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SPICING
UP THE BILL - A SEXY NEW IMAGE ? We've GOT IT TAPED !
SCENE ONE: A man walks fast along the street looking
shifty and carrying a bag. Suddenly he breaks into a run
and we see he is being pursued by two panting policemen,
"which way did he go?" one gasps at a handily
placed pensioner, who predictably sends them in the
wrong direction. Will they get their man, or is the only
arrest likely to be of the cardiac variety when one of
the poor coppers collapses after all that running... ?
That was the old Bill.
SCENE TWO: An armed raid on a building
society goes terribly wrong and the staff and two sharp
young police officers are held hostage by a couple of
desperate ex-army men. A crack police squad races in and
a high drama rescue operation is commanded by Sun hill's
super cool Superintendent. There is emotion, bloodshed,
tension and no happy ending... This is the new Bill.
"Things had to change", says Richard Handford,
The Bill's executive producer, who masterminded a
complete turnaround of the ITV cop show when he stepped
into the job three years ago. "It was bound to
happen that the single episodes would run their course
and the audience would feel they'd seen it all before.
We needed to move on. I suppose the biggest change was
the way we focus now on the regular characters, not on
the villains." And following a major departure of
actors from the series last autumn, we now have a whole
new bunch of regulars at Sun Hill. Led by Superintendent
Tom Chandler, the newcomers brought in over recent weeks
include two stunningly pretty women detectives, Kate
Spears and Debbie McAllister, quirky Paul Riley, clever
Vik Singh and the intense inspector Alex Cullen.
"It was a bit of a shock for the older serving cast
members suddenly to find the green room invaded by a
whole lot of new faces. But there was no bad blood and I
think everyone's getting along famously", says
Richard. Viewers are enjoying the change too, with
ratings steady at around nine million. And although the
show is still aimed at a family audience, the hour long
format allows for dramatic exploration of challenging
topics like racism, murder, sex offenders and police
corruption. Even better, for viewers who like their
crime stories spiced with a bit of hanky-panky, the
coppers actually have love lives. If fact, they're
surprisingly passionate if the PC Quinnan love affair
with Polly Page is anything to go by. And we'll be
witnessing more emotional GBH between Tom Chandler and
Kate Spears, as well as between old favourites Boyden
and Hagen. "We'll be introducing a new gay
sergeant, too but he's not going to be queening about
the place - and before we appear to be too politically
correct, there'll also be a sympathetic new police
driver who won't necessarily have all the right
attitudes", promises Richard. Of course all the
newcomers seem remarkably youthful - an uncomfortable
reminder of the old saying that you know you're getting
old when policemen look young. "It's a bit of a
shock having all these young faces around", says
Richard, "but actually it's correct: the real
police are young".
Kate Spears played by Tania Emery
Bold and confident Kate made her mark on Sun Hill when
she was involved in a hostage drama late last year. She
certainly caught the eye of her chief Tom Chandler -
just wait for the fireworks ! Says Tania: "The Bill
's a great opportunity for me, specially in the role of
a feisty, kick-ass kind of girl like Spears."
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