A 2003 official book on the show, dedicating a large paragraph to each character, still manages to get to 20 pages for its character section. Yep, there's been that many. Oddly enough, most of them haven't died. Emphasis on most.
You may start humming whichever version of "Overkill" you like best and please tell us how many you get through while reading this.
Characters are placed in the location they spent most of their time- some moved between branches. Please note that female characters can only be referred to here as WPC if they were in the show entirely before 1994.
A complete list of character deaths can be found at the bottom of this page (moved from the main page for reasons of space and clarity), but characters that were Killed Off for Real are also marked with (DECEASED).
Uniform
Chief Superintendent Charles Brownlow
- A Father to His Men:
- He spoke up for Tony Stamp when he faced being thrown out of the force after he fatally injured a man in a car crash.
- Averted on other occasions when he seemed happy to throw his subordinates to the wolves for the sake of good PR.
- Benevolent Boss: At his core Brownlow was a prime example
- Better to Die than Be Killed: The police equivalent. After the Don Beech scandal, both Conway and Monroe made him see that it was better to resign than be dismissed.
- Da Chief: The original one
- Nepotism: A running gag was that Brownlow only got to Chief Super thanks to his connections to the masons, and that while he's not totally incompetent he's certainly out of touch with modern policing.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: In his final scene he gave his Smug Snake Arch-Enemy Guy Mannion one of these warning him not to mess with the Sun Hill coppers as they were the best ones he'd ever worked with
- Vitriolic Best Buds: It is difficult to describe his relationship with Chief Inspector Derek Conway as anything other than this.
Chief Superintendent Guy Mannion
- Arch-Enemy: To Charles Brownlow, due to both competing for the position of Borough Commander. Also instrumental in the reformation of the entire CID department at Sun Hill following the Don Beech scandal that precipitated Charles Brownlow's forceful resignation.
- Commuting on a Bus: Mannion only appeared in a handful of episodes between 1999-2001. He would typically arrive at the station to make a nuisence for Brownlow, then leave for months on end before being seein again. His total number of episodes is 13.
- Smug Snake: Could never hide his gloating delight at being appointed Borough Commander.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: After reforming the entire CID department and bullying Charles Brownlow into resigning he was succeeded in his position of Borough Commander and promptly disappeared without trace. It was never exactly explained how and when he was succeeded as Borough Commander but Supt. Chandler made an off-hand remark about Mannion collecting his "carriage clock".
Superintendent John Heaton
- Coincidental Dodge: How he avoided being shot in one episode.
- Da Chief
- Red-Headed Hero
- Kicked Upstairs: He left Sun Hill to move to a specialist unit.
Superintendent Adam Okaro
- Benevolent Boss: Probably the most empathetic officer of his rank to appear on the show, although he could still deliver a good "The Reason You Suck" Speech when angered.
- Da Chief: And black, too.
- Kicked Upstairs: He became the Borough Commander.
- Political Overcorrectness: As an otherwise well respected and competent leader, most people saw this as his biggest flaw. He was often criticised for trying too hard to do things to impress the people higher up at the expense of his officers or doing things the right way.
- Working with the Ex: Gina Gold. Though they are Amicable Exes.
Superintendent Tom Chandler (DECEASED)
- Heretics, they used to call them. Outsiders. Whatever it is, this thing... it's inside ME.—Supt. Tom Chandler
- Arch-Enemy: Had three, DCI Meadows, DC Webb and PC Taviner
- Bad Boss: And HOW!
- Da Chief: A truly villainous example
- Dirty Cop
- Fair Cop
- He-Man Woman Hater: One of his defining traits and what eventually led to his extremely dark backstory reveal and his eventual downfall. Raped at least 3 women, with absolutely no regret. The other women he had relationships with, such as DS Debbie McAllister and DC Kate Spears, he used as no more than tools to be exploited.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: In hindsight at least: in his first episode he can easily come across as an improvement on Brownlow.
- Villainous Breakdown: His entire final episode, which ends with him shooting himself in the head.
- We Meet Again: Him and Des Taviner
Chief Inspector Derek Conway (DECEASED)
- Sometimes you just want to lock yourself inside your office, and tell the rest of the world to Foxtrot Oscar.—Chief Insp Derek Conway
- Beleaguered Bureaucrat: When asked to justify over-time for the troops.
- Cluster F-Bomb: As close as it could get in the show's pre-watershed era, when he found out that Brownlow had sabotaged his promotion prospects:You bastard!
- Da Chief: It was usually Conway who dealt with station morale or giving the troublemakers a bollocking if they really messed up.
- Deadpan Snarker: He cared deeply about the job but Conway's cynical realism meant he was one of the best to ever grace Sun Hill.
- Desk Jockey: A fact he bemoaned.
- Henpecked Husband: His wife once embarrassed him by taking Brownlow to task for not promoting him.
- Long Runner: Appeared in 402 episodes over 14 years.
- Limited Advancement Opportunities: Conway tried for promotion several times, but was resigned to the fact that he was never going to progress beyond Chief Inspector, as he didn't fit the modern image of policing. Furthermore, when Ch Supt. Browlow was on the brink of either resignation or dismissal because of the Don Beech scandal, Guy Mannion suggested that Conway should give Brownlow the metaphorical coup de grâce by suggesting that Conway would get Brownlow's job; Conway saw straight through it, knowing that Mannion had no intention of promoting him. However:
- He retained the same rank of Chief Inspector but during 1993-94 he was the head of his own department away from Browlow and Chief Inspector Cato when he was the CLO.
- In 1995-96 he was Acting Superintendent for 12 months when Brownlow was away at the Yard with DAC Hicks.
- Number Two: To Brownlow and briefly to Chandler.
- Remember the New Guy?: Although he wasn't implied to have been at the station from the very start, in Conway's debut episode in 1988's series 4 Brownlow talks to him as though he was already working there. He wasn't introduced to the station or its relief as a new recruit or transfer.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Brownlow. He had a similar relationship with DCI Meadows.
Chief Inspector Philip Cato
Played by Philip Whitchurch- 0% Approval Rating: He was never popular among the relief. It was even hinted that Brownlow appointed him just to have someone less popular than himself at Sun Hill.
- Bald of Evil: He was known as the "the bald-headed bastard from Barton Street".
- Limited Advancement Opportunities: He went for promotion numerous times, but was never successful. It eventually led to Rage Quit.
- Oop North. He was from Liverpool.
- Rage Quit: After he failed to even get an interview for a promotion opportunity, he promptly handed in his notice.
- Sophisticated as Hell: His resignation letter to Brownlow was full of flowery wording regarding his concerns about the future of the police, though it ended with the parting shot: "I therefore feel I have no choice but to submit my resignation. I trust that you will know where to stick it."
Inspector Andrew Monroe (DECEASED)
- A Father to His Men: He steadily evolved into this. Although a tough and strict leader with occasional shades of Sergeant Rock, especially in his early days, he was also known to stick up for his relief when they needed it, especially when he was being given orders from above.
- A Day in the Limelight: Unlike many characters on the show, Monroe didn't actually get many episodes that really focused on him. However, it was known that his dedication to duty took its toll on his family life, and one 2000 episode specifically features Monroe dealing with his daughter being caught up in a shoplifting and drug dealing situation. It is a very rare episode in which we gain an insight into Monroe and his family.
- The 1993 episode 'Broken' features Monroe alongside guest star Brian Glover, who portrays a rough ex-miner union type. Monroe's character is opened up because Ken Farley, Glover's character, refuses to trust the police because of the miners' strikes. One scene in particular is surprisingly powerful as Monroe's background as a miner himself who always does the right thing convinces Farley to assist him.
- By-the-Book Cop: One of the most defining examples in the series. Woe betide anyone under his command who was anything less.
- Characterization Marches On: As noted below, Monroe was initally introduced as a slavedriver who is ridiculed by the rest of the relief. After a year or two, his character softens up and he becomes a much more respected, if hard-pushing, Inspector whose relationship with the relief is rather like that of a Stern Teacher with his class. The incident which led to DS Roach quitting happened after this change in character had begun and feels almost like the episode was broadcast out of sequence. It was the final episode with the 'original' Monroe character.
- Deadpan Snarker: Not to the same extent as Chief Inspector Conway or DI Burnside, but he often had a supply of dry wit ready.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": Kind of. Officers of equal ranks can call each other by their personal names as can your superiors. Aside from some Early-Installment Weirdness wherein Conway, Brownlow and Burnside called him Andy, for the twelve years he was at Sun Hill his name was always Andrew.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: One of several to die in the 2002 fire. No explanation was given for how he was caught up in the fire, given that he was not anywhere near the explosion at the time.
- Heroic BSoD: Despite being one of Sun Hill's most disciplined officers, the aforementioned episode involving his daughter sees him having one of these. The awkward and sensitive nature of this personal case leads him to snap and get uncharacteristically distressed and visibly upset. It becomes apparent that although Monroe loves his family dearly, his dedicated work ethic and discipline affects his relationship with his children.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: A strict guv'nor sure but he cared for his relief
- Long Runner: The longest-serving Inspector at Sun Hill. He appeared in 584 episodes over the course of 12 years.
- Smug Snake: He often came across as this in the early part of his tenure as Inspector, earning the ire of Sun Hill's long-term Detective Sgt Ted Roach and eventually being the trigger for Roach's resignation in 1993.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: He was initially portrayed this way, though he ultimately emerged as more of a Bait-and-Switch Tyrant.
- Working-Class Hero: A former miner who worked his way up to Inspector.
Inspector Gina Gold
- Brutal Honesty
- Feet-First Introduction: Stubbing out a cigar, no less.
- Good Is Not Nice
- Light Feminine Dark Feminine: Exactly how feminine Gina is varies, considering her love for smoking, drinking, boxing and her short hair combined with her general tough attitude, but she introduces herself as the dark to 'goody goody' June Ackland's light in her debut episode, criticising June for being too politically correct and wishy-washy with her approach to policing.
- On the other hand, she is the light to Irene Radford's dark, with the latter's swan song episode being all about how they're two sides of the same coin. One is light and the other is dark, with Irene being the obvious dark due to her status as a crime lord.
- One of the Boys: Inspector Gold loved drinking, smoking and boxing.
- Parental Substitute: She could be seen as one to Smithy, considering how close their working and personal relationships became, and how she was an older senior officer of the police who he looked up to in his later years as a sergeant.
PC/Sgt/Insp Dale "Smithy" Smith
- Breakout Character: In the 2000s era of the show.
- Cartwright Curse: Smithy tends to be very unlucky in love.
- Character Development:
- And a lot of it too. Its very easy to forget that when he was first introduced in 1999, 'PC' Dale Smith was portrayed as being a bigot and a bully, who was brought into the show mainly to shake up the existing cast dynamic. He eventually left to join (as it was called then) SO19, the Armed Response dudes of the Met, and managed to end Bob Cryer's career by an unfortunate gunshot. When he returned as a regular character in 2003, Sergeant Dale Smith was generally shown to be a very moral and totally sympathetic character, and certainly by the time it was axed in 2010 he had more or less become the defacto "star" of the series.
- An interesting fact is that he was shown to be very much Bob Cryer's protégé, with the two sharing an almost father/son bond. Cryer was the one who supported Smithy's application to SO19, and over the course of their shared time on the series it was clear that Cryer was smoothing down the rough edges on this younger officer. By the time he became a Sergeant/Inspector, Smithy had mellowed to become more or less a younger version of Cryer.
- It's Personal: The whole feud with PC Gabriel Kent.
- Only Known By His Nickname: Almost everyone calls him Smithy. Going back to earlier episodes where he is sometimes referred to as Dale can be quite jarring.
- Worf Had the Flu: He might have performed better in his fight against Sergeant Stone in the riot storyline had he not been all over the place emotionally at the time and basically asking for someone to punish him after beating up Jason Devlin. In the later episode 'Tombstone', he and Callum have another little scuffle again and he actually sort of gets the better of it.
PC/Sgt June Ackland
- Alone Among the Couples: Her nickname (self-titled, even) was "Good Old Dependable Sexless June", for her definite lack of luck in the love department.
- False Soulmate: Jim Carver.
- Long Runner: Trudie Goodwin was (and remains) the longest serving member of the cast, having been in the original 1983 pilot episode (even the second longest serving character, Reg Hollis, only appeared for the first time a year later, while the third, Tony Stamp, hadn't even become a regular until 1988).
- Love Hurts: Poor June is unlucky in love. Averted in that she was written out of the series having finally found a stable relationship.
- Married to the Job
- Power Trio: Part of the Cryer-Boyden-Ackland team of the late 1990s and early 2000s. There was even an episode titled The Three Sergeants revolving around the trio.
- Really Gets Around: June had flings with at least five different colleagues at Sun Hill.
- Will They or Won't They?: There was some degree of this between her and Roy Galloway in the first two seasons.
- Working with the Ex: Jim Carver, again.
- Team Mom: Either this or Team Big Sister, according to a debate in the 1996 episode "A Good Night Out".
Sergeant Bob Cryer
- You'd get all your paperwork done a lot quicker if you used the computer.—Sgt June AcklandI'm perfectly happy with my quill and parchment, thank you very much.—Sgt Bob Cryer
- Berserk Button: You couldn't get a more straight-laced copper than Bob Cryer. But if anybody mentioned his troubled son Patrick, with whom Cryer had some Parental Issues (most specifically I Have No Son!), he was liable to get very moody with them.
- Breakout Character: Bob Cryer became immensely popular and between 1988 and 1998 he was always the last character in the intro titles to be shown.
- By-the-Book Cop: A prime example, though not to the extent of Monroe
- Doesn't Like Guns — Cryer was never particularly comfortable with being one of the station's Authorised Firearms Officers, particularly after an incident where he accidentally shot and killed a (technically) unarmed robber. He often advised younger officers against going on firearms training courses. Ironically, he was written out of the series after getting a leg wound from friendly fire.
- Old-Fashioned Copper
- Power Trio: Part of the original core of Cryer-Peters-Penny sergeants. Also part of the Cryer-Boyden-Ackland power trio of the late 1990s and early 2000s.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The man was fair but firm
- Team Dad: Very much so
Sergeant Alec Peters
- I could spend all afternoon trying to figure out which one of them is Tom and which one is Harry, and I'd end up being Dick!—Sgt Alec Peters
- Career-Ending Injury: Never fully recovered after being stabbed on duty. Complications from this eventually resulted in his departure from the show, after he was promoted away from the front line.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Peters was given the cliche "desk job" after his stabbing but he wasn't given a specific farewell or exit. He began appearing less and less and then just stopped appearing at all.
- Kicked Upstairs: His departure storyline.
- Nice Guy: Alec was generally seen as a dependable and genial man, although no-one questioned his skills as a Sergeant. But as Frank Burnside summarised to "Tosh" Lines when he heard Alec was supervising the arrival of former Sun Hill typing pool personnel Sassy Black Woman Delia French as a WPC:Poor old Alec, he'd be safer with a rabid rottweiler!—DI Frank Burnside on Alec 'puppy-walking' Delia French
- Old-Fashioned Copper
- Reasonable Authority Figure
- Pastimes Prove Personality: His love of gardening.
- Power Trio: Part of the original Cryer-Peters-Penny sergeants trio that lasted from the show's beginning in 1984 until 1990.
Sergeant Tom Penny
- Achey Scars: The gunshot wound that he receives at the end of Season Three would continue to occasionally flare up in really tense situations in the years afterwards.
- The Alcoholic: Began after his gunshot injury and ultimately cost him his job when he was caught drink-driving.
- Career-Ending Injury: Like fellow sergeant Alec Peters, Penny fell victim to this. He was shot in the stomach whilst on duty and was never the same afterwards. Also, much like Peters, it eventually resulted in his departure after he turned to alcohol abuse to numb the pain and was caught drink driving.
- Directed By Castmember: Roger Leach wrote a number of scripts after leaving the series.
- Jerkass: Was taciturn and cold, and would not hesitate to chew out members of his relief for the slightest infractions. Even his fellow sergeants, Cryer and Peters, confessed that they found him difficult at times. He was also physically abusive to his wife.
- Power Trio: Part of the original Cryer-Peters-Penny sergeants trio that lasted from the show's beginning in 1984 until 1990.
- Put on a Bus: Had to leave the force after being caught drink driving.
- Would Hit a Girl: His wife.
Sergeant Matthew Boyden (DECEASED)
- Some days you're the dog and some days you're the lamppost. Today you're the lamppost.—Sgt Matthew Boyden
- Asshole Victim: He may have had his heroic moments over the years, but between his homphobia toward Sgt Gilmore, his siding with Eddie Santini when Rosie Fox tried to report him for harassment and the fact that he had twice gotten away with sleeping with underage girls (one of them the daughter of a colleague, something he knew full well even if she had lied about her age), he was pretty hard to like by the time he was killed.
- Bittersweet Ending: In "No Love Lost", Boyden was genuinely upset when he learned that Natalie had died of a drug overdose, even though it got him out of trouble for sleeping with her.
- The Casanova: It got him into trouble more than once, especially when he unwittingly slept with an underage girl. Such was his reputation, station gossips even speculated that Luke Ashton's mother was among his conquests.
- Cowboy Cop
- Criminal Doppelgänger: In one episode, actually entitled Doppelganger, a group of villains dressed in police uniforms were shaking down illegal poker games and one of them was calling himself "Sgt Boyden". It becomes a Running Gag in the episode as everyone Boyden encounters who has met the doppelganger remarks how they look alike. They come face to face at the end:Boyden: Why do people keep saying we look alike? I'm much better looking.
- Deadpan Snarker: Was always ready with a withering quip.
- Hidden Depths: Turned out to be very good at paintball.
- Jailbait Taboo: This happened to Boyden twice.
- Oh, Crap!: Boyden's reaction when he realised the girl he had slept with the night before was only 15.
- Pointy-Haired Boss: Was seen as this by the relief near the beginning of his tenure, especially when he slunk off to see a woman and refused to answer George Garfield's urgent assist calls, which landed George in hospital. It nearly ended his career, earned him the ire of nearly everyone at Sun Hill, and it took him quite a while to gain any respect back.
- Power Trio: Part of the Cryer-Boyden-Ackland team of the late 1990s and early 2000s. There was even an episode titled The Three Sergeants revolving around the trio.
Sergeant Callum Stone
- The Big Guy: He was a rather large and tough officer, and usually served as the muscle whenever he and his fellow officers patrolled the streets or took on criminals.
- Foil: To Smithy when they interacted in the late 2000's. Stone is essentially like how Smithy was in his early career. Aggressive, insensitive, blunt and willing to do dirty things to get a good result. Smithy didn't like some of Stone's approaches to resolving things, as he had mellowed out and become more respectful of the rules by those years. Of course, it was Stone's willingness to do things like lie to the court that helped Smithy escape a prison sentence/firing in the 2009 riot story-line. Naturally, as the show came towards the end of its run, Stone went through the same arc that Smithy did before him, where he would be confronted by colleagues (like Mickey Webb) about his bluntness and dodgy ways of doing things, and he grew more of a conscience.
- Jerkass Has a Point: He may be blunt and not above using somewhat dirty tactics to get a good result, but his methods prove to be effective more often than not. Inspector Gold often commended him for his work and saw him as a good copper, despite objections from her friend and colleague Smithy. He was also the one who helped Smithy see sense and stop him from grassing himself up over beating up a criminal who attacked Stevie Moss.
- Significant Double Casting: While a lot of actors played minor roles before becoming well known officers at Sun Hill, it is especially notable for Sam Callis. He had quite the recurring role in 2004 as Karl Radford, the priest of the evil Radford Family a few years before coming back as Callum Stone.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With Smithy, at first. They become genuine friends by the end of the show.
PC Reg Hollis
- 0% Approval Rating: In his bid to be elected the station's Police Federation rep, Reg received just two votes, one of which was his own.
- Accidental Hero: Reg captured a famous cat burglar whilst skiving off eating a hamburger.
- Cannot Keep a Secret / Gossipy Hens: If Reg hears some gossip, before long everyone in the station will know about it.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Served as one of the relief's oddballs and at first was regarded as something of an annoyance, over time he gained a lot of respect from his colleagues.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him / Written-In Absence — He was written out of the series with only a couple of lines of dialogue from another character saying where he'd gone, several episodes after his final appearance on screen.
- Embarrassing Middle Name — Percival.
- Hidden Depths
- Long Runner: Second only to June Ackland in this regard, and only by a small margin. He joined one year after the show started and stuck around until 2008.
- Nice Guy: Reg was actually one of the friendliest characters on the show and had a stern moral compass, even if people tended to find him irritating at points.
- No Social Skills
- Pastimes Prove Personality: He collected model trains.
- Platonic Prostitution: Reg once visited a prostitute, but only wanted to talk to her. He still paid her though.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: When he got to command the officers' team during the paintball game against the ranks.
PC Cathy Bradford
- Cathy Bradford? She's got about as much community spirit as Adolf Hitler!—Jim Carver
- Manipulative Bastard
- Love Makes You Crazy — Oh Dear God...
- Slasher Smile
- Stalker with a Crush: To DC Brandon Kane, before crossing into Yandere when she killed his wife.
PC Polly Page
- The Cutie
- Break the Cutie: The Dave Quinnan love storyline.
- Not as You Know Them — She was written out of the series in 2002, following her role in the 'Dave Quinnan' exit storyline. Then she was brought back a whole year later, having supposedly been "on leave" for all that time, only to immediately be plunged into a storyline where she commited murder and lost her job as a cop. And THEN she was brought back again a few months later as a "civilian" worker at the station, where what little dignity the character still had left was systematically removed, before she was finally dumped for good in early 2004. To anyone who grew up watching the optimistic and loveable WPC Page of 1992-2001, it was like we were watching the same actress playing a completely different person.
- Destructive Romance: Dave Quinnan again.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist
PC Leela Kapoor
- Aborted Arc: Very near to the start of Johnathan Young's time as executive producer of the series (2005), there is an episode where PC Kapoor and PC Valentine work together to uncover the corruption of a uniformed Sergeant over at Barton Street nick. The episode even ends with a Sequel Hook, with PC Valentine informing her that he'll support her if she chooses to follow-through with her allegation, although it will likely drag both of them through the mud (coppers who grass on other coppers, even ones who are genuinely in the wrong, tend to be looked on very unfavourably by their colleagues). Given the heavily serialised nature of the programme at that stage, you might have expected this storyline to be followed up in further episodes, exploring the fallout of this affair. But it wasn't. It was dropped completely. The (off screen) outcome did get a belated mention in PC Kapoor's final episode two years later, though.
- By-the-Book Cop: See above example. She came to the series having already grassed on a corrupt colleague at a previous nick, and with all the emotional baggage attached to that.
PC Gabriel Kent (DECEASED)
- Being Evil Sucks — Revealed when he takes Andrea Dunbar hostage:Andrea: How can you carry the weight of all you've done around with you? How do you sleep at night?Gabriel: I Dont.
- Dirty Cop: His whole character was this. He would resort to literally anything to achieve what he set out to do. Raping fellow officers and making them seem like liars for it? Check. Hiring gangs of thugs to beat up criminals the law couldn't touch? Check. Hiring a sniper to kill people for the same reason, then betraying said sniper when things went wrong? Check.
- Hidden Depths — As much of a Dirty Cop as he could be, he was surprisingly a very skilled, competent officer when he followed all the rules.
- Jerkass: He's a very messed up human being who constantly hurt and killed people.
- Jerkass Has a Point: It was hard not to cheer him on when he beat up a known paedophile who used a loophole in the law to stay free.
- Never My Fault: He blames everything wrong with him and everything that sucked in his life on June Ackland, who gave up her son for adoption due to being raped as a teenager. However, a comment from the real Gabriel Kent (his brother) suggests that this guy was complete trouble even as a kid, and that may have contributed more to his strained relationship with his deceased parents than his adopted brother supposedly stealing their love from him ever did.
- The Rival: With Cameron and later Smithy over PC Kerry Young.
- Vigilante Man: Especially when working on the Cole Lane estate with Laura Bryant.
PC Cass Rickman (DECEASED)
- Fair Cop
- The Infiltration: When Cass went undercover in a gang.
- No Social Skills
- Oop North — A Scouser.
PC Tony Stamp
- Ascended Extra: Went from speaking an occasional word in Season Three to being the focus of multiple episodes in Season Five. Became one of the show's most prominent characters.
- Badass Driver: Driver of Sun Hill's Area Car, and proud of it.
- Big Eater
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold — Actually a fundamentally decent person, although definitely not the most sensitive man around at times. Positively pales in comparison to Jerkass types like Tom Chandler and Gabriel Kent however.
- Kicked Upstairs — He left the series after accepting a job teaching Advanced Driving skills at Hendon.
- Team Dad
PC Kerry Young (DECEASED)
- Crying Wolf: Technically, she does everything she can to prevent it from getting out, but after Gabriel Kent manipulates her into thinking Smithy raped her, it was only a matter of time before word spread across the whole station. She ends up dropping the accusation, but it comes back to bite her hard after Kent shortly after rapes her for real and no one believes her, so she can't report him for it. Of course, this was all part of Kent's master plan.
- False Rape Accusation: She made one against Smithy, out of guilt because she cheated on her boyfriend, but then retracted it.
- Really Gets Around — Where do we start? PC Luke Ashton, PC Cameron Tait, PC Gabriel Kent, Sgt Dale Smith...
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog
PC Des Taviner (DECEASED)
- Asshole Victim
- The Atoner
- Cowboy Cop — Before descending into downright dirty cop.
- Dirty Coward
- Dirty Cop
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: He died off-screen, being killed by a fellow inmate in custody.
- Failed a Spot Check: He didn't notice the £50 notes he stole from a drug dealer were fake before giving one to Monroe for charity. He also didn't realise there were gas canisters in Monroe's office before throwing a petrol bomb in.
- Inciting Incident: If only he'd noticed the money he took from a drug dealer was counterfeit, the Sun Hill fire would never have happened.
- Odd Friendship: Him and Reg Hollis.
- Oop North: Another Scouser.
PC/DC/DS Jim Carver
- The Alcoholic: Spiralled out of control when he had to return to uniform. It led to a murder charge and almost cost him his job.
- Berserk Button: Jim was always angered by the mistreatment of women, particularly women he had a soft spot for, like when Phil Young assaulted Norika Datta and he threatened to kill Young in revenge, and he had to be stopped from lunging at Burnside when the latter callously referred to Viv Martella as a "silly bitch" moments after she was shot dead. And don't threaten June Ackland. Just don't
. - Deadpan Snarker: Always good for a quip or two.
- False Soulmate: June Ackland
- Lead You Can Relate To: PC Jim Carver was on his probation period when the show started, with him learning the ropes at the same speed as the audience.
- Limited Advancement Opportunities: In ten years in CID, he wasn't recommended for promotion once, and had to return to uniform. He did, finally, get an offscreen promotion to Detective Sergeant with the Greater Manchester Police.
- Long Runner: He made his debut in the 1983 pilot and finally left Sun Hill in 2005. He returned for a few guest appearances in 2007.
- Mugging the Monster: The two men who abducted June ambushed Jim when he came to rescue her. He proceeded to deliver a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown on both of them. Given it was Jim, very likely a case of Booze-Based Buff.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: In the 1999 episode "Lock In", a severely hungover Jim woke up next to a dead prostitute and couldn't remember what happened. He was accused of murdering her but was subsequently cleared.
- Working with the Ex: June Ackland.
PC Vicky Hagen
Played by Samantha Robson- Badass Driver: The first female Area Car driver at Sun Hill, which led to a rivalry with Tony Stamp.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: She could be a bitch at times, including to people who had done nothing to deserve it such as Rosie Fox. But she showed quite a bit of integrity as a cop, in particular the fact that she had backed up a suspect's report of police brutality against a colleague at her last station, something that the Sun Hill relief openly disliked her for, especially Mike Jarvis. She was also responsible for turning in Eddie Santini for the murder of Jessica Orton despite their relationship at the time, and she was one of the few officers who consistently supported Jim Carver during his slide into alcoholism.
PC Eddie Santini (DECEASED)
Played by Michael Higgs
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: He was popular with the ladies, in spite of his jerkass nature.
- Arch-Enemy: Rosie Fox. Dave Quinnan too.
- Asshole Victim:
- Consummate Liar: In his final few episodes, almost every sentence he uttered was a lie of some kind.
- Cowboy Cop: Became a Dirty Cop and Killer Cop later on.
- Hair-Trigger Temper:
- Hated by All: By his final few appearances, he had alienated pretty much the whole relief.
- Jerkass
- Karma Houdini: He killed Jessica Orton, but was acquitted in his murder trial. Though he was subsequently murdered to prevent him testifying in an unrelated trial.
- Killer Cop
- Killed Mid-Sentence: "Look, if you're gonna do it Paul..."
- Never My Fault: While sitting in a prison cell awaiting his trial for murdering Jessica Orton, Eddie complained that Rosie was to blame for all his problems.
- Stalker with a Crush: To Rosie Fox.
- Took A Level In Jerk Ass: Was originally a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and had some heroic moments during his tenure, but overtime all of his positive qualities gradually eroded to nothing.
- What Does She See in Him?: Vicky Hagen.
- Would Hit a Girl
PC/DS Rosie Fox (DECEASED)
Played by Caroline Catz- The Chew Toy: She never seemed to get a break. On her first day at Sun Hill, Eddie Santini accidentally ran over her bike. After rejecting his advances, he started harassing and intimidating her, and tried to rape her after a successful undercover opreration, managing to turn most of the relief against her in the process. Her belated accusation of sexual assault (and then dropping the charge due to lack of evidence) again made her appear in the wrong, and turned more of the relief against her. Whilst searching for a violent criminal on a roof, Eddie walked off and Rosie was taken hostage, only for Eddie to blame her for leaving him. Even after Dave Quinnan backed up her story about Eddie abandoning her on the roof, she felt she had to transfer away. When she returned to Sun Hill with AMIP, Eddie carried on where he left off, making her look paranoid and obsessive, though she did finally manage to connect him to Jessica Orton's death and arrested him. However, she was murdered shortly before testifying at Eddie's murder trial to prevent her testifying at another upcoming trial.
- Informed Attractiveness: While she was quite pretty, all the men at Sun Hill were positively swooning over her when she first arrived.
- Limited Advancement Opportunities: She left Sun Hill a WPC. She returned a year later as a DS with AMIP, having seemingly passed her sergeant's exams, completed detective training and secured a transfer to AMIP in short order. Although she was said to be in a relationship with a superior.
- Only Known By Her Nickname: She was always "Rosebud" instead of "Rosie" to Eddie Santini.
- Properly Paranoid: She was convinced that Eddie was involved in Jessica Orton's death, with good reason.
- Short-Runner: Lasted nine episodes in total.
- Smug Snake: Some of her colleagues at Sun Hill thought so.
- Suicide, Not Murder: In her case she was murdered and it was made to look like suicide.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Her (truthful) allegations against Eddie were disbelieved by almost everyone.
PC Steve Loxton
Played by Tom Butcher- Framing the Guilty Party: After resigning from the job, his final act was to plant drugs on a crooked lawyer.
- Noble Bigot with a Badge: Played with in that his bigotry did affect his job, but not so much his working relationships. He got in trouble for racial profiling more than once, including an illegal stop-and-search of an off-duty black police officer which ultimately ended his career. That said, he did seem to get along with his non-white colleagues, and when pressed PC Gary McCann couldn't seem to recall Loxton treating him as anything other than part of the team.
PC Luke Ashton
Played by Scott Neal- Bury Your Gays: One of the few who managed to leave Sun Hill alive and well.
- The Bus Came Back: A rare example in the show of a character being Put on a Bus, then returning to become a regular again.
- The Chew Toy
- Dirty Coward: Smithy accused him of this after Luke failed to back him up during a knife attack.
- Mama's Boy
- Naïve Newcomer
- Straight Gay: Doesn't really act like the stereotype.
PC Dave Quinnan
Played by Andrew Paul- Arch-Enemy: To Eddie Santini.
- Destructive Romance: His fling with Polly Page, though much more to her than him.
- Holier Than Thou: Dave's tendency to act like this grated with colleagues like Santini, especially in light of his own chequered history at Sun Hill (see below).
- Love Triangle: With George Garfield and Jenny. Complicated by the fact that Jenny was George's fiancee at the time and George didn't know they were in a love triangle.
- Playing Sick: In "Trying it On", Dave failed to show up for work the morning after he'd been out celebrating his birthday and everyone assumed he was just off with a hangover. In fact, he'd been at the hospital getting the results of a hepatitis test (after recently being spat at by a criminal).
- Put on a Bus: Left the show after accepting a transfer to SO10.
PC Honey Harman (DECEASED)
- Action Girl: She's physically fit and has impressive judo skills, and on her first day tackled a murder suspect and saved Gary Best from being shot.
- Beware the Nice Ones: She may be a really nice, mild-mannered girl normally, but she's not defenceless.
PC Nick Klein
- Drugs Are Bad: A recurring issue the character has to face is his vulnerability towards using drugs as he developed a nasty crack habit.
- Put on a Bus: More like forced to change his entire life and public identity in order to remain safe, thus resulting in him moving far away from Sun Hill.
- The Rival: With Phil Hunter shortly before his departure. Their mutual animosity almost resulted in Klein being found and killed by criminal Dennis Weaver because of Phil.
PC Andrea Dunbar (DECEASED)
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Andrea, an undercover journalist, begins a secret romance with DI Neil Manson from CID.
- The Mole: While not a villain per se, she does enter the police as an undercover journalist looking for stories for her boss to use for the press and print in the newspaper. This was revealed in the middle of the Alan Kennedy trial, and when she is questioned on it in court due to her past involvement with one of the victims before she became a police officer, it ends up sinking the prosecution's case.
PC Steve Hunter
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Zig-zagged between him and his brother. Phil is more intelligent and competent at his job compared to Steve who's dumb moments often land him in trouble, but his bad boy antics and inability to keep it in his trousers clash with his brother, who at least tries to be sensible on the job, even if his naivety often prevents this.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: Naive, spiritual, and emotionally driven, Steve contrasts strongly to his tough jack-the-lad brother, Phil.
- Smart Jerk and Nice Moron: Phil is a relatively smart officer of CID who can be a bit abrasive and malicious at times, while his brother is a complete nice guy who also isn't the brightest cop in the force.
PC/DC Gary Best
- Jerkass Has a Point: Gary is completely unaccepting of his father's attempts at redemption, even when he tries to help with a police case. In fairness, something like witnessing your own mother suffer abuse from a man makes it understandable why you wouldn't want to forgive them so easily.
- Like Father, Unlike Son: Gary makes it his personal mission to make sure he's nothing like his father, who abused his mother when they were together. Gary wants nothing to do with him at all, and when his father insists they're more alike that he cares to admit, Gary gives him a punch to the face for his troubles.
CID
DSU/DCI/Supt. Jack Meadows
- Berserk Button: Don't mention Don Beech.
- Da Chief
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: Prior to his arrival at Sun Hill he had been demoted after a corruption scandal on his watch. His inability to spot corrupt officers under his command was a recurring theme and it became his Berserk Button.
- Oop North — Yorkshire.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: When the other senior CID officers were transferred away in the wake of the Don Beech scandal, Meadows avoided the same fate by calling in a favour at Scotland Yard.
- Parental Substitute: to DC Mickey Webb. Zain makes a crack about Jack being his dad. Meadows and Webb even have a conversation about Mickey not being his surrogate son in series 21.
DS/DI/DCI Frank Burnside
- Bluffing the Murderer — He employs this technique more than once.
- Cowboy Cop: And how!
- Deadpan Snarker — Probably the most famous example in the series.
- Dirty Cop: While he had actually gone undercover to expose corrupt officers in the 1970s, he came under suspicion more than once. Bob Cryer never trusted him. But he always just about stayed on the right side of the law.
- Field Promotion — This is how he gets from DI to DCI after going undercover for five years. His promotion happened off-screen.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop — Go on, try and guess which one he pretends to be.
- Hidden Depths: There are numerous times where he shows why he became DI over Ted Roach, mainly he adapts to the evolving nature of the Met rather than becoming The Last DJ, which Ted did.
- Jerkass — Unlike his predecessor at Sun Hill, DI Roy Galloway (see below), Frank Burnside has no sense of esprit de corps. He'll very happily spit-roast a member of his own team if he thinks it'll get him brownie points with his bosses, and a continuing theme of his time on the series is the distrust that the officers under his command have of him, and of his methods. And that's just the way Frank likes it.
- Kubrick Stare
- Lying to the Perp — This is usually what starts to happen when Bluffing the Murderer doesn't get Frank the result that he wants.
- Put on a Bus — Twice. His first departure (1993) seen him vanish between episodes with only a perfunctory "after the fact" explanation, while his second departure (2000) happened because he was moved over to a Spin-Off series. Which was then cancelled. His ultimate fate was never revealed.
- Commuting on a Bus — As noted, he came back for a series of semi-regular guest appearances in 1998, 1999 and 2000.
- Rabid Cop — He occasionally comes across this way.
- Retcon — Arguably. His character was portrayed as being extremely dodgy in his first few guest appearances in the series. But after they made him a regular character, they gave him the backstory of it all having been part of his undercover duties (his job having been to weed out other corrupt officers). None of which excuses the fact that he continues to do pretty much the same kind of things after his promotion, of course...
- Spin-Off
- Torture for Fun and Information — He was doing it years before Gene Hunt came along, though. Most notably, one of his most well known tactics for getting confessions out of suspects was to flush their heads down the toilet.
- What You Are in the Dark: Admitted to Jim Carver he'd had these thoughts in his offical return as a recurring character.
- We Meet Again: How his introductory scene in the pilot is played when he and Bob Cryer see each other.
- Written-In Absence: There was no indication that Burnside was about to leave Sun Hill in 1993. He just failed to show up at work one day and it was explained that he had been assigned a special job within the Met.
DI Roy Galloway
- I don't give a shit about reliefs, over-time budgets, or any of your petty arguments. All I want to do is cut the crime on my manor. That IS the job we're being paid to do, remember?—Roy Galloway
- Fiery Redhead
- Anti-Hero
- Married to the Job — And also a Workaholic. He's in the middle of going through a very messy divorce when the series begins.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold — Roy Galloway exhibits many similar outward personality traits to Frank Burnside. The difference being, underneath it all, he's generally a more amiable person... he just allows the stresses of his job to get to him from time to time. When push comes to shove, he always supports those under his command. He does have conflicts with his fellow officers in the course of his duties, which makes him appear abrasive. But he'll always make it up to them, apologising and buying them a drink after work. And he's always quick to give praise to others, when he thinks its due.
- Put on a Bus — Between seasons three and four. Its interesting that he was never given any kind of departure storyline (or even an explantion as to where he went), given he was such a pivotal character in nearly all of the first 36 episodes.
- Drives Like Crazy — Galloway pushes his motor to its limits in nearly every episode. This was eventually Lampshaded when, in the middle of one Chase Scene, the thing flat out refused to go any longer, and he had to spend the next fifteen minutes of the episode desperately trying to convince a car dealer to trade it in for something else. When called out on his aggressive driving, he was prone to protest "what are you talking about? I'm Hendon trained".
DI Sally Johnson
Played by Jaye Griffiths- Private Investigator: After leaving the Met, she returned to Sun Hill in 2003 working for Jeff Simpson, and helped expose Danny Glaze and Des Taviner.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: After she was subjected to a private prosecution for manslaughter following a botched drugs raid, she was offered a transfer to a desk job monitoring overtime and realised she had little choice but to take it.
DS/DI Chris Deakin
Played by Shaun Scott- The General's Daughter: Arrived at Sun Hill following a humiliating demotion, after being caught having an affair with a senior officer's wife.
- Rank Up: First introduced as a Detective Sergeant, who had recently been demoted for sleeping with a superior's wife. He regained the rank of Detective Inspector after Johnson left.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: As a result of his failure to supervise Don Beech.
DI Alex Cullen
Played by Ged Simmons- Bait-and-Switch Tyrant: He was assigned to CID directly by Chandler in the wake of the Don Beech scandal. As such, he was seen as Chandler's unofficial hatchet man. Nevertheless, he came to earn their respect, and eventually broke free from what hold Chandler had over him to join MIT.
DS Ted Roach (DECEASED)
- Get that scum out of here!—Ted Roach after headbutting a man who spat at him during a police raid
- Arch-Enemy: Inspector Monroe.
- Badass Longcoat: Roach owned a light coloured trenchcoat.
- The Big Guy: Roach was the most physical imposing member of Sun Hill CID in the early years and the most likely to throw a punch or two.
- Berserk Button: Roach was not someone who liked being kept out of the loop or the bureaucratic nature the police service developed. He also had one in the form of Inspector Andrew Monroe who goaded him frequently.So help me I will smack that man in the mouth—Ted Roach to Alec Peters on Monroe
- Honor Before Reason: Chose to resign rather than apologise to Monroe and keep his job.
- Private Detective: Became one after his departure from Sun Hill and helped old colleague Jim Carver on a murder case in 2000.
- Bus Crash: Was killed off-screen in a hit-and-run, he got an on-screen funeral which Jack Meadows, Bob Cryer and Alec Peters attended
DS/DI Samantha "Sam" Nixon
- By-the-Book Cop: Most of the time, she would be this.
- Fair Cop: She's considered fairly easy going and approachable most of the time, but could be stern when needed.
- Feminine Mother, Tomboyish Daughter: Inverted with Sam as the tomboyish mother to her more feminine daughter Abigail, who admits "I don't want to be strong and independent like you, I want someone to take care of me".
- The Profiler: Which helped her track down Pat Kitson and Alan Kennedy
- The Spock: Downplayed. She was usually calm and collected when policing and was the one to think of logical solutions to cases in CID, but she certainly had an emotional side and her logical, calm ways of thinking were completely dropped when the stakes became personal (like when her daughter was kidnapped and brainwashed).
- Tomboyish Name: "Sam" is a masculine name, and she isn't particularly feminine, wearing suits most of the time, often cutting her hair short, and being very committed to her profession as a cop and being very logical-minded.
DI Neil Manson
- Always Someone Better: After spending his first few months at Sun Hill pushing everybody around and getting away with some despicable behaviour, Manson is the victim of being set up and screwed over by Don Beech, who outsmarts him and proceeds to make his escape from imprisonment.
- Character Development: Manson was one of the more focused on characters of the later years of the programme, getting a lot of screentime and story focus. He went from being a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk to being a genuinely good leader of CID and was shown to have a heart after all. Even right near the end of the series, we still see more of his caring and vulnerable side, with his child in a hospital bed and him having to worry about that while trying to juggle his job commitments with his personal crisis.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Manson was introduced at the start of 2004 as a rather corrupt, overly harsh, manipulative boss in CID who antagonised Sam, openly berated Debbie, drove Eva Sharpe out of the station, and even blackmailed his own superior officer, Jack Meadows. His Deal with the Devil with Don Beech caused him to realise that his attitude and methods towards being a Detective Inspector were riddled with overly ambitious ends. Afterwards. he slowly became more reasonable, even friendly, towards his colleagues, and by the later years was a well respected DI.
DS Phil Hunter
- The Casanova: He's actualy made a police career out of this.
- Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Zig-zagged between him and his brother. Phil is more intelligent and competent at his job compared to Steve who's dumb moments often land him in trouble, but his bad boy antics and inability to keep it in his trousers clash with his brother, who at least tries to be sensible on the job, even if his naivety often prevents this.
- Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: The self-proclaimed man's man who loves bedding women and training compared to his dim-witted and naive, somewhat emotionally sensitive brother Steve.
- Smart Jerk and Nice Moron: Phil is a relatively smart officer of CID who can be a bit abrasive and malicious at times, while his brother is a complete nice guy who also isn't the brightest cop in the force.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: He and DI Neil Manson seem to be work friends of sorts, often working together against someone they both find dodgy and having worked together in the past. That doesn't stop them from coming into conflict and shouting at each other from time to time, though.
- He also becomes this with Sam after they spend an episode trapped together in a tunnel. They become genuine friends even if they still disagree sometimes. Before that, they just disliked each other outright.
DS Don Beech
- Affably Evil:
- Bribe Backfire: One of these led to his fatal fight with Boulton.
- The Bus Came Back: He returned to The Bill in 2004 for a few more episodes.
- Cop Killer / Killer Cop: He was both.
- Death Faked for You: He did this in Australia after Stanton tracked him down.
- Dirty Cop:
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Maggie. He was also genuinely upset when his pal Tommy died.
- Gambit Roulette: How he managed to get away scot free after killing Boulton. He played off CIB, Howard Fallon and fellow corrupt cops Tasker and Garrard against one another, then double crossed them all, fled the CIB sting with £500,000 of Fallon's money, and left the rest to take the rap.
- Hidden Depths: He was actually a good straight copper when he wanted to be.
- Hilarious in Hindsight / Harsher in Hindsight: In-universe, a few years before he killed John Boulton and his corruption was exposed, he received a medal for long service and good conduct.
- Karma Houdini: Zigzagged. At first he escaped justice after killing Boulton, but was eventually apprehended and jailed. He then escaped from prison in 2004 and was never seen again.
- Made of Explodium: His boat in Australia blew up when Stanton fired a shotgun at it. Justified later, as it was part of Beech's plan to fake his own death.
- Put on a Bus: His long-time girlfriend Maggie disappeared in the special episodes Beech on the Run and Beech is Back, and he had a Vietnamese girlfriend named Frankie. Maggie then re-appeared when he was in prison, and helped him escape.
- Spin-Off: Beech on the Run and Beech is Back.
- Took a Level in Badass: From a shady copper who took a few bribes to murderer and criminal mastermind.
- We Meet Again: Him and Jack Meadows in 2004.
- You Owe Me: He'd remember favours he'd done for colleagues, and reminded them of it when he wanted a favour back.
DS Geoff Daly
- Arch-Enemy: Don Beech. He and Daly hated each other. Daly knew that Beech was a Dirty Cop, but could never prove it.
- By-the-Book Cop: Alone among the Detective Sergeants at the time he left.
- Nice Guy:
- Oop North: Another from Yorkshire.
- Reassigned to Antarctica: After the Beech scandal. He noted the Irony in that he was the only one in the station (besides Stanton) who'd never trusted Beech.
DS Claire Stanton
- Blackmail: Claire wasn't beyond using this tactic (especially with police informants) to extract the information she wanted.
- Determinator: She'd stop at nothing to apprehend Beech and bring him to justice.
- Dumb Blonde: Very much averted here.
- It's Personal: Her and Beech.
- Jerkass
- The Lost Lenore: John Boulton, to the point of obsession.
- The Infiltration: She was an undercover CIB officer sent to expose corruption at Sun Hill.
- Office Romance: Her and DS John Boulton.
DS John Boulton (DECEASED)
- Asshole Victim: A few of his colleagues hinted at this after his death. Hence Dave's reason for putting £50 in the collection for his family.Danny Glaze: That's very generous, fifty quid?Dave Quinnan: It's guilt actually. (Beat) I never liked him.
- Bribe Backfire: Beech tried to bribe Boulton into giving up the location of a key witness. Boulton refused, which led to his demise.
- Cowboy Cop: There were hints of Dirty Cop, but he ultimately proved more honourable than DS Beech, which led to his demise.
- Determinator He wasn't nicknamed RoboCop for nothing.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Was close friends with DS Don Beech, who ended up killing him when Boulton found out about Beech's corruption.
- Jerkass: Especially after Dave Quinnan was stabbed.
- Killer Cop: He was accused of killing a suspect, but cleared. He ended up being the victim of a Killer Cop.
- Not So Similar: As spelled out by one of the official books, like Beech, he may have hated DS Daly for being unbearably self-rigteous, and he may have been willing to bend the rules on occasion, but Boulton would only do so in order to put a criminal away. In that sense he was also similar to Daly.
- Office Romance: With Claire Stanton.
- Oop North: Another Scouser.
- Took a Level in Kindness: He got a bit nicer when he started going out with Claire, but reverted back when she split with him.
DS Vik Singh
Played by Raji James- Cowboy Cop: Throughout his run, which led to serious trouble when he instigated a fight with a known white supremacist, whose group retaliated against other police officers, resulting in the death of Chief Inspector Conway and the subsequent firebomb attack on the station.
- Dirty Coward: He kept quiet about his altercation with Jeff Simpson until it was too late, and he chose to resign rather than face the consequences, much to Meadows' fury. He did however have the decency to exonerate DC Glaze for also keeping quiet.
DC Alfred "Tosh" Lines
- Defective Detective — Quite a few of Sun Hill's finest had noticeable flaws. But Tosh's flaws were often the ones that the average viewer at home might have found the most relatable: he never had enough money (one episode seen his wife making quite a scene at a bank when they refused to give her any more credit), resulting in him having to work oodles of over-time in order to keep his five kids fed, which meant that he was constantly tired at work; and his own love of fast food often ended with him being unable to take part in major chase scenes without serious risk of having a heart attack. But through it all, Tosh had a keen copper's instinct, which made him an indispensable member of the team.
- Only Known by Their Nickname — His given name is Alfred, but everybody just calls him Tosh.
- Papa Wolf: As a father and husband Tosh was devoted to his family and was terrified when an armed robbery occurred at a bank where Mrs Lines and the kids was visiting, his instant reaction when he got there was to run straight into the bank it was only the intervention of another copper that stopped him doing so.
- Written-In Absence — RIP Kevin Lloyd.
- Skewed Priorities: Played for Laughs naturally, this is his first response to a badly beaten Roach, who has just been saved by Sergeant Maitland from a local hardman:Does this mean the do's back on for Thursday?—Alfred "Tosh" Lines to Ted Roach after a beating at the Overton Arms
DC Ken Drummond (DECEASED)
- Big Eater: Even on the job, if he's able to.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: Stuck in the back of a van and covered in petrol, Ken knew his time was up, and held Smithy's hand, and bravely told him to go. He then went up with the van when it exploded seconds later, and ended up as probably the biggest loss to the station from the resulting 2005 Sun Hill Fire.
- Secret Other Family: Ken was revealed to be living this kind of life. He had two wives who he kept secret from each other, and had lots of children with both. Balancing both his job and family life was a recurring problem for him.
- Those Two Guys: He was often this with Rob Thatcher in 2004.
DC Rob Thatcher (DECEASED)
- Arch-Enemy: The Radfords, and to a lesser extent, Adam Okaro.
- Jerkass Has a Point: His obssession and methods to dealing with the Radfords were reckless at best, but the family are constantly getting away with crimes because they know how to play the system, and one of them was responsible for killing his dad.
- Also in regards to his feud with Superintendent Okaro. His methods of sending racist hate mail and planting drugs in his car were pretty low of him, but his initial argument that officers can't pick and choose who they arrest for the sake of public reputation and positive discrimination wasn't necessarily wrong.
- Revenge Before Reason: Ultimately the downfall of the character. Rob eventually ditches the job and goes on the run after finding out that it was really Irene who killed his father. He spends an entire episode beating up each member of the Radford Family before finally confronting Irene. He escapes after a stand-off but returns in a later episode after Irene is finally forced to surrender, shooting her dead, before waiting for SO 19 to end his life tragically, as revenge was all he cared about and he achieved it.
- You Killed My Father: This trope basically summarises the character. Rob Thatcher is the DC who obsessed over bringing the Radford Family to justice, one way or another.
Sergeant/DC Jo Masters (transferred to uniform on promotion)
DS/DC Stevie Moss
- Tomboy: In the sense that she dresses somewhat boyishly and has a Tomboyish Name. In terms of personality, however, she's The Heart of the team more than anything else.
- The Heart: She often serves as the emotionally driven, understanding and sensitive member of the team in any story where she plays a significant role.
DC Zain Nadir
- The Atoner: In his last two episodes, long after he'd been imprisoned.
- Dirty Cop: He was fairly clean for most of his run, until he fell in love with the target of an undercover assignment.
- Fake Defector: His infiltration of Kristen Shaw's organisation, posing as a corrupt cop. He ended up Becoming the Mask.
- Undercover Cop Reveal: First introduced in the middle of an undercover assignment as a drug dealer named Adi Mateen, which he had to break to save PC Powell from being shot.
DC Danny Glaze
- Beware the Nice Ones
- Genre Savvy: Paticularly when dealing with drug gangs and barons. There is a reason why he was chosen to do a lot of undercover work in his time at Sun Hill.
- Improbable Hairstyle: He spent his first year and a half on ths show sporting a Jackson Five-esque afro haircut, which was the subject of much mickey taking. But then...
- Expository Hairstyle Change: ...he shaved it clean, coinciding with him taking on a more "serious" approach to his job.
- Nice Guy
- Put on a Bus to Hell: After he was implicated in Des Taviner's frame-up of Jeff Simpson for the 2002 fire, he fled the country to avoid arrest and posted his warrant card to the station.
DC Kerry Holmes
Played by Joy Brook- Accidental Misnaming: Sometimes accidentally referred to as Kelly. It later became Malicious Misnaming when mischievous colleagues did it on purpose to annoy her.
- By-the-Book Cop: One of the straight cops at Sun Hill. She was aghast at the tactics sometimes employed by her Cowboy Cop colleagues.
- Fiery Redhead
- The Mole: In "Follow Through", she went undercover in a women's prison.
- Oop North: She was originally from Yorkshire.
- Put on a Bus: One of several in CID to depart this way after the Don Beech scandal.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: She was furious when her conduct was questioned in the wake of the Don Beech scandal, and even though she was cleared, she demanded a transfer away from Sun Hill.
- Shower Scene: She had one while undercover in prison, which is invariably bowdlerized in daytime repeats of the episode.
DC Rod Skase
Played by Iain Fletcher- Butt-Monkey:
- The Casanova: Rod fancied himself a ladies' man.
- Cowboy Cop: It eventually resulted in him resigning from the force, and potentially facing a charge of perverting the course of justice.
- Framing the Guilty Party: Rod's attempt to do this to a known drug dealer backfired on him and resulted in the death of a child (and the end of his career).
- He-Man Woman Hater: Though it was usually to set him up to be embarrassed by his shrewder female colleagues like Liz Rawton and Suzi Croft.
Other recurrers
Eddie Olosunje
Crime Scene Examiner.
- Deadpan Snarker
- The Lab Rat — To an extent.
Notable Criminals and Villains
The Radford Family
Irene and David
Carl
Wayne
- Arch-Enemy: They're all this to Rob Thatcher, particularly Irene after it turned out she was the one who shot his dad.
- Big Bad: They're the main recurring antagonists for Sun Hill in series 20. The penultimate episode of that season concluded with Rob Thatcher finally taking out Irene for good.
- Black Sheep: Carl Radford, by his own accord. He couldn't live up to the criminal lifestyle his parents set out for him, and so he distanced himself from the rest of the family and became a priest.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: David and Wayne clearly love and are loyal to their mother and vice versa, but they are all still evil criminals.
- Friendly Enemy: Irene and Gina Gold seem to have a strange friendship/mutual respect of sorts despite being on opposite sides.
Dennis Weaver
- Ax-Crazy: He was very much this, especially when angered. The time when he assaulted Phil and Nick Klein had to come to the rescue, or his final episode when he chased Phil and Sam through a tunnel, are particular highlights of his unstable mentality.
- The Determinator: He was determined to get to PC Klein, even when the aforementioned officer was placed under a 24 hour witness protection scheme.
- Also in "The Tunnel" where he made it clear he was going to wait and search for as long as it took, he didn't care as he wasn't going to stop until he killed Phil.
- Revenge Before Reason: He gets shot by DS Hunter once it becomes clear he's not going to give up until one of them is dead. The threat of being arrested doesn't even concern him anymore by the end.
- Villain Has a Point: In regards to his beef with Phil. Dennis was certainly a crazy, unstable, evil crime boss, but Phil did sleep with his wife, so his anger is somewhat understandable.
Kristen Shaw
- Big Bad: She's pretty much this for the later part of series 22 and the start of series 23.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: Her and Zain Nadir, at least at first. Eventually, the undercover cop she's with ends up Becoming the Mask.
Jason Devlin
Well, one officer did joke that he had a face you wanted to punch.
- Asshole Victim: He receives quite the brutal beatdown from an emotionally troubled Smithy, but it's not like he didn't deserve it for all his crimes and for beating up DC Moss.
- Final Boss: He's this for the Heaton era of the show, being the Big Bad (along with his father) of the riot storyline before Superintendent Heaton and several other characters leave and the show goes through a massive production change.
- Would Hit a Girl: He has no qualms about attacking his arresting officer, Stevie Moss, in the riot storyline.
Deaths In The Bill
Due in large part to its frequent cast turnover, the series has killed off a lot of its characters during its 26+ year run. Here is a list of these fatal casualties.
- PC Ken Melvin- Blown up by an IRA car bomb.
- PC Pete Ramsay - Shot down in the middle of a bank raid gone wrong, while saving DC "Tosh" Lines' life.
- PC Phil Young - Gassed himself in a car.
- DC Viv Martella - Killed by armed robbers.
- DS Jo Morgan - Shot by a hitman (who was shooting at Ackland).
- PC Cathy Marshall - Fell in the river and drowned while chasing a suspect by the docks in the middle of the night. Strongly implied to have been pushed.
- DC Rosie Fox - Strangled.
- PC Eddie Santini - After getting off for murder, he was shot by a Dirty Cop.
- DS John Boulton - Got his head smacked repeatedly against a concrete floor by Dirty Cop Don Beech.
- SC Terry Knowles - Stabbed to death in his fourth episode.
- Chief Inspector Conway - Got a petrol bomb thrown in his car.
- Inspector Monroe - Killed in the fire.
- DC Kate Spears - Killed as a result of the fire.
- PC Ben Hayward - ditto.
- DC Paul Riley - ditto.
- PC Di Worrell - ditto.
- PC Sam Harker - ditto, although he survived long enough to be put on life-support, and Taviner seriously considered switching it off since he was a witness to his actions (see his own entry).
- Superintendent Tom Chandler - Shot himself in the head after it emerged he had covered up a rape. Before that, he'd raped his pregnant (who conceived with him in a disabled toilet at a memorial service) new wife and taken her hostage.
- PC Cass Rickman - December 2002, strangled by the Sun Hill Serial Killer.
- Sergeant Matt Boyden - Shot in the street in a drive-by, involving his own daughter.
- DC Juliet Becker - Stabbed in a van. Guess being bisexual is not a good thing to be in Sun Hill.
- PC Des Taviner - Actually responsible for the Sun Hill fire (he'd chucked a petrol bomb in to destroy some fake currency and failed to realise there was a gas cylinder in there). Was beaten to death by a mentally-ill cell mate.
- PC Kerry Young - Shot by Gabriel Kent outside Sun Hill nick. He'd earlier raped her. To top it all, she was pregnant.
- DC Rob Thatcher - After shooting the woman who had killed his father many years ago, committed Suicide by Cop.
- DC Ken Drummond - In a van filled with petrol that was driven into the front reception by a racist, sacked officer.
- PC Andrea Dunbar - Left to die in the petrol-filled van incident by Gabriel Kent. It had just been revealed to the others that she was an undercover journalist.
- SRO Marilyn Chambers - Killed in the same incident, just as Reg Hollis was going to propose to her.
- PC Gabriel Kent- Really went to town on the whole Dirty Cop business. Used a false name to join up, seduced June Ackland, then pretended he was her long-lost son (he wasn't, he just lived with him) and was responsible for the deaths of two officers (see above), as well as raping two others. Decided to jump off a high-rise rather than face justice.
- PC Lance Powell - Strangled by another Serial Killer. Being gay and Christian isn't a good thing in Sun Hill either.
- PC Honey Harman - Shot dead by Zain Nadir's criminal lover.
- PC Billy Rowan - July 2007, throat cut. In his first episode, no less.
- PC Emma Keane - Was the last one out of an exploding building. As well as the final death in the series.
