History YMMV / TheBill

* CompleteMonster:
** "What Kind of Man?": [[WouldHurtAChild Donald Blake]] poses as a kindly family man and charity worker, but is actually a SerialKiller and child molester. Finding the abuse of children thrilling, Blake exploited his access to schools to [[SerialRapist sexually assault dozens of children under his care]]. Coming across a boy called Graham one night, Blake took him to a secluded location and raped him, before strangling him to death when Graham grew hysterical and tried to escape. Finding the experience intensely pleasurable, Blake then abducted a girl called Jenny and raped and killed her as well before going on to murder another two children while using his job as a cover. Arrested while looking for a new victim, Blake treated the whole thing as a game and remorselessly confessed to all of his crimes, boasting about the [[FameThroughInfamy infamy he would achieve]].
** "Living It Down": [[SerialRapist Michael Welsh]] is the head of a local [[WouldHurtAChild child pornography ring]]. Grooming vulnerable children and teenagers across Sun Hill, Welsh would lure them to his house and rape them while filming the ordeal, afterwards selling each film to his local clients and making hundreds from each one. When a 13-year-old girl called Debbie stayed at his house along with two runaways, Welsh orchestrated her violent gang rape and participated himself [[ForTheEvulz for fun]], his operation only being stopped when Debbie reported him, resulting in his arrest.
** "When Justice Isn't Enough" three-parter: [[SoftSpokenSadist Michael Keenan]] is a voyeuristic SerialKiller. A psychopath since childhood, Keenan deliberately let a boy drown in front of him just to see how it would feel. Becoming psychologically addicted to the memory after realizing how powerful he felt, Keenan [[ManipulativeBastard manipulated]] his friend John Lord into strangling people to death while Keenan looked on, all while secretly setting him up to take the fall for the killings. Picking gay men due to his job at a gay bar, Keenan had Lord kill three people, making sure to prolong their deaths for as long as possible so he could hear them beg for mercy. Frustrated at not being the focus of police attention, Keenan targeted and [[CopKiller murdered PC Lance Powell]] solely to spite the investigating team and, upon being taken in for questioning, mocked the officers over the death of their friend. Angered when one of the investigating officers says Lord was the mastermind and not him, Keenan confessed everything solely so [[FameThroughInfamy he could live in infamy]].

* DiagnosedByTheAudience: : Reg Hollis had many traits of Aspergers or high functioning autism, though a full diagnosis was never confirmed.

* AmbiguousDisorder: Reg Hollis had many traits of Aspergers or high functioning autism, though a full diagnosis was never confirmed.

** "When Justice Isn't Enough": [[SoftSpokenSadist Michael Keenan]] is a voyeuristic SerialKiller. A psychopath since childhood, Keenan deliberately let a boy drown in front of him just to see how it would feel. Becoming psychologically addicted to the memory after realizing how powerful he felt, Keenan [[ManipulativeBastard manipulated]] his friend John Lord into strangling people to death while Keenan looked on, all while secretly setting him up to take the fall for the killings. Picking gay men due to his job at a gay bar, Keenan had Lord kill three people, making sure to prolong their deaths for as long as possible so he could hear them beg for mercy. Frustrated at not being the focus of police attention, Keenan targeted and [[CopKiller murdered PC Lance Powell]] solely to spite the investigating team and, upon being taken in for questioning, mocked the officers over the death of their friend. Angered when one of the investigating officers says Lord was the mastermind and not him, Keenan confessed everything solely so [[FameThroughInfamy he could live in infamy]].

** Eddie Santini and Rosie Fox are depicted as having an ArchEnemy relationship, with Santini's drunken sexual assault of her instigating one of the most deadly, hate-filled feuds on the show's entire run. The actors of both characters (Michael Higgs and Caroline Catz) had a real life RomanceOnTheSet whilst the storyline was being filmed and married not long afterwards.

** Don Beech was already well on his way with all of his corruption (evidence tampering, witness intimidation) but when he murdered DS Boulton, he most definitely crossed this line.

** An episode shows Chief Inspector Philip Cato taking down a neo-nazi flyers, arresting the person responsible for distributing them and expressing vocal disgust for their racism. The actor, Philip Whitchurch, would later portray the head of a violent neo-nazi gang in ''Series/WakingTheDead'' alongside DS John Boulton's actor Russell Boulter.

* HilariousInHindsight: Eddie Santini and Rosie Fox are depicted as having an ArchEnemy relationship, with Santini's drunken sexual assualt of her instigating one of the most deadly, hate-filled feuds on the show's entire run. The actors of both characters (Michael Higgs and Caroline Catz) had a real life RomanceOnTheSet whilst the storyline was being filmed and married not long afterwards.

* HilarousInHindsight: Eddie Santini and Rosie Fox are depicted as having an ArchEnemy relationship, with Santini's drunken sexual assualt of her instigating one of the most deadly, hate-filled feuds on the show's entire run. The actors of both characters (Michael Higgs and Caroline Catz) had a real life RomanceOnTheSet whilst the storyline was being filmed and married not long afterwards.

* HarsherInHindsight: Kevin Lloyd's character, DC Tosh Lines, was written out (Lloyd had been sacked for drinking problems) as having accepted a job at the coroner's office. The actor died a week later.
* HarsherInHindsight / HilariousInHindsight: Any time DI Neil Manson worked on a child abuse case - Andrew Lancel would later be tried (and acquitted in 29 minutes) for child sexual abuse.

* MagnificentBastard: Gabriel Kent and Don Beech were both utter bastards, and magnificent at it.
--> '''PC Rosie Fox''' You bastard, Eddie.\\
'''PC Eddie Santini''' [[InsultBackfire My friends usually call me "clever bastard".]]

* CompleteMonster ("What Kind of Man?"): [[WouldHurtAChild Donald Blake]] poses as a kindly family man and charity worker, but is actually a SerialKiller and child molester. Finding the abuse of children thrilling, Blake exploited his access to schools to [[SerialRapist sexually assault dozens of children under his care]]. Coming across a boy called Graham one night, Blake took him to a secluded location and raped him, before strangling him to death when Graham grew hysterical and tried to escape. Finding the experience intensely pleasurable, Blake then abducted a girl called Jenny and raped and killed her as well before going on to murder another two children while using his job as a cover. Arrested while looking for a new victim, Blake treated the whole thing as a game and remorselessly confessed to all of his crimes, boasting about the [[FameThroughInfamy infamy he would achieve]].

* SeasonalRot: The show's transition to CrimeTimeSoap from 1999 onwards was not taken well by old fans of the show. The later seasons were widely regarded as having inferior storylines and characters, as well as implausible plots that broke the suspension of disbelief. An equally sore point for the fandom was the show loosing much of the hard edged realism of it's earlier years during this time, which was part of what made the show so acclaimed.

* SeasonalRot: The show's transition to CrimeTimeSoap from 1999 onwards was not taken well by old fans of the show. The later seasons were widely regarded as having inferior storylines and characters, as well as implausible plots. An equally sore point for the fandom was the show loosing much of the hard edged realism of it's earlier years, which was part of what made the show so acclaimed.