Binoy Kampmark: Last Rites for The Bill

Followers will be aghast at the latest news about The Bill, which grew out of the drama Woodenstop, an ITV production begun in 1983. After 27 years, the British drama set around the fictional Sun Hill police station in London has been read its last rites. The police drama always had a suitably gloomy, overcast air to it, with plodders and stumbling officers, and the reassuring presence of policemen and women working their way through crumbling housing estates. The actors had a distinctly unpolished manner about them, which was very much in its favour. The show proved an incubator for British acting and scriptwriting, sharpening such talents as Keira Knightley.

Such programs become institutions, and institutions do tend to disappear. This is hard for those who have been in it for so long. Take Mark Wingett (PC Jim Carver), who simply told the BBC (Mar 26) how ‘dreadful’ the whole business was. Wingett had been a presence on the show for 21 years. He also found the decision to move the show to another slot ‘unwise’, regretted the changing demographic of the audience viewing the show, and the absence of promotion. Peter Fincham at ITV’s director of television similarly cited the argument that, ‘Times change, and so do the tastes of our audience’ (BBC, Mar 26). Evidently, The Bill was not epic theatre, let alone epic drama.

Last year, the series received a considerable reworking. From being aired twice a week at 8pm on ITV1, it was dropped into a Thursday slot at 9pm. From an audience of 7 million in 2002, numbers fell to half that this year. Let’s not forget what Fincham said then, in hyperbolic tones. ‘It’s a fantastic opportunity to take the series to another level, marking a new era for one of the most established brands on British television.’ In truth, he was setting the series for a freefall.

Trudie Goodwin, who played the enduring figure of WPC June Ackland, saw the demise in economic terms as well. ‘I just hope they do replace it with more drama because this is bad news for hundreds of actors and technicians who worked on the show. It was a great employer’. True. Now, what of the freed up script writers and actors? Fincham insists that the pool will be re-used. ‘Whilst The Bill will come to an end in 2010, we will continue to invest more in drama programming than any other commercial broadcaster in the UK.’

The show will also be missed in other countries, notably those with a fondness for British drama. Australian followers will be particularly distraught. The national carrier, ABC-TV, would pull in numbers approaching a million throughout the 1990s. Despite a dip in numbers, the drama retained its passionate Anglophiles and followers. They, it is fair to say, never changed.

Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com

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