If Drama don't show the first part of Week of nights then it's available on Youtube - I think it's a very good episode; Len Collin's a great writer. http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...week+of+nights

Surely they won't miss a whole episode, why not just edit the content if it's not suitable for daytime. No doubt it was originally shown before the watershed anyway?

yep they skipped part 1

Just caught it starting today, it came up week of nights part one.

Really on my EPG it came up as the story continues

Apologies, must have been the second, as just watched it on the youtube link above, and it was the start of the second part i caught, could have sworn it came up as part one though, still i'll find out when i get to it, as im a couple of weeks behind still.

Apologies that this is out of sync but years ago in series 6, I think , the uniform sergeant who was eventually sacked/resigned for drink driving stumbled across and arrested a sun hill child murderer , in somewhere like canley fields I'm sure . The bloke was fairly unpopular but ended up being the hero . The storyline had run throughout the whole series I think .

I appreciate it's probably a forlorn hope but does anyone know what episode the arrest was ?

Thanks

Pls ignore .

Sorted thanks

Did the story still kind of make sense even though they skipped Part 1? Can't wait for Des to arrive and to see his relationship with Reg again.

I watched Cruise Control earlier - a solid enough episode, a good storyline, I guessed who the attacker was but I thought the twist at the end was very well done and unexpected.

Many thanks to Readingfan for posting a link to Part 1.

Part 1 was Taviner's introductory episode and it was a shame this was missed out.

The only reason I can think of was a scene between Glimore and Taviner that included some homophobic diaglogue. But this came from Gilmore making a point to Taviner so I don't see why it would render and entire episode to be omitted. The scene could easily have been edited and would have no bearing on the storyline.
Alibi, at the time, obviously saw no reason not to screen this episode.
PC gone crazy?

Ray Lonnen who played Nick Klein's father has passed away

According to there facebook page somone emailed them and got this reply from them

Thank you for your email.

We are sorry to hear that you were unhappy with the scheduling of The Bill.

We schedule episodes in order, but sometimes an episode is judged to be unsuitable for pre-watershed transmission by our compliance checkers.

If we are showing the programme before the watershed, we may have to skip certain episodes, to prevent risking an Ofcom fine if viewers complain.

There may be an issue with showing certain episodes if they conflict with similar shows on other channels or if we are unable to obtain the rights to that episode. We are also sensitive to current affairs and an episode may be replaced at late notice due to the topics it covers.

Where possible we show all the episodes in the right order, except that some episodes may have to be missed out. Whilst we realise this can affect the flow of the story, we do our best to maintain running order.

We have to abide by the standards required by Ofcom and our responsibility as a broadcaster.

Kind regards

The UKTV Team

I can't see why they'd cut the whole episode just for that, if it was for that, as i watched an episode a couple of weeks back now, where Rolf Harris got a mention, so surely that episode should have been dropped as well.

Just watched parts 1 and 2 thanks to the YouTube link above.

Agree with earlier comments the only possible issue is the homophobic language, but that was incidental to the story so as said could have been easily cut out. They have cut chunks out of other episodes so could have done same here.

If that was all that stopped part 1 being shown at the regular time then surely it could have been shown in the late night repeat slot

A shame they skipped that episode, surely like has been said it could have been shown later or edited.

What's been everyone's favourite episode since the new CID arrived? I loved the On the Hook two parter, but my favourite is The Leopard two parter. Smithy is evolving into a great character and I love his scenes with Nick Klein - both actors gel well together and make a good partnership.

I also love the scenes with Chandler and Cryer in these episodes, and the antagonism between the two. And Cryer's methods becoming more out of sync with the rest of the team. I enjoy watching the faith and loyalty that Cryer has towards Smithy.

I've just got The Bill Volume 1 on DVD which feature the first 30 minute episodes from 1988 - can't wait to watch them for the first time. Maybe Drama will show some of the 30 minute episodes in the future.

I didn't know he'd died, sad news. I'd like repeats of The Sandbaggers and Harry's Game. I vaguely remember Harry's Game (I was about eight or nine at the time it was shown) but I've never seen The Sandbaggers. I've heard it's good though.

I see ITV Encore would rather repeat Crime Stories the shit that was filmed on the Sun Hill set rather than The Bill

It's because ITV don't own The Bill, they'd have to pay for the rerun rights to show it again on any of their channels, just like UKTV do.

I have such a big crush on Nick Klein what's the actor up to these days, I wonder.

Anyone else think the general standard of episodes has declined since the end of the Don Beech storyline. The CID that left as a result of that storyline (Kerry/Claire/John/Geoff/Don/Deakin and Brownlow) were such iconic characters in the shows history. Add to that Liz/Rod/Tom had all left in the previous 10 months things changed really quickly. The new CID characters are just horrible, I cannot warm to any of them, mainly because of the way they cosy up to Chandler and totally undermine Jack! I think the fact that only one of them (Debbie) lasts longer than 2 years is testament to the fact they really were a dissapointing bunch.

Personally I think the Long Shadows part 1&2 storyline was the best since the new CID because we saw Jack & Duncan redress the balance of power in CID a bit and although Jack didn't find the smoking gun against Chandler (yet!) he at least realised Jack was not somebody he could push around and expect nothing back! An honourable mention to the 3 part storyline that covered Dave Quinnan's breakdown however, and the long running Nick/Smith/Cryer story. It seems the uniformed characters were really holding the show together during this period.

Also does anyone share the same opinion as me that some of the standalone episodes around this time are a bit boring and one dimensional. It seems the writers put a lot of effort into the multi-parted storylines such as Long Shadows, The Leopard, Happy and Glorious, Gun Crazy, Britanniamania, Cass' 3 part story and Boyden's 3 part story but some of the standalone eps were not as good?

Considering we have to pay for it then they would get their money back

Regarding the CID changes, I agree - those characters were terrible and not surprising that most of them were axed in the 2002 clearout. The uniform cast was stronger in the post-Beech period, mostly due to the fact that they'd been there longer and were already well established.

Regarding the stories, whilst most of the standalone episodes were indeed dire, there were some standout ones, notably "Another Country". On the flip side, some of the multi-part stories were awful, for example the serial rapist storyline, even Liz Rawton couldn't save that mess. Though her scenes with Chandler were fun, she knew how to handle him lol!

Absolutely ! A massive downturn during this era compared to the previous period. Agree with so much of this, with so many episodes totally forgettable, which hold so little attention, just like so many of the new characters. Which is why it's hard to understand why there's often so much criticism for the Marquess era which followed, as it's way ahead of this dismal, if relatively short-lived era.