Protect And Serve

THE BILL
Protect and Serve: Episode 34
Thursday 4th March 2010, 21.00 to 22.00, ITV1
Repeated on ITV3 on Monday 8th March at 23:00
*Featuring Julie Graham as Commander Lisa Kennedy*

Whilst out on patrol PC Nate Roberts (Ben Richards) and PC Benjamin Gayle’s (Micah Balfour) vehicle is hit by a bullet. Coming through the back windscreen and grazing Nate’s neck before exiting through the front windscreen the bullet passes through the car with both PC’s narrowly avoiding serious injury.

Nate and Ben jump out of the car to administer first aid to a member of the public waiting at a bus stop who has been hit by a second bullet.

Inspector Dale Smith (Alex Walkinshaw) and Sergeant Jo Masters (Sally Rogers) rush to the scene with the rest of the team, they immediately seal off the area and a search begins.

P.C Kirsty Knight (Sarah Manners) is tasked with taking a statement from local resident Keith Shipley (James Larkin) who witnessed a car speeding off just after the shots were fired.

Back at the station Commander Lisa Kennedy (Julie Graham) is called in again to oversee the enquiry. Nate is visibly shaken but both he and Ben insist they are ok and want to continue working.

The team track down the registration of the car seen speeding away from the shooting, it is registered to a Malcolm Christie (John Dagleish).

With CO19 on standby Inspector Smith and Sergeant Masters lead the team to arrest prime suspect Malcolm Christie.

Whilst Christie is being questioned back at Sun Hill his car is taken in for forensic examination which reveals it has very recently been deep cleaned, adding to Inspector Smith and Sergeant Masters suspicions that Malcolm Christie is behind the shooting.

At the scene C.S.E Eddie Olosunje (Jason Barnett) discovers the bullet that hit Nate and Ben’s car was in fact a ricochet rather than a direct hit. Moments later the team searching the scene around the shooting find two bullet casings outside the home of eyewitness Mr Shipley.

P.C Kirsty Knight speaks to Mr Shipley’s son ten year old Scott (Jamie Glover) who claims he didn’t look out the window but heard a car circling the block just before the shots were fired. P.C Knight also discovers that the family were recently burgled which has left them very shaken.

After speaking to the garage where Malcolm Christie had his car cleaned the team have to release him as they confirm he had his car cleaned twenty minutes before the shooting.

Watching the CCTV retrieved from the scene DS Stevie Moss (Lucy Speed), D.C Mickey Webb (Chris Simmons) and D.C Jacob Banks (Patrick Robinson) spot a girl begin to run a couple of seconds before the first shot is fired. They believe she could lead them to the gunman.

The girl is Jasmine Harris (Faye Daveney) who lives locally with her mother. When Stevie and Mickey question her about why she ran before the shots were fired she claims she has a ‘sixth sense for trouble’ that you have to have when you ‘live on the Manor’.

However her mother reveals that Malcolm Christie is Jasmine’s boyfriend and shows them a threatening text message sent to Jasmine by Christie after she publicly dumped him.

This is enough evidence for the team to bring Malcolm Christie back in for further questioning.

Smithy leads the team, along with CO19 to re arrest Christie at home. When they arrive Christie is taking the rubbish out and spots the police van. As the team move in to arrest him he snaps, refusing to come quietly he runs back inside and brandishes a large kitchen knife at the window.

CO19 take over and take Christie down with the taser. As the situation calms down Nate and the rest of the team confront Smithy about the lack of support that Sergeant Stone has received and feel that they do not have the support they should from above. Moral in the team is very low.

Commander Kennedy is furious when she discovers Nate and Ben were sent out to arrest Malcolm Christie moments after being shot at. She orders Smithy to send them home.

Whilst Malcolm Christie is being interviewed P.C Kirsty Knight again questions Scott Shipley at home and begins to get frustrated when Scott continues to claim he didn’t see anything.

When Stevie and Mickey talk to Jasmine Harris she reveals that she ran from the scene just before the shots were fired because she had been shoplifting and saw the police car, not because (as they had earlier believed) she saw Malcolm Christie.

The team reluctantly have to release Christie. During a second search of the scene a gun is found in a drain outside the Shipley’s home. When examined forensically the gun is found to have the fingerprints of someone with small hands. Smithy begins to think that Scott Shipley may know more about the shooting than he’s letting on.


THE BILL is a talkbackTHAMES production and a direct commission by ITV. This episode was written by Jeff Dodds , directed by Paul Wroblewski and produced by Sylvie Boden.