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"The Anniversary, Part Two" is an episode of the long-running ITV police-procedural drama series The Bill . The episode is significant in the show's history as it is the second of two episodes broadcast live. The Anniversary, Part 2 was broadcast live on 22 September 2005 at 8:00pm, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of ITV1. The episode was written by Graham Mitchell, directed and co-produced by Sylvie Boden, and produced by Donna Wiffen.[ citation needed ]
The episode begins with Superintendent Prosser struggling to negotiate with Jeff Clarke at gunpoint, while PC Gabriel Kent tries to help her talk Clarke down. As DCs Jo Masters, Terry Perkins and Zain Nadir give station tours, Kent spots them and tells them to stay where they are. As DCI Jack Meadows prepares to open the 50th anniversary proceedings, he sends PC Dan Casper to find Superintendent Prosser. As he enters CID, he is taken hostage by Clarke along with the rest of the group, however in the confusion Prosser grabs a radio and alerts CAD to the situation. Clarke fires a shot at Prosser and misses, but the gunshot is heard by the partygoers and glass from a CID window almost hits PC Roger Valentine out front. DCI Meadows takes DSs Phil Hunter and Samantha Nixon to the reception, and Sergeant Dale Smith goes to the door to be briefed. As Meadows coordinates a raid, Superintendent Adam Okaro forgets his leave and joins him to spearhead the operation. In CID, Clarke receives a call from Meadows, and Prosser foolishly persuades Dan to tackle Clarke. Despite protests from DCs Masters and Nadir, Dan lunges for Clarke along with Terry. In the struggle, the guests and other officers flee CID, but Clarke's gun goes off and shoots the real Gabriel Kent, sending him over the CID balcony. Clarke refuses to relinquish his weapon and it goes off again, hitting Dan in the arm, allowing Clarke to throw off Terry and take control of the situation once more. After initially refusing to let PC Kent get to his alter ego, he laments and lets him get down to him. Gabriel proceeds to take his brother's wallet and phone, then lets DSs Hunter and Nixon join him to get him aid. Meadows negotiates safe passage for paramedics with Clarke, who demands the ambulance not be let in to prevent SO19 being snuck in with it. Terry makes Dan comfortable and begins his own negotiation, and manages to find a mic and earpiece when Clarke throws all the phones out the window. Despite protests from Prosser, suspended Inspector Gina Gold takes over the negotiation and keeps in touch with Terry. As Supt. Okaro suggests checking the boy who killed Clarke's son, Ashley Morgan, PC Valentine discovers that he has gone missing. As Gina talks to Terry, he realises Clarke has abducted him, but they are unable to determine where he is holding him. As SO19 arrive, Sergeant Marc Rollins tells Prosser he has a clear shot on Clarke, but the fear of Morgan not being found leads her to opt against taking Clarke out. As the stress gets to her, Prosser takes Okaro aside for a chat, telling him it is clear where loyalties lie; "This your station, you're the one who should be running it." Prosser proceeds to her office to pack up her belongings, and Adam takes sole control of the negotiation.
At the hospital, Gabriel watches on as his brother is attended to, and sneaks in when the room is empty to wake him and threaten him not to say anything about David's theft of his identity. Back at Sun Hill, Terry manages to get Dan released so he can have his gunshot wound treated. After psycho-analysing one another, Clarke realises that Terry is wired and removes his earpiece before smashing the recorder. Explaining that he has abducted Ashley Morgan and was planning on blowing himself, Morgan and Prosser up, he begins his final act. When DC Suzie Sim finds Clarke's car, DS Phil Hunter and DC Zain Nadir steal a car parked out the front and drive after it, Clarke shooting at them as they escape before Zain loses control and hits construction. Thinking they are out of the way, Clarke begins to escape CID holding Terry hostage as Phil and Zain try to free Ashley from the boot of the car. Terry screams at his colleagues that the car is wired, and radio transmissions warn Phil and Zain. As they rescue Ashley, they race away from the car before it explodes. As word reaches Clarke, he drags Terry outside and tells him he would not hurt him. With the final words "Go and see your kids, Terry" (from whom he was estranged), Clarke pushes Terry away and holds his gun at him before being shot dead by SO19.
While the siege is referenced in the episodes that follow, the major plot that follows the events are the Sun Hill team's attempts to identify the shooting victim in hospital, with PC Gabriel Kent fretting that his identity may be rumbled, and he makes plans to elope with his fiancé, PC Sheelagh Murphy. When Sergeant June Ackland asks PC Laura Bryant to review CCTV for a press release, she admitted to Sergeant Dale Smith that she was working the front desk at the time and the man identified himself as Gabriel Kent, and that he wanted to see June. Knowing that June had a son who was adopted as Gabriel Kent, who Smithy had assumed was PC Kent, the pair took their findings to June. Accompanying her to hospital, June was devastated as she identified him as her son. Admitting she had kept PC Kent's identity a secret, she revealed he was actually David Kent, Gabriel's adoptive brother. Smithy put the info aside for the time being, telling June he always suspected Gabriel raped deceased lover Kerry, and shared with her Andrea's suspicions of Gabriel's involvement with the serial sniper. As Gabriel became more concerned, he went to the hospital and set off a fire alarm to get access to his brother's room, smothering him with a pillow. Smithy arranged for PC Steve Hunter to check out the hospital and found the real Gabriel unconscious and unresponsive. The crash team revived him, and back at Sun Hill DS Samantha Nixon found out that the shooting victim's clothes were US-made, and after contacting Interpol and the FBI, discovered the fingerprint on file was registered to the real Gabriel Kent. Liaising with Smithy, he arranged an arrest team as Sam prepared her facts to take them to Superintendent Okaro. Attending a call about burning clothes being thrown from a block of flats, Gabriel noticed an arrest team down below and dragged June up to the roof as a hostage. Admitting he had "killed" her son, colluded with sniper then killed him and left PC Andrea Dunbar to die in the station fire, it was the revelation that he had raped PC Kerry Young that led to Sergeant Dale Smith, who was observing the events, coming out of cover to attack Gabriel. As he put him on the floor and went to rescue June, who was handcuffed to a railing, Gabriel returned to his feet and attacked Smithy again. Overpowering him, Gabriel realised he had nowhere left to run and climbed onto a scaffolding pole before jumping off the rooftop to his death. His death was deemed suicide at an inquest, and June used it as an opportunity to reunite with her son. PC Sheelagh Murphy, engaged to Gabriel at the time of his death, left Sun Hill after his inquest to join the Child Protection Team, having initially planned a resignation in the wake of his suicide.
"Woodentop" is an episode of the Thames Television series Storyboard, which comprises a series of one-off plays on different themes. The episode was originally broadcast on 16 August 1983. Woodentop became the first episode in the long-running British police television series The Bill. The name woodentop is a colloquialism for beat policemen who traditionally wear helmets; the nickname is itself an allusion to the Children's TV series The Woodentops.
The Don Beech Scandal was a storyline in the long-running police procedural British television series The Bill. ITV announced the storyline in 2000; a spokeswoman for The Bill was quoted as saying: "The character of DS Beech has had a huge storyline running over a very long time where he is a corrupt copper. When we first discussed this with Billy we made it clear that one day his character would get his comeuppance, and he agreed to that."
"Golden Opportunity" is an episode of the long-running police procedural television series, The Bill, broadcast on 16 April 2002. The episode is significant in the show's history, as it features the events of the first Sun Hill Fire, which resulted in the death of six officers. The episode attracted 8.6 million viewers, and was the first of the few times computer generated imagery had been used on the show. With new producer Paul Marquess wanting to change the cast significantly and the station set due to be redeveloped, the decision was made to stage a dramatic explosion and fire on the set, a storyline that led to the axing of eight characters in total during the events of the storyline.
"Confessions of a Killer (288)" is an episode of the long-running police procedural television series, The Bill, broadcast in 2005. The episode is significant in the show's history, as it features the events of the second "Sun Hill Fire", which resulted in the death of three officers. The episode attracted over nine million viewers, and was only the second time computer generated imagery had been used on the show. The imagery was used because producing a real explosion and fireball ripping through the station corridors was not possible.
Dalziel and Pascoe is a British television crime drama based on the mystery novels of the same name, written by Reginald Hill. The series was first broadcast on 16 March 1996, with Warren Clarke being cast as Dalziel and Colin Buchanan being cast as Pascoe. The series is primarily set in the fictional town of Wetherton in Yorkshire, and "follows the work of two detectives who are thrown together as partners. Complete opposites. Different backgrounds, different beliefs, different styles. They get on each other's nerves. They are continually embarrassed by each other. But their differences make them a stunningly brilliant crime-solving team."
"Fatal Consequences" is a live episode of the British television drama series The Bill, broadcast on ITV1 on 30 October 2003. The episode marks the 20th anniversary of the pilot episode "Woodentop", and was the first episode of The Bill to be broadcast live. It was written by Tom Needham, directed by Sylvie Boden and produced by Susan Mather and Donna Wiffen.
From the ITV police drama's first screening in 1983, the history of The Bill includes a variety of major plotlines and changes to the programme's format.
Series 19 of British television drama The Bill was broadcast from 1 January until 31 December 2003. The series consisted of 106 episodes, being the longest series broadcast during the show's final decade, and also included the show's first live broadcast, "Fatal Consequences". This series built upon the serialized format previously introduced by new producer Paul Marquess in Series 18, with the series following on from the previous series by removing and replacing a mass number of characters. The most high-profile exit was that of Sergeant Matt Boyden, whose death was part of a crossover with new spin-off series Murder Investigation Team. Actor Tony O'Callaghan, who was with the show for 12 years, became the fourth character with over ten years on the show to have been written out in the 18 months since Marquess took over, with three of those four characters being killed off.
Series 20 of British television drama The Bill was broadcast from 7 January until 30 December 2004, and continued to use the serialized format introduced by Paul Marquess during Series 18.
Series 21 of British television drama The Bill was broadcast from 5 January until 29 December 2005. The series consisted of 106 episodes, making it the series with the highest number of episodes in the show's final decade, tied with series 19. Joint-longest serving cast member, DC Jim Carver, exited the show after 21 years, having been with the show since its first ever episode; he was the sixth character with over ten years on the series to have exited in the previous three years. It followed the events of the third Sun Hill station fire. As was the case in 1990 and 2002, a redevelopment to a large part of the station set was explained by an explosion, racist PCSO Colin Fairfax driving a van into the station reception to shift the blame for a terror attack onto the local Asian community; the fire led to three characters being killed off. The death of Carver's best friend in the blaze, DC Ken Drummond, came before the revelation that his estranged wife June Ackland had an affair with experienced PC Roger Valentine. Ackland, co-protagonist with Carver in the series pilot Woodentop, was involved in a 30-minute special episode that ended with Carver's exit. Actor Mark Wingett also featured in spin-off documentary series The Bill: Uncovered, exploring Jim's time on the show that included addictions to alcohol & gambling and two failed marriages. The final of four Uncovered documentaries saw Superintendent Adam Okaro narrate on some of the best moments from the show's 21-year history; however, the episode did not air in the U.K; instead it aired in Australia a year after its originally planned broadcast.
Series 22 of British television drama The Bill was broadcast from 4 January until 28 December 2006. The series consisted of 91 episodes, as two episodes from the series remain unaired after the master tapes were stolen in a robbery at the show's recording studios in November 2006. Under new producer Johnathan Young, this series saw the programme begin to step away from the serialised format, and return much of the focus to the actual policing aspect of the programme, removing the more 'soap' feel previously introduced by Paul Marquess. Most episodes consisted of two parallel stories running at the same time, much like the initial transition to hour-long episodes in 1998. However, some episodes feature entirely on one story, beginning the move back to single-themed episodes as part of a plan to completely remove serialisation - which did not take place until 2007. The series also saw a large portion of cast changes in the first few months, with a number of characters previously introduced by Marquess being axed to make way for new blood - many of them support staff and non-police officer characters. Young believed that several of the characters introduced by Marquess did not have the longevity of the more well-known characters in the show, and thus decided to give a number of highly recommended up-and-coming actors roles on the show, such as Kidulthood star Aml Ameen.
Callum Stone is a fictional character from the British police procedural television series The Bill, played by Sam Callis. He first appeared in the twenty-third series episode "Good Cop, Bad Cop", broadcast on 8 August 2007. Callis had previously appeared in the series during 2004, in a guest role playing the character of Karl Radford. Callis believed this familiarity helped him to quickly adapt to the role. Callum's role in the show is a Police Sergeant. He is characterised as having an unorthodox policing style and is portrayed in stark contrast to the rest of the show's characters. Callis has explained that The Bill's script writers made Callum's persona ambiguous, leaving viewers to interpret whether or not Callum is a good or bad intentioned character. Callis believed his character adopts his "own moral code" and Callum views his role as being "there to administer justice", but not to the extreme he is a vigilante character.
The Bill is a British police procedural television series, first broadcast on ITV from 16 October 1984 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, Woodentop, broadcast on 16 August 1983.
The third season of the Australian police-drama Blue Heelers premiered on the Seven Network on 12 February 1996 and aired on Monday nights, and later, Tuesday nights, at 8:30 PM. The 42-episode season concluded 26 November 1996. All main cast members from the previous season returned. Tasma Walton was introduced in episode 107 as Dash McKinley.
The fourth season of the Australian police-drama Blue Heelers premiered on the Seven Network on 10 February 1997 and aired on Tuesday nights at 8:30 PM. The 42-episode season concluded 25 November 1997.
"Frontline" was a three-part storyline in the long-running police procedural British television series The Bill. Broadcast in 2008, the storyline is significant in the show's history as it was the final plot to feature the death of an on-screen character, PC Emma Keane, which came in the first part of the plot.
"Proof of Life" is a two-part storyline from the long-running Thames Television series The Bill to celebrate the 25th anniversary of its pilot, "Woodentop". Both episodes came as part of a crossover with the German police drama SOKO Leipzig. It serves as the 79th and 80th episode of The Bill's 24th series, and as the season premiere for season 10 of Leipzig Homicide. While The Bill's rendition aired in November 2008, Leipzig Homicide's did not air until September 2009. The episodes were filmed in English, and dubbed into German for broadcast on ZDF. A different edit was shown in each country.
Cameron Tait is a fictional character from the British police procedural television series The Bill, played by Daniel MacPherson. He first appeared in the eighteenth series episode "Thinking Out Loud", broadcast on 30 January 2003. Cameron was introduced as a police constable from Sydney, Australia, who joins the Metropolitan Police based at the Sun Hill station in London. MacPherson was approached by the show's producers about the role, after they saw him in a production of Godspell. He was hesitant about accepting as he did not intend to stay in the UK for long, and he was not sure the role was right for him. However, he was convinced by the changes brought in by Paul Marquess and the strong ratings the show was achieving in the UK and Australia. MacPherson was contracted for 18 months and he began filming in September 2002. With Cameron being the first Australian police officer to appear in The Bill, MacPherson worked with the scriptwriters to make him more a realistic Australian and said that he had to remove some stereotypical Australian words from his dialogue. To help him prepare for the role, MacPherson went on a ride-along with the Bondi police, and he also shaved his head.
Kerry Young is a fictional character from the British police procedural television series The Bill, played by Beth Cordingly. She first appeared in the eighteenth series episode "Too Close to the Wind", broadcast on 11 July 2002. Kerry was introduced as a police constable, who joins the Metropolitan Police based at the Sun Hill station. Cordingly's casting and Kerry's creation occurred after a large number of characters were written out by the show's new executive producer Paul Marquess. Ahead of her audition, Cordingly worried that she might be typecast as a bitch because of her past roles. However, Marquess met with all the new actors and wrote their characters around them, and Cordingly was relieved when Kerry's biography was full of "nice stuff". To prepare for the role, Cordingly spent time with the Met to learn about their daily routine and joined them for a day out in a squad car, which she admitted left her with motion sickness.
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