egafd.com

Tonight's episode will not be remembered for anything other than how disturbing it was - the gang rape of a teenage girl. I watched it till the end as it was the final programme but otherwise would not have done.

I remember back when Tuesday and Thursday nights were the best nights for TV (this was the late-1980's). Eastenders was only on twice a week then and so was The Bill. EE was on at 7.30pm and The Bill was on for a half-hour episode on ITV at 8.00pm, straight after.

The Bill was brilliant then - Burnside, Dashwood, Carver, etc. I used to look forward to Tuesday nights and Thursday nights back then. Eastenders fell apart as the years progressed - it was never the same when it went three, then four, nights a week - and nor was The Bill when they started with the one-hour episodes.

Back in the mid 80's I remember seeing Lindsey Drew guesting as a stripper in the local pub in The Bill. Back then, they were allowed to portray a stripper as simply an entertainer. Now, they'd have to make her a drug addicted victim of child abuse with a violent boyfriend and they'd have to rescue her and put her through a rehabilitation program.

I stopped watching about 10 years ago they 'improved' it.

27 Years! I still remember when it started LOL

Ron T. Storm wrote:

> They should have bought back Burnside,
> a cheap bottle of Teachers Whiskey in the filing cabinet and a
> few nicked phrases from The Sweeny such as 'Shut It' and 'You
> slag'.

When Burnside got his own series, no one watched it so it was dropped after one season. Don't think Frank would have saved Sun Hill..

Essex Lad wrote:

>>


No-one watched it (well ... I did) because it was piss-poor.

They went all PC and made his sidekicks a gay black bloke and a can-do "ballsy" girl cop, and the storylines were weak.

That's why it only got 6 episodes.

It would have worked much better if they'd have made it more Sweeney-esque (the Burnside character not being exactly a million miles away from Regan) and had a bit of overlap with the parent series, with a cameo by Meadows or someone. As it was, there wasn't even a token reference to Sun Hill, IIRC.

As for The Bill, I used to enjoy it but I gave up on it a few years ago. Too many makeovers, and it also went all 'wobblycam', which I detest. Watched the final story just because it was the final story.

- Eric