Paul Marquess is a television producer from Belfast, Northern Ireland. His credits include Brookside, The Bill, Family Affairs, Hollyoaks, Crime Stories, Suspects and Hope Street. He also originated the idea for the series Footballers' Wives. He currently holds the post of managing director of Newman Street, a label of Fremantlemedia.
"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.
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 17 of British television drama The Bill consisted of 92 episodes, broadcast between 5 January and 21 December 2001. As well as 85 regular episodes, the series also included a spinoff Beech is Back, following a special 90-minute episode in Australia. The story follows ex-Sun Hill officer Claire Stanton, now a DI, as she goes to Australia to try and extradite ex-DS Don Beech for the murder of his colleague John Boulton. The spinoff that follows concludes the Beech storyline, which began in Series 16. Although the idea of making the series into a serial drama did not fully take effect until April 2002, many of the stories in the latter half of the year were multi-part stories, some containing up to six episodes, such as the "Night Games" saga. The two-part episode "Lifelines" is the last two-parter to feature in the series until the return of episode titles in 2007. On 14 August 2013, The Bill Series 17 Part 1 & 2 and The Bill Series 17 Part 3 & 4 DVD sets were released. The series saw an exit for Sergeant Bob Cryer, with actor Eric Richard controversially axed after 17 years with the show. His exit storyline saw him accidentally shot by PC Dale Smith, who transferred to SO19 as part of his exit storyline, however he would return two years later; Cryer would also return for a series of guest roles between 2002 and 2004. Former Brookside actor Paul Usher also joined the show on a permanent basis, playing PC Des Taviner, who would go on to be one of the show's most famous characters.
Series 18 of British television drama The Bill consisted of 86 episodes, broadcast between 3 January and 31 December 2002. This series marked a massive change for the show, after it received a new executive producer, Paul Marquess. Series 18 became the first series to be broadcast in serial format, and generally, only one episode was broadcast per week. The style of the programme also noticeably changes, becoming less police procedural and more "soap opera". This meant that the personal lives of characters were regularly explored for the first time, meaning several characters had family members or partners introduced, casting that rarely happened prior to the Marquess era.
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 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. On 5 February 2014, the complete series was released on DVD in Australia as a Region 0, playable anywhere in the world.
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. On 5 February 2014, the complete series was released on DVD in Australia as a Region 0, playable anywhere in the world.
Series 23 of British television drama The Bill was broadcast from 3 January until 28 December 2007. The series consisted of 92 episodes. On 2 April 2014, the complete series was released on DVD in Australia as a Region 0, playable anywhere in the world. Several episodes were aired out of production order, such as the conclusion of the Zain Nadir plot, and so, to avoid confusion, some episodes were renumbered. However, the DVD release carries the episodes in broadcast order, rather than production order, meaning that the DVD synopsis printed on the sleeve is heavily incorrect. The DVD synopsis also removes all titles, and continues to tally the episodes by number. The DVD release does not contain episodes 540–542, "Moving Target" Parts 1–3, owing to licensing rights for these episodes not being available.
Series 16 of British television drama The Bill consisted of 86 episodes, broadcast between 4 January and 26 December 2000. As well as 83 regular episodes, the series also included a two-part recap special, Kiss Off, featuring a condensed broadcast of the Series 15 episodes "Lone Ranger", "Old Flame", "Push It" and "Kiss Off", prior to a special episode, The Trial of Eddie Santini, which provides closure to the Santini storyline from 1999. On 5 June 2013, The Bill Series 16 Part 1 & 2 and The Bill Series 16 Part 3 & 4 DVD sets were released.
The fifteenth series of The Bill, a British television drama, consisted of 87 episodes, broadcast between 7 January and 31 December 1999. The series saw a notable change, as female officers were no longer introduced by the W acronym in ranking, with the last mention of this when Liz Rawton was introduced as a WDC in Follow Through. By the following episode, Walking on Water, female characters were simply introduced as PC/DC etc. On 5 June 2013, The Bill Series 15 Part 1 & 2 and The Bill Series 15 Part 3 & 4 DVD sets were released.
The 14th series of The Bill, a British television drama, consisted of 121 episodes, broadcast between 1 January and 31 December 1998.
The twelfth series of The Bill, a British television drama, consisted of 156 episodes, broadcast between 2 January and 31 December 1996. On 6 February 2013, The Bill Series 12 Part 1 & 2 and The Bill Series 12 Part 3 & 4 DVD sets were released. The show aired the death of PC Cathy Marshall early in the series, actress Lynne Miller departing after seven years in a mysterious plot that saw her drown whilst chasing a suspect, but it was never confirmed if she was pushed or slipped off a riverside barge during the pursuit. The death followed that of DS Jo Morgan in a four-part special towards the end of the previous series, with the first three of the four episodes rebroadcast in the summer as part of a single special episode, Target.
The Bill is a British police procedural television series, 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. ITV were so impressed with the drama that a full series was commissioned. The title originates from "Old Bill", a slang term for the police and show creator Geoff McQueen's original title for the series.
The 24th series of The Bill, a British television drama, was the antepenultimate series of the programme. On 2 April 2014, The Bill Series 24 Part 1 & 2 and The Bill Series 24 Part 3 & 4 DVD sets were released.
The 25th series of The Bill, a British television drama, was the penultimate series of the programme. On 30 April 2014, The Bill Series 25 Part 1-3 DVD set was released.
The sixth series of The Bill, a British television drama, consisted of 104 episodes, broadcast between 2 January and 27 December 1990. The series was first released on DVD as part of the Collection 5 and Collection 6 DVD boxsets in Australia, made available on 9 April – 8 October 2008, respectively. The series was later reissued as two-half series boxsets in Australia, released on 7 March 2012. The above artwork is taken from the most recent Australian release. It features images of DC Tosh Lines and DI Frank Burnside. The original Collection boxsets contained sole images of PC Reg Hollis and DS Ted Roach. In the UK, the first nine episodes were released on DVD under the title Volume 7, on 2 September 2013.
"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.
