Excellent news roll on Feb

Yay! I'm so glad it will be coming back on!

I don't know whether to start video-recording the 1998 ones with the hope that they will carry on into the 2000 ones in a year's time or whatever. I can't really record both on my VHS so I'm torn between the two here.

Excellent news but rather bizarre programme scheduling by Drama

In what respect?

I wondered if they need a wider gap between the repeats on Watch and Drama now they are both showing the same season, and the month break will take it to 6 months instead of 5 (if my calculations are correct). There could be a repeat showing issue in the contract they have with whoever owns the residual rights to the programme. Just a guess.

I thought the gap was longer than that

Actually of course the pause on Drama will shorten the gap, not widen it - my brain must still have been befuddled when I last posted!

I'll have another go: Episode 1357 "Deep End" is where Drama started last year and reached episode 1485 "Beasts" on Tuesday. So that's 129 episodes roughly 6 months' worth @ 5 episodes per week.

When Watch starts with episode 1358 "The Party's Over" next Monday (they're omitting "Deep End" for some reason) the gap between the two channels will stand at 6 months as above, but the hiatus on Drama until 10th February will reduce this to 105 episodes, 21 weeks or roughly 5 months, again @ 5 per week.

Hope I've got it right this time!
Last edited by Ken Tun : 02-01-2014 at 13:03

your probably spot on

Drama have also commentated on there facebook page that its back on the Feb 10th

I'm really glad it will be back. Though I'm surprised that Watch are rewinding back to 1998. Surely going back to 2002 would make more sense, as the 1998 episodes have only been shown really recently and the gap will shorten even more with Drama taking a break from the repeats until February.

But hey-ho I'm not complaining, as long as I get my Bill fix on Drama as I don't get the Watch channel.

I don't see the point in both Drama and Watch showing The Bill, especially showing the same episodes just a few months apart, if both channels wanted to show The Bill then one channel should focus on pre 1998 and the other post 1998 and then Bill fans get the best of both worlds.

Personally I'm going to record the Watch ones and then delete each Drama episode from my records as and when the episode in question is shown - presuming the Watch version is better which I'm guessing generally it will be!

I watched Crime and Punishment today, and thought some of the lines in it were genius! From 'Octopi - and they don't have hands' to 'I've called Crimestoppers to say we're going to be delayed...stopping crime' to 'Me didn't hit him'.

Such a shame this period was to shortly after end.

Yay! Brilliant news

I watched 'Angel' today - it's one of my favourite ever episodes. I love the plot and I think Burnside and Stanton working together was genius. I loved their partnership on the case. Burnside had more of a traditional approach to the case, opposed to Stanton who had studied a course at Hendon and was more open minded about the motives of the perpetrator. That made for some good scenes between the pair as they tried to crack the case.

Did anyone watch the Watch episode today from 98? How did it compare to that shown on Drama if anyone watched them both?! I'm presuming the Watch ones will be better so in time will probably delete my drama recordings in preference for the Watch ones, unless Watch are missing things out too or censoring it! (One good thing about drama is they do at least leave some of the swearing in!)

Well Watch already censored by omitting the first episode of the season and starting at episode two, so that should alert you to what they are likely to get up to.

Though I think they mean Series 16 Ep 10 not Series 15 Ep 67 as they seem to think it is .

Next on February 10, 11am

The Bill

Series 15 | Episode 67

Trusting the Enemy




Maybe they didn't know when they showed the last one , it could be a lot of people have written in and they had a change of heart.

I had a reply from them which is a minor miracle in itself for UKTV these days


My email mentioned my disappointment in the removal of The Bill from Drama and replacing it with Lovejoy which has been shown to death and back, and then putting the series of The Bill we had just seen straight on Alibi ( the email mentions me being unhappy with repeats , I am not sure they really got what I was saying , I was just unhappy with The Bill issue between Drama and Alibi )

great news the Bill will be back. Gives me a chance to have a months break watching something else and be ready for the rest of the 2000/2001/2002 episodes (hopfully!)

I think they've shown Deep End before - wasn't it an extended episode? Maybe that was why they started with the 2nd episode?

I watched 'Scoop' today, with Conway undercover. This episode gets a 10/10 from me. Eva Pope played a good part as the journalist undercover. There were plenty of twists and turns throughout the episode. Overall, excellent.

My Freeview box didn't record the very last episode that Drama showed with Sam Harker. I'm going to go back to the beginning now and delete the episodes I didn't like so much from my box, and keep my favourite episodes. That will keep me busy until 10th February

That was a great episode. I struggled all through the episode trying to think where I'd seen Eva Pope. I finally sussed it was Waterloo Road!

Can anyone help? Will the Watch re-runs of 1998/99 be as edited as Drama? I really liked Carver's alcohol storyline but noticed major edits on Drama. As an example...The episode where the dodgy DI Facer tried to con Jim into a security job, the scene where Jim confronted him in the cells towards the end was completely edited out. All of Drama's episodes were running at 45 minutes with 3 ad breaks losing around 8 minutes of the original episode.

I watched 'Scoop' over the weekend, was a good episode, also had Callum from All Creatures Great and Small in it as the editor.

Also watched the one about the funeral (can't remember the name of it now), that Brownlow went to, Gary and his, 'were looking for a man with a storey head'

Also saw the one with Sam Harker, where he was undercover, another good episode that, im sure ive seen that other copper before as well, the one who told Sam to come up with something to prove himself to that Melling, think he was in charge of the op, can't think where though.

Saw elsewhere it suggested that the watch edits are exactly the same as drama - anyone able to confirm? One I watched didn't seem to have anything extra which was a bit of a shame as I was hoping Watch would show the proper versions as they generally have done! But maybe that was just that episode.

Am missing The Bill currently! It feels too recent to watch all the 1998 episodes again, especially if there's no extra stuff! I hope this doesn't split the ratings. I did watch Borderline from 1999 again today - great episode!

Watched Angel and I thought it was decent, but very dull in places. The story barely held my interest and I couldn't bring myself to watch In The Firing Line because the first 10-15 minutes were so slow and boring. So far, a pretty poor start to 2000. Doesn't help that both were CID-based episodes.

But I'm looking forward to the other episodes in my backlog.

Anybody see a fleeting appearance from Iain Fletcher (aka Rod Skase) on the Neil Morrisey episode of Piers Morgans Life Stories on ITV last week ? Seems they have done the stage show Oliver! together