Why is the Bill shite now?

[Stripeyjoe]

Do you remember when the Bill was good? It's the slags off the Cockcroft, put that dahn you pratt, Hapless Reg etc etc
Where did it all go wrong, I'm watching it now and I think I'd be better off eating my own vomit.

[Des Nilsen]

Agreed, but notice that they've slyly put the theme tune back into 7/8 time. Which is nice.

It's still bollocks though.

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[Doctor Stamen]

They need to bring back Burnside and move it to 11pm so they can add some decent expletives to make it more realistic.  As if they'd ever arrest some little cockney urchin without him shouting "getcher 'ands off me, yer fahckin cahnt!"

[Goldentony]

its shite since that guy shaved his afro off

[Frinky]

It's still bollocks though.

Isn't it just though?

A Nolan sister, an Eastenders cast off and an ex Home and Away actor? No, they can fuck off.

I don't like the new direction - focusing mainly on the guys on the top, corrupt coppers and the like - plus all the CID in thier flashy leather trenchcoats - I want it back on the streets. Fuckers.

[Des Nilsen]

Agreed, but notice that they've slyly put the theme tune back into 7/8 time. Which is nice.

I've just watched the closing titles and I was wrong - it's in 4/4. Bloody stinking arses.

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[Stripeyjoe]

Beech is back...
I just looked up and saw Beech was back, as an informant (dancheew foget I woz a coppa too, I knah ve score)
Could be going back up again, especially if they get rid of that pointy face bint (girlfriends words, not mine!!) who shagged the mad Guv bloke last year...

[Rubbish Monkey]

I thought it went shite ever since they changed it from a hour to half an hour per episode......which was gaes ago and that makes me considerbly cooler than yaw.


how long are they now?

[fanny splendid]

When did it have hour long episodes, I don't remember that?

It was always a bit rubbish, though.

[Pinball]

Didn't it go ridiculously PC about 2 years ago and predictably lost its edge and went shit?

[Marcus Or Relius]

Didn't it used to be half-an-hour? I used to watch it in my yoof and it was on twice a week, 30-minutes each episode. It was good then, no extended plots, 'to be continued...' nonsense, just little self-contained half-hour episodes. Then it went all hour-ish on our asses and was on about ten times a week.

I actually watched it for the first time in ages last week, it was actually pretty good, but I can rarely be arsed these days.

Didn't they have a supposedly major storyline a few years ago when about six coppers were killed or something? Then there was a big fuss about some gay kiss or other.

I have difficulty telling it apart from East Enders these days, just a bunch of cockney 'ard men going around being nasty to each other.

[Rubbish Monkey]

back in the day when shorts were long and little boys played with action men and not getting each other pregnant....and when it first started. (thats when it was on for an hour unless i dreamt it......which would make a very boring dream indeed 8 - 9pm if memory serves me right btw)

[Alberon]

The problem wasn't with whether it was a half-hour show or an hour show or whatever.

Back when it started there was a concious decision to make it a drama show. You almost never saw these cops homes or homelife. The only personal issues you saw was in relation to their work. And it was kept reasonably sensible. You didn't have one of the policemen murdered every other week or the superintendant going loopy.

Then in the name of ratings they deliberatly turned it from a drama into a soap and that when I lost interest. I think it was when Beech killed another cop and went on the run. I've heard some talk of it being taken back closer to what it was and I hope it does, but at the moment The Bill is a parody of itself.

As to lengths, the show started as a normal series of one-hour dramas (after a one hour pilot about PC Carver's first day on the beat), then, after a couple of series of that, when it started being run continuously it went to half hour shows. I think when it started there were two half-hour shows a week. Then it went to three (IIRC) and then went to two hour long shows a week.

[wheatgod]

rod "hot rod" skase - brilliant character, what happened to him?? he's certainly overdue for a comeback, if he hasnt died of heroine

jim carver's alcoholism storyline was talked about for many hours on the school playground

one snippet of this storyline's greatness:
"party time jimmy, santa's here" (trampish man enters with bottles of wine)
jim gets drunk with man and wife
jim sleeps with/on wife, wakes up to find her dead body
throws it down the laundry chute

it doesnt come any better, does it? this storyline lasted months, from what i can tell now its all shallow rubbishness, and the best people have left
tony stamp still on the beat?
the ginger CID fella, he was class ("I GET RESULTS")

oh, im rambling

[Pinball]

rod "hot rod" skase - brilliant character, what happened to him?? he's certainly overdue for a comeback, if he hasnt died of heroine

jim carver's alcoholism storyline was talked about for many hours on the school playground

one snippet of this storyline's greatness:
"party time jimmy, santa's here" (trampish man enters with bottles of wine)
jim gets drunk with man and wife
jim sleeps with/on wife, wakes up to find her dead body
throws it down the laundry chute

it doesnt come any better, does it? this storyline lasted months, from what i can tell now its all shallow rubbishness, and the best people have left
tony stamp still on the beat?
the ginger CID fella, he was class ("I GET RESULTS")

oh, im rambling

A superb ramble if I may say so ;-)

[Mister Six]

I dunno, I turned it on the other week and some bank manager had been blown up by a lunatic bomber because the cop who was supposed to talk him down was distracted by her boyfriend who was telling her to get help because she'd been raped by another copper and the bloke off Eastenders was taping everything and spreading rumours and god it was all really nasty (breathe).

What happened to domestics, drug smugglers and comedy Reg Hollis plots? These days it's like NYPD Blue without Sipcowitz (and therefore shit).

[Morrisfan82]

Didn't it go ridiculously PC about 2 years ago ... ?

Unintentional Joke of the Week.

[Partridge's Love Child]

I've not watched it in ages, but I used to love how they'd arrest some young punter for, say, spray painting a wall on one side of the city, and some middle-class nurk in a suit for going through a red light.  By some staggering coincedence they'd turn out to be dastardly business partners involved in a plot to murder a local nanny.  Every.  Single.  Episode.

I refuse to watch it again until they bring back the feet at the end.  That used to be the best wank of the week.

[mrpants]

Agreed, but notice that they've slyly put the theme tune back into 7/8 time. Which is nice.

I've just watched the closing titles and I was wrong - it's in 4/4. Bloody stinking arses.

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I have to agree with Des here and say that I much preffered the 7/8 version.  Possibly the only theme tune that is not in the standard 4/4 that I can think of.

Except wasn't Mission Impossible in 5/4?

[Morrisfan82]

I may be wrong here, but didn't Bill Bailey point out on R101 that The Bill is in 7/4?

7/8 is like 1 2 3 4 1 2 3

Whereas The Bill is more like 1 2 3 1 2 3 4

I confess I don't totally know how to work the weirder time sigs out. Anyone?

MI was in 5/4 though, yes.

[bresker]

It changed from a police show into another bloody soap opera. Complete with soap stars. Ratings sellout!

[Des Nilsen]

I may be wrong here, but didn't Bill Bailey point out on R101 that The Bill is in 7/4?

7/8 is like 1 2 3 4 1 2 3

Whereas The Bill is more like 1 2 3 1 2 3 4

I confess I don't totally know how to work the weirder time sigs out. Anyone?

MI was in 5/4 though, yes.

You're no doubt right Muteki, I still don't really know the difference between 7/8 and 7/4. I'd bet Gazeuse could help us out on that one.

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[Rubbish Monkey]

what the fuck you lot on about?

[GoochDogHigh5s]

They need to bring back Burnside and move it to 11pm so they can add some decent expletives to make it more realistic.  As if they'd ever arrest some little cockney urchin without him shouting "getcher 'ands off me, yer fahckin cahnt!"

I agree.
The same should be done with Grange Hill.
"Blooming Eck Tucker " don't cut it for me.