Save The Bill

With thanks to DS for the interview.

Contains spoilers for the last 2 episodes.

After 27 years on the air and over 2,000 episodes, The Bill bows out this month following ITV’s decision to axe the show. When the news was announced back in March, the commercial broadcaster cited falling ratings and changing tastes for the programme’s fate. However, the subsequent outcry from fans has proved that there are many people who will be sad to see the UK’s longest-running police drama disappear from the schedules. The show’s two-part finale, titled ‘Respect’, reintroduces the character of Jasmine Harris and explores her involvement with a violent gang. DS recently chatted to The Bill’s series producer Tim Key to find out more.

When were you told that The Bill would be coming to an end?
“We were told pretty much as soon as it was announced – the confirmation of it was very last-minute. We’d obviously been talking to the channel in the weeks and months before, so we knew that there were different options on the table. But it wasn’t until the night before we announced it to everyone at the site that we knew for definite what the decision was. It played out how it appeared to play out, really – we’d hoped until the very end that there was a way of keeping it going, whether that was as it was or moving it into a slightly different slot or format. But in the end, ITV decided that it was time to say goodbye to it.”

What was your reaction to the decision?
“I was devastated by it, really. We all were. But at the same time, you kind of accept that we’re working in an industry where big decisions like this have to be made. Nobody takes their job for granted. It’s a show that’s been running for a very long time and that makes it vulnerable. The biggest problem really is that it isn’t new – and advertisers and TV channels are obsessed with the new. For The Bill, I think no matter what anyone does to it, it’s never going to be a new show. It’s a time where people are having to rein the money in and be quite ruthless about things – people have got decisions to make and you can understand why people make some of them, even if you don’t agree. But we were all absolutely gutted by it – we hoped it would never come to that, and it did.”

Did you feel like you had plenty of time to come up with a suitable ending?
“We didn’t have a lot of time. We knew that a certain episode was the end of the current contract with ITV, so we’d always known that we’d have to be flexible about the end of that episode. For example, it might have been that we’d have to take an on-screen break and come back again, so we’d worked in a bit of flexibility. But until we knew for definite what the deal was, we couldn’t commit to anything. In the end, we completely tore up what we had planned for the final episodes and started again with something that we felt honoured the legacy of the show and delivered for our characters and for our audience.”

And what kind of effect did the decision have on storylines in general?
“It affected everything and we had big decisions to make almost immediately. We had to rewrite a number of stories. For example, the episode that just went out with Stone and his father’s funeral – originally that had been conceived as an episode that would send Stone in a very dark and dangerous direction for at least the next six months, if not 12 months. So we had to rework that episode so that instead of it being the start of something, it brought some of Stone’s story to an end, saying to the audience, ‘This is why he is the way he is’. At the end of it, he was faced with a choice between doing the right thing or the wrong thing, and he chose to do the right thing. So we had to do quite a bit of work like that.”

What were your main aims when you started planning the final two-part episode?
“We talked about it a lot. Ending a 27-year show is a pretty impossible task, because whatever you do, people will have a view on it and say, ‘I wish they’d done this’, or ‘I wish they’d done that’. We decided very quickly that we didn’t want to do anything cheap or sensational – we didn’t want to blow up the station. We talked about whether it would be the right thing to do to kill off a character, but we decided that would be cheating the audience. So we decided that what we wanted to do was celebrate what the show had always been about – the officers of the Metropolitan Police force, the job that they do every day and the effect that the job has on them.”

How did the gang storyline for the final episode come about?
“We’ve done what we always like doing – we feel that the show has always, at its best, had something to say about the world that we live in. So we wanted to find an area of modern life and modern crime that people weren’t familiar with, and we wanted to tell a story that was about something. In researching it, we discovered the appalling way that girls are treated in gangs – the way that they’re raped to keep them quiet or punish them, or used as a status symbol for members of the gang. We decided that we had the right character in Jasmine, who we really liked when she was on screen the first time round, to tell the story through. So we wanted to do something that had real integrity and we wanted to reward our viewers, who’ve stuck with our show over the years.”

And what can viewers take from the final two-parter?
“Well, the show is about real life, real people and what it’s like to be a police officer, so we wanted our message at the end of it to be, ‘This is the sort of everyday story that The Bill can tell’. Although it’s certainly had its more sensational moments, whereas all the other cop shows are always slightly heightened or serial killer shows, ours is a show about real policing. We wanted to have that message at the end and give everybody a sort of ‘greatest hits’ package of what The Bill has always been about.”

Is there a feeling of nostalgia in the final episode, or is it very much business as usual at Sun Hill?
“It’s 50/50. The mood during the shoot was positive and there was a lot of laughter, but obviously a lot of sadness as well. In terms of what’s on screen, we honour the traditions of the show and there are tributes in there to some of the show’s trademarks. I think the fans will see that. There’s a homage to the walking feet – they make a slight reappearance at the very beginning of the episode. I don’t want to give too much away, but we looked at ways of respecting the show’s heritage and addressing some of those questions that we’ve been asked about certain aspects of the show. It’s an ensemble piece and all of the cast are in there – they’ve all got good stuff to do, and I think the last five minutes are incredibly powerful, poignant, respectful and appropriate. I’m very, very proud of that last episode in particular.”

Was it quite daunting having to come up with an ending to such an iconic and well-loved show?
“Yeah, it was. We talked about it a lot and we all had ideas about what it should be and what it shouldn’t be. In the end, the joy of it was that it was a total team effort – I had an idea, [executive producer] Johnathan Young had an idea – and the writer, director and Jane who produced the episode had some ideas too. The very last piece of the puzzle was the camera operator who said that he wanted to do it hand-held – we’d planned to steady-cam it, but he said, ‘I really believe it’s a hand-held show and I can do it’. In terms of ways to end a series, I think if people are watching the last five minutes hoping that someone’s going to run in, machine gun a load of people and set a load of explosives off, they’re going to be very disappointed. But if they want something that respects the show that they’ve loved for 27 years, then I think they’ll be very happy.”

The Bill has suffered a ratings dip over the past year or so – was that preventable?
“There’s things that could have been done differently, things that could have been done better, and things that are unavoidable. Drama has had a tough time, especially all-year-round drama. I also think that moving a show that everyone knows at 8pm to a new 9pm slot is a very difficult ask. We delivered as best we could, but I think it’s always been a show that people will know in one way, so to suddenly try and change that is always difficult. Also, when you’re on all year round, it’s a huge privilege but it also means you can get taken for granted a bit. I think that all shows have a shelf life – it’s a brand that could come back, and who knows what would happen if it did? But for now, ITV took the decision that it was time to say goodbye. That’s the way it goes, unfortunately.”

The shift to 9pm did result in quite a few changes – for example, less action at the station in favour of more location filming, a smaller cast and the introduction of music. Do you regret any of those changes now?
“I stand by everything that we did because we thought all of it through and did it all for a very good reason. We had to make the cast smaller because we were going from two episodes a week to one episode a week. At one point, we had a cast of nearly 30 people because we were making around 96 episodes per year – if you halve the episodes, you’ve got to halve the cast. Whoever you lose from the cast, some people will object to it. We also wanted the show to be very clearly set in London, so we did more location filming – it’s always been a London-based show, but sometimes you can forget that a bit when it’s more studio-based. We were also going to HD anyway, and that changes the feel and look of the show. In terms of music, all 9pm dramas have music and to be the one that didn’t could work against you. There are things that I wish had worked out slightly differently, but we didn’t rush any of the decisions that we made – we thought them through very carefully.”

What do you think the quality of the show has been like in recent months?
“We always said it would take a while to adapt to the new timeslot and the new format, and I think that the episodes from the start of the year have been increasingly strong and have really been delivering. And I think that the stuff that’s been on screen over the past few weeks proves that, so I’m really proud of everything that we’ve done.”

Some fans of The Bill have been campaigning for another channel to pick up the show – do you think that could still happen?
“I think that at the moment it’s unlikely. It’s something that I have no involvement in whatsoever, so I wouldn’t know anyway, although I do know that some discussions took place. At the moment, all of the channels are strapped for cash and they’re all investing in new stuff of their own. I think that taking on an ITV show that’s been around for a long time is not something they’re keen to do at the moment. But, that said, it’s a brand that has worked fantastically and who knows what might happen in a few years’ time? I think that people will miss The Bill enormously – I think that the industry will miss it as drama is incredibly important to everybody’s schedules, and in terms of providing all-year-round drama, The Bill did an amazing job and continues to do so right up until the last episode. I think it’s going to be missed more than people think it will.”

Is there anything you’d like to say to the fans who’ve been passionately supporting the show over the past few months?
“I’d like to say thank you – the response from the fans, whether they’ve liked what they’ve seen or haven’t, has always been passionate and we’ve never taken that lightly. To everybody who’s stuck with it until the end, we’re very grateful and we hope that they will find the final pair of episodes a fitting tribute to the show. I was a fan of the show before I worked on it, so for me it’s been a dream job and I’ve always been aware of how much it’s loved by the viewing public. I’m really grateful for all of the support we’ve received, particularly since the news broke – we’ve had some really nice messages through from people, saying how sorry they were and how much they’re going to miss it. So it’s just a massive thank you, basically!”

Looking back at your own stint as series producer, are there any moments or storylines that you’re particularly proud of?
“There’s loads that I’m proud of. It’s a show that can do something different with every episode and it has something to say. So recently, I’m very proud of the episode we did with Claire Bloom, showing that sexual crime can happen against older people as well as younger people – I think that’s a subject matter that other shows would struggle to tackle. Looking further back, the ‘Gun Runner’ stories that we did with Smithy undercover were great – I thought that Alex Walkinshaw was on great form and I loved the relationship between Smithy and Stevie. I loved the ‘Conviction’ stuff that we did just before we moved to 9pm. I thought that Sam Callis was great in Tuesday night’s episode. I loved the Grace and Neil storyline – I thought that we could have taken that to some really nice places, it had a lot of integrity and was a really sweet story. And I’m very proud of our final two episodes!”

In the current climate, TV executives seem to be favouring one-off or short-run dramas, and we’re losing a lot of our ongoing serials like The Bill and Heartbeat. Do you think that’s a bad thing?
“I think that any drama being made is a very good thing. The success of Sherlock recently was brilliant, because it proves that the audience wants good-quality drama. In one sense, I don’t care if they’re one-offs, three-parters or 50-parters – as long as drama is being made and people are watching it. I think that we’re in a climate where the industry and the viewers want events more – whether those events are X Factor-style events or drama events. Sadly, that is just what some shows can’t be – if you’re on all year round, you can’t be an event because you’re just there as part of the fabric of what’s going on. I think that there’s room for one-offs and for 50-parters, and losing the 50-parters is a shame. Shows like Holby, Casualty and The Bill can do different things and relate to the audience in the way that other shows can’t – they can sometimes take a more serious look at issues than other shows can. But as long as drama is being made, I’m happy.”

And finally, what kind of legacy do you think The Bill will have?
“I think that it has an enormous legacy – it’s found new talent and trained new talent. I don’t know what the percentage would be, but so many people in the industry now have come via that show. I also think that The Bill has shone a light on an area of society that a lot of people aren’t familiar with, and that can only be a good thing. I think that it’s provided consistently high production values, consistently high writing and consistently high performances, week in, week out. Serials are the toughest type of shows to make – to generate that much story all year round is so difficult. The fact that the show has been going for 27 years just shows what a great team it’s always had behind it. I think that the legacy will be that people will suddenly see a lot less drama on TV, and I think they’ll really miss it.”

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s20/the-bill/interviews/a265721/tim-key-series-producer-the-bill.html

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/soaps/s20/the-bill/scoop/a265727/more-from-the-bill-producer-tim-key.html

TUESDAY 31st AUGUST 2010 – 10.35 ITV

Farewell The Bill says goodbye to TV’s longest running police drama.

As ITV1’s The Bill draws to a close this summer after 27 years on air, Farewell The Bill looks back over the lifetime of the show and goes behind the scenes of TV’s longest running police drama as it follows the final weeks of filming.

With exclusive access to the series’ final shoot this May and June, this touching one-off documentary captures the emotion, tears and laughter as both cast and crew say farewell to the show and film the final ever two-parter of The Bill which transmits on ITV1 this month. Cast including Alex Walkinshaw (Smithy), Simon Rouse (Spt Jack Meadows) and Chris Simmons (DC Mickey Webb) and crew talk exclusively about their experiences of working on the series and what it was like to be filming it’s last ever scenes.

Series Producer, Tim Key speaks about the final storyline called ‘Respect’ which follows the harrowing storyline of a young female gang member torn between her loyalty to the gang and her broken trust of the police, ‘we wanted to do something that celebrated what The Bill has always been about, ordinary people wearing a uniform and taking responsibility for society, this is what The Bill has always done.’

From the making of the last ever episode to the first, the documentary shows footage of the debut episode which broadcast in 1983, of Jim Carver’s first day as a rookie at fictional police headquarters Sun Hill. The programme looks back at highlights over the years, of the numerous chase scenes synonymous to The Bill to the many stunts, explosions and arrests.

Two of the show’s longest running ex-cast members, Graham Cole (PC Tony Stamp) and Trudie Goodwin (Sgt June Ackland) pay one final visit to the set and take a nostalgic look around as they reminisce about some of their characters’ most memorable storylines – how Stamp once ran over Ackland, their one on-screen kiss and how Ackland ended up in a disastrous marriage to Carver.

Farewell The Bill features archive footage of some of the famous faces who’ve appeared over the years as guest artistes, including Roger Daltrey, Ray Winstone, Hugh Laurie, Alex Kingston, David Walliams and John Hannah. As well as actors such as Keira Knightley and James McAvoy who cut their teeth on the series before going on to become big screen leading talent.

Many thanks for your email regarding The Bill.

The decision not to recommissiona further series is part of a wider overhaul of ITV1 and its mix of programming. This was therefore a creative decision, as was outlined at the time of the announcement, and it is inaccurate to suggest that the reason given by ITV was “cost cutting”.  In response to another of your points, the cast and crew were made aware of the decision by Lorraine Heggessey, Chief Executive of Talkback Thames, on the morning of Friday April 23, ie before news broke to fans. (wrong month!)

Viewers’ tastes have changed and ITV1 is evolving to remain fresh and relevant for all of our viewers by prioritising what our audience want: high quality, shorter run, original drama which meant that last year ITV was the home of the top five new dramas on any channel – Collision, rated over 7million in its five night stripped run; Above Suspicion, which has successfully returned for a second run achieving 6m+ audiences; together with Murderland, Unforgiven and Law and Order: UK.

We are committed to maintaining the ITV drama budget and will greatly increase our investment in brand new drama commissions in peak time. It is important to stress that ITV continues to be the UK’s biggest commercial investor in original television drama.

We will also be announcing new commissions in due course but there are a number of very exciting projects in development including a new medical series with the RTS award-winning writer, Peter Bowker; a new serial being developed by Anthony Horowitz, the acclaimed writer of Collision and Foyle’s War; a historical drama based on one of the great stories of the last century, and a state of the nation serial about modern Britain as well as some new single films both factually based and original.

This is on top of ITV1’s commitment to original drama, with projects such as The Prisoner, Father and Son, Identity, Vera, A Bouquet of Barbed Wire, Downton Abbey, Whitechapel 2, Joe Maddison’s War, The Little House, Kidnap and Ransom coming up; and to ITV1’s broad variety of returning drama favourites such as Wild At Heart, Midsomer Murders, Foyle’s War, Lewis, Poirot and Marple, and Primeval to name but a few. Of course, ITV1 is also the home of Britain’s popular soaps Coronation Street and Emmerdale.

I do hope that you will continue to enjoy our drama productions, even if you are no longer able to watch The Bill.

Regards

John

Apparently Peter has changed his email address to avoid being bombarded by emails from upset fans.

Point your emails at: peter.fincham1@itv.com to share your views.

Don’t forget to add in some of the ITV bosses in the email below too…!

Given up waiting for a reply, perhaps they’d bother on a larger scale?

These are the boss people at ITV. Adam Crozier is the TOP man who has only been assigned this month from Royal Mail.

adam.crozier@itv.com, john.cresswell@itv.com, james.crosby@itv.com, laura.mackie@itv.com, mike.clasper@itv.com, ian.griffiths@itv.com, rupert.howell@itv.com, usha.prashar@itv.com, john.ormerod@itv.com, lee.bartlett@itv.com, carolyn.fairbairn@itv.com, andy.doyle@itv.com, andrew.garard@itv.com, peter.fincham@itv.com, viewerservices@itv.com, ros.sloboda@itv.com

Apparently people who are ringing itv’s viewers services are getting ‘screamed’ at and very rude replies. Isn’t it those who replied so rudely through email too? Sign of things to come…!

Message from Kevin Rundle, Story Producer for The Bill, below.

Please dig as deep as you can and sponsor him for running the London Marathon for ICAN and you could be in with a chance of winning a set tour for you and two friends.

Remember to put BILL TOUR in your message when sponsoring him, or your message will not be included in the draw.

If you have any questions, please post here or email the admin on admin[at]savethebill[dot]co[dot]uk and we’ll pass them on to Kevin for you, or you can post your question on the following link and we’ll pass them on: http://bit.ly/9heCtp

SET TOUR of THE BILL – PRIZE DRAW

I’m running the London Marathon for children’s communication charity ICAN, I am also the Story Producer on The Bill and am running a prize draw to raise money for this worthwhile charity.

The prize is a guided tour of THE BILL set and Studios for 3 people – given by me. With The Bill coming to an end, this could be one of the last opportunities to visit the set – grab it now and raise some money for a great charity.

To enter – go to my Virgin Money Giving page http://uk.virginmone…com/KevinRundle

For every £5 you donate, I will put 1 ticket with your name on it, into the prize draw. Just Include the phrase BILL TOUR in your message on the giving page and the rest will take care of itself. Your money will be quickly processed and passed to the charity.

The prize draw will take place on the 16th April (it will be filmed and posted on-line to ensure it’s done fairly)

The tour will last around 2 hours – the prize is non transferable and holds no cash value. All persons on the tour must be over 16. The tour must be taken before the 14th May on a date that is convenient to both the winner and the tour guide (me!). The studios are in Merton (SW London), and there will be no travel expenses – so make sure you can get here! We’ll try and do it on a day where there is some filming on set, but this cannot be guaranteed.

Good Luck!

Seriously please. All those who have planned to protest outside the TB studios, really… well don’t! The cast have done nothing wrong the last thing they need is people crowding outside obstructing access, making noise and generally getting in the way! Bug ITV all you like – but don’t obstruct the very people you’re trying to help

The lovely Samantha_Nixon is going to be speaking to ABC Canberra presenter, Ross Solly live on air within the next half an hour. (before 9.30ish GMT time, half 7 Canberra time)

http://www.abc.net.au/canberra/

To listen, click the link above and then find the stream link on the right and click ‘Win’ to listen. It should load up in Windows Media Player and allow you to listen to the streaming radio station

Just had this from the viewers service, not Fincham.

Thank you for your recent email regarding The Bill.

Peter Fincham, ITV Director of Television, Channels & Online, has issued the following statement:-

“The Bill has been a fixture on our screens for more than 25 years and has 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. But times change, and so do the tastes of our audience. This is reflected in the mix of what ITV1 will offer as a channel, with an increased focus on new and varied drama commissions for the 9.00pm slot. 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 and viewers can look forward to a wide range of high quality drama on ITV1.”

Please be assured that your comments have been duly noted here at ITV Viewer Services and we would like to take this opportunity to thank you for taking the time to contact us as we always welcome viewer feedback.

Regards

ITV Viewer Services – TT

He clearly can’t be bothered to reply himself so it’s a blanket email (with no new comment or apology or understanding of the issue) addressing no concerns.

Admittedly he has also probably been inundated, I’m proud of you all.

Going to reply saying how insulting the above is, especially as it’s all what’s been said before and ITV are clearly not listening. I invite you all to do the same.

peter.fincham@itv.com with viewerservices@itv.com cc’d in!

Today Lorraine Heggessey, CEO talkbackTHAMES announced: “We are devastated that after 26 successful years on ITV, The Bill will be coming to an end.   One of the show’s strengths has been its ability to evolve over the years as can be seen with the latest challenge of transforming itself into a 9pm primetime show.

We are incredibly proud of what the show has achieved. 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 last day of filming will be around 14th June and that episode will air around August or September.

Watch The Bill (while you still can) on ITV1, 9pm Thursdays
Repeated on ITV3 on Mondays at 11pm