Just seen today's episode...first episode of 1999. Decent episode, the story was engaging enough, heavy CID focus. A bit dull to start with as always seems to be case with these CID episodes but got into the story nicely towards the end. Not a big fan of Holmes though, though always nice to see Deakin running things. 6.5/10.

I like both Holmes and Deakin (whose appearances I felt started to wane in 99) and thought this a reasonably good episode with some interesting twists in who was responsible. I wouldn't say it was one of the best episodes of 99 though given the quality often on show. 6.5/10

Deakin wasn't seen as much in 1999 because the actor, Shaun Scott, at the time, had throat cancer. He recovered, but the character came back looking significantly frailer and looking 10 years older.

Didnt know that, I gotta say i am loving this thread, great to hear people's opinions of the earlier episodes and a great place for any Bill related trivia or news.

Great point Dazza! Brilliant to see the old episodes back on TV and great how it has got people talking! How would people here like to see these reruns shifted to Alibi or Watch so that we can watch them on the HD version and not have the blocky pictures??. I know they aren't filmed in HD but the upscale would be a vast improvement on the picture quality seen on Drama

It was these episodes from 1998+ that originally turned me into a hardcore fan of the show, prior to that I just dipped in and out over the years. A really strong period of the show, until "All Fall Down", at least. Probably my 2nd favourite era, after 1988-1990.

Don't think I could stand watching these repeats though, too much stuff cut out. Even UK Gold/Watch were never this bad! In any case it doesn't matter, as I've bought them all on DVD and will eventually get around to re-watching them all again (currently on 1994, so will take a while lol).

I'm way behind on my recordings, but I have it all on series link so the episodes are stacking up nicely each day.

I watched 'Too Many Cooks' this evening, which focused on Monroe investigating. I thought this was a good episode, a strong story with a neat twist at the end (though I did guess the dad was more involved than he was letting on!)

7/10.

I'm loving this thread too.

I couldn't remember todays episode from the original run and it was good to keep you guessing who had the money. Very small cast in todays episode and noticed Polly wasn't credited despite having more lines than Reg abeit on the radio.

I always watched The Bill in the 90s, when it used to be three times weekly and then loved it at the beginning when they moved to the 1 hour episodes, i did find myself dropping out of it for a while, it may have been around the time after Don Beech left and then got back into it again just before they blew up the station (for the first time). I actually quite enjoyed the soapy era...Gina Gold was fantastic, making Luke Aston gay was a clever move and I ABSOLUTELY LOVED CATHY BRADFORD! or Madford as Gina called her

Totally agree about the soapy era! I actually found the bill unmissable between 2002-2006! So many amazing story lines crammed in... Madford, poor Kerry's endless list of disasters that she seemed to stumble through each week! Both sun hill fires, the sun hill serial killer and sun hill sniper! All the stuff with Sam, abi and Peter Baxter! Andrea Dunbar as the rogue reporter and her affair with Neil! The two live episodes and who could forget Gabriel/David Kent... Absolutely priceless

While the soapy era saw The Bill lose quite a lot of its soul as it became just another soap, it was very watchable and at times quite addictive. While some of the plots were incredibly implausible, they just kept you hooked. Like, as the poster above noted, the Sam/Abi/the profiler story, Gabriel Kent, Cathy Bradford, the Sun Hill serial killer, Chandler's fall from grace, the Sun Hill explosions (both of them), all just kept you gripped. But I can't really class the soapy era as proper Bill.

The proper Bill ended when Don Beech left with the rest of CID. Best eras for me - 1988-1993, dipped a bit when Burnside left but the show returned to form in 1995. 1995-1997 was solid, early 1998 was rubbish as they were burning off the last of the half-hour episodes though there were some solid efforts like "Villain" when Boyden talked with an old man in custody for the whole episode, "Square Peg Round Hole" when Boulton was stabbed with a needle, and "A Rainy Night in Sun Hill" with the conflict with Santini and Hollis. Then the hour-long episodes from late 1998-2000 were mostly excellent.

I loved "Villain" and "Square Peg Round Hole". Maybe Drama will show some half hour episodes in the future?

Im way behind everyone, just watched When The Fat Lady Sings, was a good one, loved it when Dave went round to see that woman to find out if she knew who the Opera singer was, and he says 'shes well proportioned', the woman goes 'is she fat', so dave says, 'yeah alright, shes fat'

Then at the end when they nabbed him, she was resting her head on his shoulder, and he goes'it ain't over till the', has a quick glance at her and then says, 'its over'

Im sure that was Charlotte from Bergerac, the office woman, shes been in quite a few things.

The problem with a show becoming sensationalistic, as The Bill became in 2002, is that it becomes a game of 'can you top this'. The writers try to one up themselves: explosion, crazed cop, serial killer, another crazed cop, another explosion, another serial killer... Eventually you are struck between trying to keep it up - which is difficult unless the genre is pure fantasy - or try to come back down to earth.

You can just about get away with it with soap operas, as the fanbase is always there. But The Bill was grounded in reality for nearly 20 years. When it became OTT it probably gradually turned away long time viewers; when it tried to return to an earlier style it was perhaps too boring for newer viewers who were attracted to non-stop chaos. Then ITV moved its timeslot and lost another million viewers

Less is more unless you commit to a swift implausible premise. Or are something like Doctor Who. The Bill could have had Cathy Bradford in 2003, then an explosion in 2006, then a serial killer in 2009, then PC Kent in 2012. That three year pace before the next ratings attraction includes still highly unlikely stories, but not too unbelievable it allows for plot holes and soapy writing. It also needed to curtail cops being killed to just the explosion.

Good episode yesterday. Enjoyed the illegal gambling story even if it was a bit convoluted at times. Nice to see a cameo from Omid Djallili. And good to see the conflict with CID and Drugs Squad seems to be an ongoing theme in big investigations. 7/10.

Just to add to the discussion regarding the soap era. Personally for me, I find 2003-2004 to be the absolute worst period in the show's history. Stupid plots, unblievable characters and as others have stated, it had no soul.

Really enjoying the current run. Long Term Investment, Chasing Shadows and Monday's episode Walking On Water are three of my favourites. I even love the mobile phones they use and the cars that CID drive! Sad I know! Daly and Beech at loggerheads is great in the next ep.

The move to an hour long serial seemed to have an effect on the quality of the CID centred episodes. I always felt like they worked better in the old half hour format but sometimes seemed padded out in the longer format. It's probably because there were fewer characters involved in the stories than when the episodes featured uniform.

Some viewing figures for The Bill from the time these episodes were broadcast

Too Many Cooks (Tuesday December 1, 1998) 9.22m
Team Play (Friday December 4, 1998) 11.15m
Heat And Light (08/12/98) 8.17m
Ticking Clocks (10/12/98) 9.56m
Strange Bedfellows (11/12/98) 10.55m
Live And Ticking (15/12/98) 9.13m
All the Lonely People (17/12/98) 9.68m
The Personal Touch (18/12/98) 11.24m
Time Gentlemen Please (21/12/98) 7.33m
Puzzled (22/12/98) 8.73m
Christmas Star (24/12/98) 7.70m
S.A.D. (31/12/98) 8.70m

Long Term Investment (07/01/99) 11.25m
Chasing Shadows (14/01/99) 9.78m
Follow Through (21/01/99) 10.32
Walking On Water (26/01/99) 8.78m
The Wrong Horse (28/01/99) 9.63m

Viewing figures from July 1998 onwards can be found at http://www.barb.co.uk/viewing/weekly-top-30?

How many episodes do Drama have of this era? All the big Bill actors are in the series now.

Nobody knows but I think we'll find out when Watch shows the last ever episode of The Bill and we will then see if they start to show it again from about 2002. If that is the case it makes sense for Drama to show old episodes up to that point.

I'm not sure whereabouts in the series Watch are up to as I don't watch it on that channel - my interest in The Bill started to wane after All Fall Down and within a few months I'd all but stopped watching it.

I wish Drama could show the series from the start in 1984 but it's years since UK Gold went back as far as 1993 (they used to go back to the first episode after Viv Martella's death) but in around 2003 or so UK Gold were showing episodes from about 18 months to 2 years previous and then went back to 1998. UK Gold used to have a teletext service back then and on the TV Letters page someone asked Gold if they could not have gone back to 1993 and Gold responded that the older episodes weren't attracting enough viewers. Though by then UK Gold itself was suffering from falling ratings across most programmes as the channel was more or less a channel of long advert breaks.

I'd also like to see Drama show the old Doctor Who's from the 70s and 80s but again the old series which was shown on UK Gold on Saturday and Sunday mornings (and in the 90s weekday evenings too) wasn't attracting many viewers either so the reruns were eventually dropped.

Ah Viv was one of my favs, I remember being totally gobsmacked when they killed her off. Would love to see her era again. I stopped watching after All Fall Down, it became a bit soapy for me, and I only dipped in and out. The whole marriage of June to Jim was just laughable, they work together for 20 odd years then get married.

Was always a huge fan of Quinnan and had a bit of a crush on Deakin, which I must say has kind of reappeared watching the reruns Not seen Shaun Scott in anything since The Bill. Agree he looked a different man after he came back after his throat cancer op.

The Bill at its peak was unmissable and I'm really enjoying watching them again (and this thread). Next week sees Holmes undercover in the prison, which raised a few eyebrows if I remember correctly the first time round, but am sure is tame by todays standards now.

I believe they will have up too May 2004 as thats were Watch started from in January 2012.

I too was shocked when Viv was killed off. I remember it seemingly coming out of the blue, I certainly didn't read about her leaving the series in advance in the press so it was a shock. Same when Cathy Marshall was killed off in 1996 when she was pursuing a suspect, fell in the Thames and drowned

http://thebill.wikia.com/wiki/Cathy_Marshall

Again I hadn't heard in advance that the character was going to be written out so her death was a shock.

My favourite yummy character from The Bill was Norika Datta

http://thebill.wikia.com/wiki/Norika_Datta

Unfortunately she had left the Bill a few months before the re-runs that Drama are showing, leaving in July 1998.My next favourite was Debbie Keane. she too left earlier in1998.

http://thebill.wikia.com/wiki/Debbie_Keane

Thanks. What year are Watch up to now with their repeats?