The Bill to be cancelled this autumn

[Lost_Addict]

yup, i don't watch it any more (i only watched 2 episodes whch my freind katie knight was in rofl and mabey a few other)
but seeing as it was a huge show thats been going for 27 years i thoht i should post



The Bill will end this autumn following ITV's decision to drop the long-running police drama after 27 years.

"Times change, and so do the tastes of our audience," said Peter Fincham, the channel's director of television.

The move follows a major revamp that saw the drama relaunched as a weekly programme in a post-watershed slot.

Producers Talkback Thames said they were "devastated" by a decision that "may result in a significant number of redundancies" for the company.

"We are incredibly proud of what the show has achieved," said CEO Lorraine Heggessey.

"It is a credit to everyone who has worked on The Bill that the series will be signing out on a creative and editorial high, with both critical and industry-wide acclaim and a loyal fan base who have supported the show throughout."



The Bill celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2008
Actor Mark Wingett, who played PC Jim Carver in the show for 21 years from the pilot episode in 1983, said: "It hurts. It's a great, great shame. I think moving the slot was an unwise decision. It kind of got lost."

He added: "By axing this programme it's another area of expertise that we have lost. Loads of people in the industry - trainees, script writers, producers - cut their teeth on programmes like The Bill, if not The Bill itself."

Creative decision

ITV said it would invest the money it spent on the programme - first seen on the channel in 1983 - on new peak-time drama commissions.

Fincham said The Bill had been "the home of some of the UK's best serial drama storylines and a great showcase for terrific scriptwriting and fine acting talent".

"Thanks to a superb production team, it's been one of the great institutions of television drama," he continued.

Set around the fictional Sun Hill police station in London, The Bill began life as a one-off drama entitled Woodentop.

ITV was impressed enough to commission a weekly series that eventually became a thrice-weekly soap.

The channel insisted the move to axe the show was a creative decision and was not done to cut costs.

"Whilst The Bill will come to an end in 2010, we will continue to invest more in drama programming than any other commercial broadcaster in the UK," said Fincham.




Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8588941.stm

[=Lizzy]

Its been around so long i think its time for it to go aswell.

[jrh2002]

I thought the bill at 8pm was always easy to watch with reasonable stories that worked quite well. The bill at 9pm tried to be to serious which ruined it and could not compete with the other police/detective programs on at the same time. Hope that Reg guy who tried to kill himself when he was written out of the show a couple of years back is now on 24 hours suicide watch.

[iAdam]

Never really got into the bill, it doesn't have the same appeal as police caught on camera type shows.

[Jordan:A]

I only watch the Bill when theres good story lines, next weeks sounds good

[Nuxty]

I've always watched the bill since I was younger, it isn't the same so I think it should go or try to revert back to its old way of how storys were told for its final few months.

Apprently other broadcasters are after it, so we'll have to wait and see what happens!

[dbgtz]

Yer I never watched since this "revamp". Mostly because when it was at 8 it was after eastenders but now i forget and hate most characters. Tbh it's funny, I stopped watching as soon as Gina Gold left. If they do a good final story I will watch it.

[BeanEgg]

It's a real shame - I think the Bill has gone right down-hill since they changed it to 9PM as well as the other changes!
I remember when it was awesome like 3 years ago.

[Misawa]

It has been sucking for a very long time. Anyone catch the live episode they did about three years ago? That was one big hilarious ****-up.

[Stefy09]

used to love the old ones. They ****** it up big time by doing all these changes. It's not even the bill anymore so I don't care