The BEST episodes of The Bill

Every episode of The Bill ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Bill!

The Bill follows the officers of Sun Hill, a Metropolitan Police station located in the fictional Borough of Canley in London's East End. Created in 1983 by Geoff McQueen as a one-off drama called "Woodentop", The Bill was spun off as a full series, and ran for over 26 years and 2,425 episodes. Covering both uniformed officers and CID detectives, the series is renowned for its accurate and authentic portrayal of policing in London.

Last Updated: 2/11/2024Network: ITV1Status: Ended
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Public and Confidential
star
10.00
1 votes

#1 - Public and Confidential

Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 1/13/1986

A man is throwing tiles off a roof and PC Lyttleton, who is suffering from vertigo, is sent up to arrest him. A Polish sailor turns up at the station seeking political asylum. DS Roach and DC Dashwood catch a man who has been ripping people off posing as a gas board official. Ch. Supt. Brownlow talks to PC Edwards about taking a position in the coroner's office. Sgt. Cryer is shocked when Mrs. Penny accuses her husband of beating her up.

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Hostage
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10.00
2 votes

#2 - Hostage

Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 12/9/1985

Sgt. Cryer is taking half the relief out on Sun Hill's annual fishing trip. PC Smith and DC Dashwood go to serve a warrant on Russell Archer over a non-appearance in court on a poaching charge. Archer manages to escape from Dashwood and Smith, and is later seen menacing a milkman with a sawn-off shotgun. He later holds up a bookies and a greengrocer, until he is spotted by PC Carver and PC Frank. who give chase. Frank is shot and wounded during the chase, and Archer ends up taking an elderly woman hostage in a retirement village. With the fishing trip cancelled, DS Roach takes charge of the siege operation until DI Galloway and Ch. Supt. Brownlow arrive. Attempts to contact the increasingly unstable Archer fail, until he asks to speak to Sgt. Cryer whom he saw in the betting shop. Cryer enters the flat, and attempts to talk Archer into giving himself up. With WPC Ackland posing as a Meals-on-Wheels driver, Galloway, Roach and PT17 officers storm the flat and shoot Archer.

Directors: Michael Ferguson
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Death or Glory
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10.00
1 votes

#3 - Death or Glory

Season 23 - Episode 51 - Aired 7/19/2007

Heaton briefs the team on the Skens' plan to ambush a cash van, but Lewis alerts them to a last-minute change of plan – the stolen explosives are to be used to rescue gang leader Wayne Jackson from a prison vehicle on the courthouse run. A high-speed car chase through the London streets ensues, observed from the air by Jack until the getaway car enters a tunnel. The trail goes cold, leaving Lewis in the hands of the increasingly suspicious gangsters.

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Mr Friday Night
star
10.00
1 votes

#4 - Mr Friday Night

Season 13 - Episode 87 - Aired 7/24/1997

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Punching Judy
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10.00
1 votes

#5 - Punching Judy

Season 8 - Episode 50 - Aired 6/23/1992

A woman lies critically injured in hospital, beaten up by her husband. D.S. Greig and D.C.I. Meadows interview the husband. W.P.C. Marshall decides to quit the Domestic Violence Unit.

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Hiding to Nothing
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10.00
1 votes

#6 - Hiding to Nothing

Season 8 - Episode 49 - Aired 6/18/1992

P.C. Stamp is ambushed by a gang of youths on a local estate. In trying to assist him, W.P.C. Ackland crashes the Area car, much to P.C. Loxton's delight.

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Man of the People
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10.00
1 votes

#7 - Man of the People

Season 8 - Episode 42 - Aired 5/26/1992

P.C. Stringer wins the election for the post of Federation Rep, beating the incumbent P.C. Hollis by fifty-eight votes to two. Ch. Supt. Brownlow decides to eat in the canteen with the other ranks, much to their discomfort. Stringer's first job as Fed Rep is to persuade him to stop.

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The Better Part Of Valour
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10.00
1 votes

#8 - The Better Part Of Valour

Season 7 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/21/1991

Burnside and Reed go to an accident involving a security van. Ted thinks it is an inside job. Ted finds a job application for a man with form. Tosh talks to the guard. Martella talks to a witness who is worried about the wrong people finding out. She is supposed to be in Scotland.

Directors: David Hayman
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The New Order Of Things
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10.00
1 votes

#9 - The New Order Of Things

Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/21/1987

Sgts. Peters and Penny apprehend a man standing outside the station waiting to attack P.C. Muswell (who had left the force six months previously). P.C. Jim Carver begins his CID training by working on an all night obbo with D.S. Ted Roach. Due to Carver's inexperience and Roach's lax attitude, they both miss a flatbed trailer stealing a digger from a building site. Roach and Carver follow up their suspiscions about the site security guard, and find he has stolen the equipment. Back at Sun Hill, D.I. Roy Galloway is being investigated by the Home Office for allegedly forcing a confession from a murder suspect under duress at his last posting. Galloway is cleared of wrongdoing due to lack of evidence, but Ch. Supt. Brownlow warns him that his old-school policing methods may be his undoing. In a suprising turn of events, one of P.C. Reg Hollis's rare walks on the beat with W.P.C. June Ackland leads to him apprehending an armed gunman single-handedly from the Sun Hill D.H.S.S. office.

Directors: Michael Ferguson
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The Chief Super's Party
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10.00
1 votes

#10 - The Chief Super's Party

Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 2/10/1986

P.C. Muswell and P.C. Lyttleton are on the lookout for a lorry full of stolen woolen coats. Ch. Supt. Brownlow is throwing a farewell party for his retiring clerk. D.I. Roy Galloway questions D.S. Burnside when he gatecrashes the party, and Burnside admits that he fancies June Ackland. D.C. Mike Dashwood realises the scotch being poured at the bar has been stolen, and Galloway asks Ackland to keep the remaining bottles aside as evidence. Despite warnings from the D.I. and the Chief Super, D.S. Ted Roach drives home extremely drunk and crashes his car into a fence. Knowing he'll be sacked if he's found out, Roach sleeps on a friend's boat overnight while he sobers up, but spots the coat thieves on the docks when he awakens, and the men are arrested when they are found stuck in a freezer. Roach also sweet-talks the man whose garden he crashed into by offering to get him into the Special Constabulary. P.C. Reg Hollis grasses on Roach to Brownlow, in the hope of getting the clerk's job.

Directors: Peter Cregeen
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With Friends Like That...?
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10.00
1 votes

#11 - With Friends Like That...?

Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 1/27/1986

Sgt. Cryer brings in an assault victim who is reluctant to report a rape. Jane has problems interviewing the rape victim (Debbie) because of her friend's (Sandra) constant interference. Sandra then tells Muswell that Debbie got what she deserved from Sandra's boyfriend Roach investigates a burglary with the householder claiming more jewelry was taken than was recovered. The burglars are denying they took the extra stuff

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Loan Shark
star
10.00
1 votes

#12 - Loan Shark

Season 2 - Episode 9 - Aired 1/20/1986

A young mother caught shoplifting at a supermarket confesses to Sgt Cryer that she is in debt to local loan shark 'Aunty' Peg Miller. PC Edwards checks cases of fly tipping (unauthorised dumping of rubble) in the area and discovers some disaffected Welsh miners may be responsible. A Mrs Taylor makes a complaint about a noisy neighbour, but when WPC Ackland investigates, she finds the neighbour dead.

Writer: Tim Aspinal
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Return of the Hunter
star
9.93
30 votes

#13 - Return of the Hunter

Season 17 - Episode 25 - Aired 4/6/2001

Sgt. Cryer and PC Hayward attend an incident at a local school where an angry divorcee, Chris Finnessey, is demanding to see his son. When the boy's teacher warns the police of Finnessey's violent reputation and a possible restraining order against him, he grabs a Stanley knife and takes the teacher and Sgt. Cryer hostage. Faced with an armed suspect and two hostages, Supt. Chandler calls in SO19, although the only Trojan unit available is that of the newly-qualified PC Smith and PC Stanley. When Finnessey and his son leave the school building, Chandler gives authorisation to fire. Smith shoots first but to his horror, accidentally hits Cryer. Stanley takes down Finnessey. Cryer survives the shooting, but his career in the police is over.

Directors: Ed Fraiman
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Don't Like Mondays
star
9.67
3 votes

#14 - Don't Like Mondays

Season 5 - Episode 59 - Aired 7/25/1989

PC Edwards and PC Smith are called to a disturbance at a local bank, where they are surprised to find Tosh Lines' wife and children causing a commotion as there is no money left in their account. Edwards makes a discrete call to Sgt. Peters, who suggests to Tosh that he head down to the bank and sort things out. As PC Ramsey and WPC Ackland also arrive, the bank is raided by an armed gang. Tosh Lines arrives and charges towards the bank, but as PC Ramsey runs to stop him, he is shot in the chest by one of the robbers. Ch. Insp. Conway negotiates with the gang as armed PT17 officers surround the building. Sgt. Cryer offers to drive the getaway car, but disconnects the ignition when he leaves it at the bank entrance. PC Smith and the other hostages are released, but PC Edwards is taken hostage. He manages to makes a run for it and the PT17 officers open fire on the car.

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Sun Hill Karma
star
9.50
2 votes

#15 - Sun Hill Karma

Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/16/1987

Martella applies for a position in the Bermuda police force, but after being punched during a fight, and failing to prevent a suicide jumper, she feels she is not up to the job and withdraws her application. Roach investigates a fight at a hostel for drunks. Patel investigates another racial attack. During followup, Carver is worried about himself not liking Asians. Penny has started yoga and thinks everyone else should do it too.

Directors: Mary McMurray
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Runaround
star
9.50
2 votes

#16 - Runaround

Season 4 - Episode 17 - Aired 9/13/1988

Viv has hay fever and tries to get medication but is called to a café with a dead body and is man-handled by the deceased's son. Yorkie visits a lady with agrophobia who thinks her neighbour is being burgled. He gets on their truck and helps June and Haynes arrest them. Haynes and Ackland run into a drunken driver in a bus garage using a sledge hammer to break windows.

Directors: Derek Lister
Writer: Al Hunter
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Requiem
star
9.50
2 votes

#17 - Requiem

Season 4 - Episode 14 - Aired 9/1/1988

P.C. Ramsey and P.C. Haynes attend a flat where the occupants have discovered a decayed skeleton in the wall where they were going to build a fireplace. Sgt. Cryer, D.S. Roach and D.C. Dashwood are called in, and a forensic expert soon arrives to examine the body. What looks like a baby's body is also found, but it turns out to be a doll. While CID search for former occupants and interview the Trants' obnoxious neighbours, a note is found in the wall from a merchant sailor who couldn't afford a funeral, so he put his dead wife's body in the wall.

Directors: Sharon Miller
Writer: P.J. Hammond
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Blind Alleys, Clogged Roads
star
9.50
2 votes

#18 - Blind Alleys, Clogged Roads

Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/2/1987

D.S. Roach theorises a mysterious drowning is the work of the British secret service. D.I. Galloway hits a black cab and arrests the driver, causing half the cabbies in London to blockade the station.

Directors: Graham Theakston
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Brownie Points
star
9.50
2 votes

#19 - Brownie Points

Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/5/1987

The Deputy Assistant Commissioner visits the station at the same time as a brownie pack. The "Tom Squad" is conducting a crackdown on prostitution in Sun Hill, and D.S. Roach reluctantly meets with some social workers about a girl being abused by her mother.

Directors: Mary McMurray
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Ringer
star
9.00
4 votes

#20 - Ringer

Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 1/6/1986

There is a serious road crash involving a Porsche, a motorcycle, a coach, a lorry and a Cortina resulting in six deaths. The Porsche had been tampered with prior to the accident and turns out to have been made of three different cars. Brownlow sets up a temporary morgue at a local school; WPC Martella and PC Muswell have the job of informing relatives of the deaths. After following the trail from the Porsche, DI Galloway raids a scrapyard only to find DS Burnside from the robbery squad undercover as a buyer, about to break the ring, but having forgotten to tell Galloway.

Directors: John Woods
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Cold Turkey (2)
star
9.00
1 votes

#21 - Cold Turkey (2)

Season 7 - Episode 28 - Aired 4/4/1991

Dashwood talks to one of his snouts to find out the name of the man. June talks to the man on the phone after George left a phone outside the flat. Conway negotiates for the man to be shot if all options fail. Brownlow gives the go ahead to shoot the man.

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Repercussions (2)
star
9.00
1 votes

#22 - Repercussions (2)

Season 5 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/21/1989

Because of a screwup, Burnside has put back community relations 30 years. Conway yells at Burnside before burnside goes to see Brownlow. Conway then goes to see Cryer who tells him what he thought the situation was. Yorkie is accused of making racist remarks while arresting one of the girls but Ramsey is the real culprit. The headmaster of the school comes to talk to Brownlow.

Directors: Brian Farnham
Writer: Tony Grounds
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Up All Night
star
9.00
2 votes

#23 - Up All Night

Season 8 - Episode 52 - Aired 6/30/1992

P.C. Garfield pursues a burglar and is beaten up. Sgt. Boyden's inaction brings hostility from the relief and trouble for D.S. Roach.

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Part of the Furniture
star
9.00
2 votes

#24 - Part of the Furniture

Season 8 - Episode 53 - Aired 7/2/1992

D.C. Dashwood is to be transferred to the Art and Antiques Squad. D.S. Roach hands him a burglary at an infants' school as a wind-up, but it develops into a case that allows Dashwood to show the others a thing or two. Final regular appearance of D.C. Mike Dashwood (Jon Iles).

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Travelling Light
star
9.00
2 votes

#25 - Travelling Light

Season 8 - Episode 72 - Aired 9/8/1992

Viv helps Donna dress up for a reconstruction of a murder case. They find a man who spoke to the dead woman and gives them a new lead. The ex-boyfriend of the murder victim asks to see Burnside protesting his innocence.

Directors: Sheree Folkson
Writer: Rod Lewis
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