — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:41:58 +0000

Personally, I’d rather see a return to the self-contained 30-minute format. Half an hour is just the right length to tell a simple, procedural story without having to pad it out with all the incidental stuff about people’s private lives. When it started getting all soapy was when I stopped watching.

Mind you, Lorraine Heggessy does a very good job of making what is essentially a 50% cut in business from ITV sound like it’s somehow a positive thing for Talkback Thames!

By: Steve Williams

Steve Williams — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 08:32:03 +0000

Indeed, and when it moved back from half an hour to an hour, for the first few months it was only on once a week. It was only a bit later in, when ITV ran out of other stuff, that it went twice-weekly. So indeed we’re back where we started.

The main reason for shifting it, anyway, is because from next season ITV have Champions League matches on Wednesdays rather than Tuesdays, so something had to shift.

By: David Bridgman

David Bridgman — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:27:30 +0000

No doubt many of us remember that when The Bill first started back in 1983, it was only one hour-long episode each week. Hardly a revolutionary move by ITV1 then . . .

By: Ian Jones

Ian Jones — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 19:50:51 +0000

In what way is it ‘a genuine first on UK television’?