He resigned following a case he mishandled in which a child died.

Really liked today's episode. Nice mix of CID and uniform, quirkiness and crime. I especially liked the arc of the quiz what with Barton Street's attempts at cheating and Reg's attempts to organise it all - the best line was 'I tried to ring you sarge'! Sun Hill should have won though!!

9/10

I enjoyed that one too, and I spent the last 15 minutes thinking where I had seen the barmaid, looking at the credit I soon remembered where I had seen her before.

Are they going to be going right up to the end with this, or will it be in a cycle of a few years at a time?

I guess it depends how many episodes they purchased or how good the ratings are.

I want The Bill back after watching this on Drama! Ideally, Five for instance could revive it, in it's style prior to its 2000's tinkering. An 8pm timeslot on a Tuesday and Wednesday.

Officers returning could include Callum Stone, Mickey Webb, Jo Masters, Terry Perkins etc. As well as bringing back faces from the past (even if retired from the force) such as Tony Stamp, Dave Quinnan, Jim Carver, Duncan Lennox and even Burnside etc.

Nice thought, but it's not going to happen.

I think the only possibility is if ITV ever do a spin off (like Burnside). You could have Burnside running his own agency and employing some of his old chums. Like a New Tricks for ITV

Thoroughly enjoyed Friday's episode. Had an excellent mix of CID and Uniform. The pub quiz provided a nice antidote to the heavy dog/drugs drama. Reg was on form in this episode, and Proctor, as usual, almost cocking things up. 9.5/10.

Only just caught up with this tread. LOVING The Bill repeats from 1998, for me it was classic TB ear. So many brilliant characters that I'd forgotten about like Deakin and Rawton. Fantastic stuff (even with the cuts).

Its quite funny because I always liked TB, watched it from start to end, but the daughter (16yo)never liked it and used to moan whenever it was on. But about 2 years ago she got into it after watching the mid-00's repeats on Watch so now she records (and watches) those episodes every day and I record the ones on Drama so the poor old wife cant get away from it

UKTV own rights to when it ended as they have shown to the end on Watch. I guess it depends what they are happy to put on free rather than pay TV, especially with then concurrently showing on both channels but with Watch a few years ahead.

Not wanting to spoil anything but it will be Christmas time in Sun Hill next week on Drama! (And ironically Watch - they're just in the middle of seasonal episodes from 2008!) Looking forward to Monday's and Tuesday's. Very nice quirky episodes - if you've not seen them before I'd say Tuesday's in particular is a corker!

I haven't seen any Bill episodes since the original run so can't even remember what the 1998 Xmas storyline was lol. Although I suspect once I start the episode it will come back to me.

I came across part of an episode of the Bill on an old VHS tape that I junked recently. The episode had CID try and get some kids who are targeting vulnerable people from being mugged. They use Polly and pretend shes pregnant so the muggers target her by painting an x on her back. There was some humerous dialogue "you don't seem the type to get up the duff in the back of a van".

I only saw about 15 minutes and I was wondering if this episode is due to be shown on Drama anytime soon so I can watch the whole episode? Deakin, Scase and Proctor were all in it so it must be from this era currently being shown.

I vividly remember two christmas time episodes, but I think they were later than 1998.

One featured Brian Murphy (George of George & Mildred fame) playing a pensioner dressed as an elf or santa on christmas ever. Very lighthearted episode.

The other involved Duncan and two other CID on a stakeout in an abandoned warehouse or something, telling each other spooky occurances from their time on the force. Maybe a boring episode to some, but I enjoyed it.

A brilliantly funny episode, later on than this, involved Brownlow, Monroe and Conway on one of those weekend team building things. Against Barton Street I think. LOL all the way on that one.

They're all in 1999 Never can quite get into Haunted (the second one) but the first and third are classics. Also loved CID going into uniform to help with the last night of the millenium!

I watched the Fat Lady Sings today - a thoroughly enjoyable episode, even if nothing action packed particularly happened.

I liked Lennox's introduction, and the focus on Quinnan helping out CID and Polly and Tony thinking Dave and Kerry were going at it

What's been everyone's favourite episodes so far?

I've loved the Santini/Rosie Fox episodes, "All For One" which also focused on Santini and the episode where Skase is moonlighting.

Top 5 (in order with 1 being best):

1. Section F
2. Live & Ticking
3. Puzzled
4. All for one
5. Bang Bang You're Dead

The Fat Lady Sings, Making Up & Ticking Clocks also very good

Today's episode is on YouTube in full if anyone wants to see that. There were certainly a few scenes cut early on - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiTb6AfLfuU

Incidentally Twanky (the 1997 Christmas episode which features a pantomine) is also on Youtube and is one of my favourites ever if you haven't seen it before - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaZmfHUrEis

I thought today's wa good and liked the Petit and Stamp subplot but thought it was quite heavily Page and Santini dominated and not quite as good as other Christmas specials. 7/10

1997 xmas was a classic one!.

As soon as saw the Petit pictures at the house the episode came flooding back to me. Wasn't the best Xmas episode but was a decent episode.

Catching up with these at the moment, the one that was on about the prossie (17 yr old) that got her face slashed of that Morton guy, was that dentist Michael from EE ?

My Top 5 in order would be:
[LIST=1][*]Team Spirit[*]Section F[*]Ticking Clocks[*]Puzzled[*]All for One[/LIST]
1998, post-revamp, was a fantastic year for The Bill, and got the balance just right with crime stories and lighthearted stuff. Vintage stuff.

Today's episode was enjoyable but not the best Xmas episode so 7/10. I suppose the episode showed that while Eddie is very very flawed, as we've seen, he does have a caring side.

There are two festive episodes that stick out to mind as being top-notch...the 1997 Xmas one with the Aladdin pantomime which was one of my all-time favourite episodes, and the 1999 Millennium one where CID join Uniform on New Years' Eve - that was really memorable.

Looking forward to tomorrow's episode - looks fantastic by the looks of things.

But honestly, this was a great period for The Bill and so little to choose in terms of quality. Most of the episodes were very consistent between 6 and 9/10 but rarely did you get a proper stinker of an episode, and it is this consistency that was lacking in later episode, which seemed to vary wildly in quality. Looks like we'll be starting 1999 episodes on Wednesday. I didn't think of 1999 as a massively vintage year compared to the later parts of 1998 - there seemed to be a bit of a drop in quality but I'll need to see the first few eps to see.

Just seen today's episode, S.A.D. What a corker of an episode. This is on par with Section F and Team Spirit, if not better, as one of my favourite episodes. Had comedy with Brownlow and Ackland chipping in for the birth, Boyden put in some killer lines today and his face when he discovered what was in the mince pies was a picture, Ashton and the tramp, Monroe/Conway at the Xmas lunch. Had so much packed in and everything was so delicately written. Top notch. I will definitely be keeping this episode in my planner to watch again. 10/10.

It says a lot that most of the really strong episodes so far have focused pretty much on Uniform, rather than CID.

Loving the re-runs on Drama. This is my favourite era of The Bill, 1998-2000, with the best uniform and best CID characters for me.

Today's episode is in full here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67JbwTYEs4w Particularly like the missing part at the start of part 4 with June and Boyden not knowing what to do, and there's also a bit more to the pregnant woman being brought into custody and Boyden with Garfield in reception.

Anyway a very good episode - lots of nice 1 liners, a lovely amount of quirky storylines and pretty much every uniform character used. Definitely one of the strongest episodes of 1998 and a very good Christmas special - 9.5/10

First episode of 99 tomorrow then. From what I've seen of 1999 I still think that was a vintage year for The Bill. I know they had a few longer running serial storylines but I think the format meant even things like Dave and Polly was watchable at this point and Jim's alcoholism. And I think they improved the CID episodes too - there were quite a few CID eps since the start of these that I've not especially enjoyed but I thought there was lots of good stuff in 99. It still really annoys me how drama cut it though!

So thy didn't cut out any of the Mrs Bourne plot? I expected some joke at Boyden's expense later at the nick. I had a feeling those mince pies were dodgy!

It was a good episode with plenty of storylines. That woman at the community centre was a right bitch. I hope shes in another episode and gets her comeuppance.