The BEST episodes of The Bill

#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.

#2 - 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.

#3 - 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

#4 - 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.

#5 - 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.

#6 - Mr Friday Night

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

#7 - 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.

#8 - 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.

#9 - 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.

#10 - 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.

#11 - 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.

#12 - 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.

#13 - 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.

#14 - 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.

#15 - 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.

#16 - 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.

#17 - The One That Got Away

Season 5 - Episode 83 - Aired 10/17/1989

Brownlow is driving when he notices a driving erratically. He gives chase and catches the driver but can't reveal his location. The driver who was driving a stolen car, then nicks Brownlow's. He is the driver for an armed robbery and Roach lets him get away. Viv and June are walking the beat and are followed by a man who invites June out. They later nick him.

#18 - Here We Go Loopy Lou

Season 4 - Episode 29 - Aired 10/25/1988

Bob. Claire and Taffy investigate the report of a man carrying a cross which is found hanging from a crane. They come across a lady driving a car with a small white dog on her knee which is knocked down by a truck after escaping from the car. Taffy swims across a canal after a religious nutter who tries to strangle Bob while thinking he is Christ.

#19 - 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.

#20 - Crack of Doom

Season 8 - Episode 82 - Aired 10/13/1992

There is a search of people looking for crack. A man has a scuffle with another man and claims a piece of crack was planted on him. Tony discovers the man, an ex-boxer, lives over the road from the crack house and CID ask if they could use it as a base for an obbo.

#21 - End of the Affair

Season 23 - Episode 25 - Aired 4/11/2007

Gold finds herself caught in an awkward situation when Peter Harris' wife Mary turns up at the station with a ransom note – claiming that Peter has been kidnapped. Forced to reveal her night of passion to Manson, suspicion immediately falls on another of Peter's lovers, who arrives the scene of the planned drop to collect the ransom money. However, Manson soon realises that the team have been duped, and it's not long before Gold realises who the kidnapper really is. Meanwhile, a youth is badly assaulted on the Larkmead estate, and with a little help from his flatmate's brother, Hardy and Valentine investigate a local youth club owner who they suspect may be responsible for dealing drugs.

#22 - Blood Money

Season 23 - Episode 32 - Aired 5/9/2007

Sam, Nikki and Diane deal with a young woman who was pushed from a walkway on the Cole Lane Estate. Sam, Nikki and Smithy are then called to deal with the attempted suicide of the woman's husband. Nikki and Diane are called to a disturbance at her flat the next day, but she has disappeared without trace. Mickey deals with an assault, while Terry, Tony and Dan go undercover to trap a confidence trickster. This episode originally supposed to be broadcast in December 2006, but was cancelled when a mastertape was stolen from the filming studios in November 2006.

#23 - Lies that Kill

Season 23 - Episode 35 - Aired 5/17/2007

Will and Nikki investigate the suspicious death of a child protection officer on the Cheetham estate, after attending a disturbance at a family court. New recruit Beth delivers her first caution following an affray between a car salesman and a woman protesting against the dangers of 4x4 vehicles, but Dan is sure that there's more to the conflict than first meets the eye.

#24 - Inner Demons

Season 23 - Episode 36 - Aired 5/24/2007

Nikki coaxes a potential suicide victim, Josh Carey down from a factory building and urges him to give information on the child pornography ring he has been invited to join. Reg and Phil are called to a funeral home where a valuable necklace has been taken from a corpse in a sealed coffin. Terry approaches Manson for permission to mount an undercover operation to expose the child-pornography ring that Josh Carey is involved in.

#25 - Trigger Happy

Season 23 - Episode 38 - Aired 6/6/2007

Gang member Wesley Meeks is shot, and his dying words in the ambulance are the name of corrupt ex-policeman Ray Moore. Heaton struggles to find evidence linking the victim with his arch enemy, but Lewis's contacts reveal the red scorpion tag sprayed on all of Moore's properties was Wesley's handiwork. Phil's first day back in plain clothes gets off to a bad start, after he and Stuart interview a young joyrider, and follow up a report that he plans to take part in an armed robbery. Manson tells the warring DSs about a temporary switch with a Specialist Crime Directorate, and Phil can't help but gloat when he gets the secondment.