Duty Calls

THE BILL
Duty Calls: Episode 027
Thursday 21 January 2010, 21.00 to 22.00, ITV1
Repeated on ITV3 on Monday 25 January at 23:00
*Guest starring Kara Tointon as Ami Ryan, Barry Sloane as Josh Hunt and Gareth David-Lloyd as Jeremy Preston*

Sergeant Stone (Sam Callis) and P.C. Leon Taylor (Dominic Power) are called to a flat where distressed Ami Ryan (Kara Tointon) leads them to her boyfriend, Josh Hunt (Barry Sloane), who is restraining Jeremy Preston (Gareth David-Lloyd) on the floor.

Ami quickly explains to the officers that she was in bed when Josh returned home after work to find Jeremy had broken in. Jeremy claims he was drunk, thought the flat was abandoned and broke in, looking for somewhere to sleep it off.

Back at the station, D.C.’s Jo Masters (Sally Rogers) and Grace Dasari (Amita Dhiri) talk to Ami and Josh who both say that they’ve never seen Jeremy before. The case takes a sinister twist when Jo discovers Ami and Jeremy work in the same building and forensics show that Jeremy’s fingerprints have been found on Ami’s kitchen knives and above her bed…

Jeremy is eventually released, but Jo and Stone are later called to Ami’s workplace where she explains she found a note and a gift from Jeremy in her locked drawer.

Jo believes that Jeremy may be stalking her, but she is shocked when Jeremy tells her he and Ami have been having an affair and to prove it, he reveals intimate details about her. Jeremy tells Jo that Ami is making up the story that he broke into the flat to cover up the fact they had just slept together.

Back at the station, Ami is horrified by the allegations Jeremy has made and insists to Jo that she’s never even met Jeremy before. During the investigation, Stone and Jo realise that Jeremy has been abusing his position as a security guard, by using the CCTV cameras to follow Ami’s every move around the building.

In particular, he has been using a camera nearest to Ami’s desk in order to spy on her computer and her personal belongings, in order to gain an insight into her life. Jo realises the only way she can stop him from getting to Ami again is to make him confess.

During an intense interview, Jo attempts to make Jeremy realise he’s been living out a fantasy. However, when Jeremy finally confesses to breaking into Ami’s flat to hurt her, Jo suddenly discovers she’s the one in trouble…

At the end of a long and difficult shift, Jo is called into a meeting with Superintendent Meadows (Simon Rouse) who tells her how impressed he’s been with her work. Meadows shocks Jo by offering her a position as a Sergeant, working alongside Stone…

THE BILL is a talkbackTHAMES production and a direct commission by ITV. This episode was written by Patrick Homes, directed by Reza Moradi and produced by Sylvie Boden.

Held Responsible

THE BILL
Episode 025: Held Responsible
Thursday 14 January 2009, 21.00 to 22.00, ITV1. Repeated on ITV3 on Monday 18 January at 23:00

D.C. Terry Perkins (Bruce Byron) visits a clinic for rape victims, and is horrified when 16 year old Janine Clark (Fiona Ryan) says she was raped by her boyfriend Mark Watts (Gregory Foreman) and his three friends, Greg Holbrook (Tommy Knight), Paul Hayes (Scott Haran) and Leo Cooper (Joe Cole) a few days ago.

At the station, Janine tells Terry she was invited to Greg’s house, where all four boys were drinking and watching porn. Janine admits to going into a bedroom to have sex with Mark, but afterwards he slapped her and told her to “be nice” to his friends.

While Mark, Paul and Leo raped her, Greg held her down while Paul filmed it on Mark’s phone. The four boys are arrested and when Mark is questioned, the arrogant teenager says the group sex was initiated by Janine.

Elsewhere, Greg is interviewed by DCs Jo Masters (Sally Rogers) and Jacob Banks (Patrick Robinson), with his mother Susan (Naomi Allistone) as his appropriate adult. Greg tells Jo how two weeks before, Janine had started kissing him in front of Mark and Susan takes this as proof that Janine is lying about being raped.

Jo becomes more frustrated as Susan obstructs the interview throughout. After the interviews, D.I. Neil Manson (Andrew Lancel) heads up a briefing and clashes with Jo who insists that whatever Janine may have done in the past, it doesn’t mean that she consented on the night of the incident.

Neil, Banksy and Terry are sympathetic but know that it weakens the case against the boys, but Jo refuses to give up...

Back at Janine’s house, she admits to Terry that she did kiss Greg, but only to make Mark jealous and never consented to group sex. Janine’s mother Carol (Chloe Howman), clearly struggling with the situation, angrily berates her for bringing trouble on herself.

As the investigation continues, Neil makes it clear to his team that without the mobile phone footage, they don’t have a case. Later that day, Janine tells Terry she wants to drop the charges as she’s been receiving threatening phone calls and Terry begs her to reconsider.

Jo, horrified that the boys might get away with the rape, begs for more time on the case. With egotistical Mark, confident that he’ll be out of Sun Hill soon, Jo is determined to get a confession out of Greg, the weakest member of the group. With only two hours left until they can be released, can Jo uncover the truth..?

THE BILL is a talkbackTHAMES production and a direct commission by ITV. This episode was written by David Young, directed by Karl Neilson and produced by Ciara McIlvenny.

Be A Man

THE BILL
Be A Man: Episode 024
Thursday 7 January 2009, 21.00 to 22.00, ITV1/Repeated on ITV3 on Monday 11 January at 23:00
*D.C. Will Fletcher’s (Gary Lucy) last appearance*

Sergeant Stone (Sam Callis) and D.C. Mickey Webb (Chris Simmons) investigate an incident between Trevor Berwick (Anton Saunders) and Dr Josh Thomas (Adam Astill) at St Hugh’s hospital.

Trevor went to the hospital to confront Josh about an affair he thought he was having with his wife, Penny (Amelia Curtis) and when Josh said the affair was all in his head, the argument escalated and Josh threw a punch.

At the station, Mickey talks to Trevor, who is determined to charge Josh with assault. The detective gets a feeling that Trevor is a man on the edge and delicately tries to question him about anything else that might be going on in his life, but Trevor clams up.

Stone is tasked with driving Trevor to his car but before letting him go, he tells Trevor he should “be a man” and deal with his domestic battles on his own time, not the Police’s. This hits a nerve with the clearly unstable Trevor and Stone later regrets his harsh words...

Later that day, Mickey is concerned when Trevor subsequently drops charges against Josh and then receives a distressed call from Penny to say her husband has disappeared with their baby son, Stan.

Mickey asks Stone if Trevor revealed anything when they were alone but the Sergeant lies and says he was fine. Stone, adamant that Trevor has just gone for a drive to clear his head, becomes more concerned when details about Trevor come to light.

Penny insists that she wasn’t having an affair and that Trevor had become very depressed in recent months. Mickey finds out that Trevor was made redundant four months ago but was heading out of the house every morning, keeping up the pretence to his wife and children.

Finally realising how unbalanced he is, a search is arranged and Stone jumps into a patrol car, determined to find him. He eventually finds Trevor in his car, but before he gets a chance to speak to him, Trevor puts his foot down and smashes into a parked vehicle.

With the car in flames, Stone manages to pull Trevor out of the car, with the help of P.C.s Nate Roberts (Ben Richards) and Mel Ryder (Rhea Bailey). Suddenly remembering the baby in the back, Stone rushes to his aid, but the car bursts into flames. Later, forensic tests prove that Stan wasn’t in the car as feared and the desperate search to find him begins. Will Stone and his team get to him in time?

Elsewhere, D.C. Will Fletcher (Gary Lucy) spends his last day at Sun Hill before transferring to another station. Before he leaves, a suspicious Mickey talks to him about Stone and Will is unable to alleviate any of Mickey’s worries about the Sergeant...
THE BILL is a talkbackTHAMES production and a direct commission by ITV. This episode was written by Matthew Bardsley, directed by Tim Leandro and produced by Ciara McIlvenny.

Seeking The Bill: Target VHS

Clear Vision released a selection of episodes of The Bill back in the mid-nineties.

Would love to track them down. So if you have a spare copy of The Bill: Target or The Bill: The Ted Roach Files I'd love to hear from you.

Contact me at uniformoscar@googlemail.com

You're Nicked

Spotted! A billboard advertising The Bill on the corner of Salamander Street and Salamander Place - the heart of Edinburgh's red light district.

At least now the boys in blue can keep an eye on 'the girls' late night shenanigans. Or as the Edinburgh Evening News reported:

New addition to Leith police

RESIDENTS living in the Capital's traditional red light area have long campaigned for more frequent visits from the "Old Bill".

Now they have finally got a permanent police presence, but it's not exactly what they were hoping for. Instead of Lothian and Borders' finest keeping an eye on them round-the-clock, it is members of Sun Hill nick watching over them, thanks to an illuminated ITV3 billboard on the corner of Salamander Place and Salamander Street advertising the latest series of The Bill.

Just a shame these cut-out coppers can't say "you're nicked".

http://news.scotsman.com/opinion/Talk-of-the-Town-Log.5958708.jp

Wishful Thinking

MUST admit, I couldn’t quite tally reports in some sections of the media that The Bill was to return to STV schedules with ITV3’s decision to launch a bill-board advertising campaign across Edinburgh for their Monday night screenings at 11pm.

So I contacted both ITV and STV... it was as I suspected. There are no plans for The Bill to pound the STV beat again... yet.

“As far as I'm aware STV has no plans to reverse its decision re: The Bill. It certainly isn't listed for transmission in Scotland anytime soon,” revealed an ITV spokesman.

While the STV press office confirmed, “At the moment, STV has no plans to show The Bill.”

Looks like STV’s loss will continue to be ITV3’s gain.