The Bill: walking the beat for over 23 years

By Jayne Warren - 06/12/2007

 It started life as a one-off drama entitled “Woodentop” in 1984. It has turned out to be one of television’s most enduring programmes, still running after 23 years and regularly reaching the Top Ten in the UK ratings war.

 

“The Bill”, set in the fictitious Sun Hill police station, follows the professional and personal lives of patrol and response officers as well as the work of the CID. Jayne Warren talks to two of the actors that made it so popular: Eric Richard (Sgt Cryer) and Trudie Goodwin (WPC Ackland).

 

Trudie Goodwin and Eric Richard go back a long way. WPC Ackland made her debut in the very first episode of The Bill. Eric Richard spent 17 years on the beat or behind the familiar duty desk.

 

 

“We’ve seen some huge changes in that time,” says Trudie, “but they are

a reflection of the way the real Police Force has changed. For a start,
when it began, the series focussed on two coppers on their beat. Now
there’s loads of them and they're all in cars!”

 

 

 Adds Eric: “The really big shift happened about six years ago. Up till
then, the focus was very much on a day in the life of a policeman or
policewoman - with a bit of personal life thrown in. Now it's about the
personal life of someone who happens to be a police officer as well.

 

“The 36 episodes on the new DVD box set really show that change. It’s funny looking back at them all, because The Bill started as one-off plays with no link between them. So you can sit back and watch each of them as a little self-contained drama. In the current serial format, while some stories are cleared up in an episode or two, others can stretch over months or nearly a year.”

 

 

Popular programmes about the police have a long history. Do they see
The Bill as a natural continuation of  the classics: “'Dixon of Dock Green” and “Z-Cars”?  “Definitely,” says Trudie: “But it also drew on the US show “Hill Street Blues”. And of course, the role of woman police officers has changed beyond recognition. In the past, policewomen had to wear a skirt for work and carry a handbag!

 

“And they were very much kept in the background both in real life and
on TV. Their role was to dab the grazed knee of a child at the station
or provide a bit of sexual frisson.  So my character, WPC Ackland,
broke the mould. She was a good, strong copper in her own right - but
hugely sympathetic.”

 

So has playing police officers changed their view of the real police?

“Totally,” says Eric. “Trudie told me that she was quite anti-police in
the beginning - a lot of people growing up in the 60s were. It was sort
of fashionable, wasn't it? But seeing what the police have to do and
what they have to cope with is a real eye-opener.” Trudie adds: “I
began to realise just how much they have to put up with.  There is no
way I could do the job in real life!”

 

 

The nuts and bolts of filming have also radically changed in the intervening years. “In the beginning we did a lot of long shots, about two to three minutes at a time,” says Eric. Now it’s much more close-ups and cut-aways, so you can fit into smaller spaces - like cars!”

 

And what about filming schedules? “In real terms it usually takes about
six weeks from us being given the script to it being on air,” says
Trudie. “The last episode I did I was given the script on the Thursday
and had to shoot it on the Friday, so you've got to learn lines really
fast.”

 

Occasionally reality and fiction can get confused. And while Eric and
Trudie have never had any problems with the public confusing them with
their roles, some actors have. “One of them got a load of stick,” says
Eric, “with people challenging him, saying things like ‘think you're a
hard man eh?’”

 

Curiously, although The Bill is fictitious, the police uniforms used in
the series are genuine and are locked away for security reasons every
night with no complete uniform being locked in any one cupboard. And
when filming on location, The Bill does not have permission to use
sirens - they have to be added in the dubbing suite!

 

Both actors have now “signed off” from The Bill but have a huge affection for the show. “We loved every minute of it,” says Trudie - a sentiment echoed by Eric, who added: “I think it’s almost impossible to do a role for that long without enjoying it, unless there's something wrong with you! We are both really proud of that DVD box set. It captures so much of what the Police is about, and all the changes down the years. We really hope that Mature Times  readers will enjoy it!”