YMMV / The Bill

• Archive Panic: With over 2,400 episodes having been made over the course of 27 years, any first time viewer who is tempted to start watching the series from the very beginning may find themselves facing a daunting task ahead of them.
• Complete Monster: See here.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: Reg Hollis had many traits of Aspergers or high functioning autism, though a full diagnosis was never confirmed.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • You guessed it, Jo Masters.
  • Burnside was a relatively minor character during his original guest appearance, albeit one who acted as antagonist for the regulars. Chris Ellison's performance was so good that he was invited back to become a regular in season four, and if you ask the person in the street about their memories of The Bill, invariably they'll involve him.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • 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.
  • 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.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Eddie Santini and Rosie Fox are depicted as having an Arch-Enemy relationship, with Santini's drunken sexual assault of her instigating one of the most deadly, hate-filled feuds on the shows entire run. The actors of both characters (Michael Higgs and Caroline Catz) had a real life Romance on the Set whilst the storyline was being filmed and married not long afterwards.
  • An episode shows Chief Inspector Philip Cato taking down neo-nazi flyers, arresting the person responsible and expressing vocal disgust for their racism. The actor, Philip Whitchurch, would later portray the head of a violent neo-nazi gang in Waking the Dead, alongside DS John Boulton's actor Russell Boulter.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Eddie Santini crossed it either with his drunken sexual assault of Rosie Fox or with his refusal to simply apologise and move on afterward.
  • Don Beech was already well on his way with all of his corruption (evidence tampering, witness intimidation), but when he murdered John Boulton, he most definitely crossed this line. At times afterwards he did seem genuinely remorseful about what he had done, but it was too late, the line had well and truly been crossed and there was no going back.
  • Tom Chandler crossed it onscreen with the rape of Debbie McAllister, though offscreen he had been guilty of this for decades.
  • David Kent crossed it by seducing June Ackland after finding out she was the mother of his adopted brother Gabriel, whose identity he had stolen, intending to make her believe she had committed incest. He would only get worse afterward (raping and later murdering Kerry Young, leaving Andrea Dunbar to die in the 2005 fire).
• Never Live It Down: One of his early episodes established that Jack Meadows was demoted back to DCI after failing to supervise a corrupt officer under his command. This "career glitch" (as Chief Superintendent Brownlow once called it) would occasionally pop up again in later years whenever Meadows tried to seek promotion. His inability to supervise corrupt officers also became something of a running theme, with him becoming increasingly more paranoid as people like Don Beech, Zain Nadir and Sergeant Stone ran rampant under his command...
• Retroactive Recognition: A virtual who's who of the British TV acting scene.
  • A young Sean Bean appeared in the 1984 episode "Long Odds".
  • Derek Hammond from "Lost" (1985) is played by Norman Lovett, who would later be best known for playing the first Holly in Red Dwarf.
  • A pre-ER Alex Kingston appeared in several episodes between 1988 and 1995.
  • Dexter Fletcher appeared in the 1989 episode "The Strong Survive".
  • Paul O'Grady appeared in a few late 80s and early 90s episodes.
  • Mark Strong appeared in 1990's "A Clean Division".
  • Rudolph Walker appeared in 1990's "Burnside knew my Father".
  • Mark Addy appeared in two episodes in 1990.
  • Andy Serkis appeared in a 1990 episode and a 1993 episode.
  • Robert Carlyle appeared in 1991's "The Better Part of Valour".
  • Pete Postlethwaite appeared in the 1992 episode "Principled Negotiation"
  • A teenage Martine McCutcheon appeared in the 1992 episode "A Scandalous Act".
  • Ralph Ineson appeared in "Give 'em an Inch" (1993), "Street Life" (1995) and "Unlicensed" (1998).
  • A teenaged Emma Bunton appeared in 1993's "Missionary Work".
  • A pre-Game of Thrones Conleth Hill appeared in the 1993 episode "Hard Evidence".
  • A pre-Game of Thrones Aidan Gillen appeared in 1993's "Play the Game".
  • Ross McCall featured in three mid-1990s episodes.
  • Russell Brand made his television debut in 1994's "Land of the Blind".
  • Idris Elba appeared in the 1994 episode "Pig in the Middle".
  • A ten-year old Keira Knightley appeared in 1995's "Swan Song".
  • A pre-Game of Thrones Michelle Fairley appeared in 1995's "No Choice".
  • Simon Merrells appeared in the 1995 episode "Kid".
  • Lucy Davis appeared in the 1995 episode "Charity and Beating".
  • David Tennant appeared in 1995's "Deadline". Funnily enough, his future wife Georgia Moffett had a recurring role as Abigail Nixon.
  • Martin Freeman made his television debut in 1997's "Mantrap".
  • James McAvoy made his television debut in 1997's "Rent".
  • Billy Murrary (DS Don Beech) may now be better known for the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare trilogy.
  • Six guest roles between 1992 and 2001 were played by Andrée Bernard, who would later be best known for playing Liz Burton in Hollyoaks.
  • Kate Ferne from "Rough in the Afternoon" is played by Barbara New, who would later be best known for playing Mabel Wheeler in You Rang, M'Lord?.
  • Marion Draper from "Having What It Takes" is played by Diane Langton, who would later be best known for playing Nana McQueen in Hollyoaks.
  • A car driver from "Traffic" is played by Derek Royle, who would later be best known for playing the second LeClerc in 'Allo 'Allo!.
  • Marie Summers from "The Night Watch" and "A Case to Answer" is played by Emma Chambers, who would later be best known for playing Alice Tinker in The Vicar of Dibley.
  • Paul Morgan from "Runaway" is played by James Fleet, who would later be best known for playing Hugo Horton in The Vicar of Dibley.
  • A manageress from "Friday... and Counting" is played by Julia Deakin, who would later be best known for playing May Skinner in Oh, Doctor Beeching! and Marsha Klein in Spaced.
  • Janet Simmons from "Runaround" is played by Linda Robson, who would later be best known for playing Tracey Stubbs in Birds of a Feather.
  • Maggie from "The Drugs Raid" and Mrs. West from "Dead Man's Boots" is played by Liz Smith, who would later be best known for playing Mrs. Cropley in The Vicar of Dibley and Nana in The Royle Family.
  • Polly Beecher from "The Mugging and the Gypsies" is played by Melanie Hill, who would later be best known for playing the second Aveline Boswell in Bread (1986).
  • A solicitor from "The Assassins" is played by Owen Brenman, who would later be best known for playing Nick Swainey in One Foot in the Grave.
  • The counsel for the defence from "More Haste" is played by Peter Birch, who would later be best known for playing Jack Hathaway in CASUAL+Y.
  • Mason from "User Friendly" is played by Robin Parkinson, who would later be best known for playing the third LeClerc in 'Allo 'Allo!.
  • Four guest roles from between 1990 and 1995 are played by Terry John, who would later be best known for playing Percy in Oh, Doctor Beeching!.
  • Four guest roles from between 1988 and 1993 are played by Trevor Peacock, who would later be best known for playing Jim Trott in The Vicar of Dibley.
  • Before his Breakout Role in Little Britain, David Walliams played an animal rights activist in a 2002 episode.
  • Aaron Taylor-Johnson appeared in a 2003 episode.
  • Freema Agyeman appeared in three episodes in 2004 and 2006.
  • Joel Fry appeared in five episodes between 2006 and 2009.
  • Jacob Anderson appeared in the 2007 episode "Code of Silence".
  • Finn Jones appeared in an episode in 2010.
• Seasonal Rot: The show's transition to Crime Time Soap 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 losing much of the hard edged realism of it's earlier years during this time, which was part of what made the show so acclaimed.
• Ships That Pass in the Night: Virtually every romantic storyline between any two of the police officers.
• Spiritual Successor: The series was very much a spiritual successor of The Sweeney (it shared production personnel with it in the early days). And of Z Cars and Dixon of Dock Green, to a lesser extent.

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