The WORST episodes of The Bill
Every episode of The Bill ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst 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.
#1 - Lick of Paint
Season 17 - Episode 46 - Aired 6/29/2001
A spate of graffiti taggings in Sun Hill sees the police showing zero tolerance to the perpetrators. Carver is sympathetic towards an alcoholic teacher at Canley Art College when his classroom and students' work are defaced. Boyden asks Hagen to move in with him, but she is reluctant, wanting her own space. To her outrage, Boyden moves her belongings to his house as a surprise. Boyden arranges for the council to paint a wall blank to set a trap for the graffitists, catching quite a few in the process. The defacement at the art college turns out to have been committed by the teacher who is jealous that one of his students is sleeping with his ex-girlfriend, life model Moira Sutherland.
#2 - Still Crazy
Season 17 - Episode 37 - Aired 5/18/2001
PC Dave Quinnan returns to duty, and is determined to prove to everyone that he's back to normal after his breakdown. Out in a panda car, Quinnan sees a man shot in the head in a van - he calls for assistance, but by the time reinforcements arrive, the victim, the van and the main witness have disappeared. Desperate to prove his sanity, Quinnan pursues the case vigourously, and enlists the help of DC Paul Riley's brother Joe, who asks the wrong people the wrong questions. PC Polly Page is outraged by a practical joke played by PC Taviner, but she and Quinnan get their revenge in a most amusing way.
#3 - Complicity (1)
Season 17 - Episode 38 - Aired 5/25/2001
DS Vik Singh goes undercover to a 'car cruise', where he becomes involved with a well-organised car ringing gang led by Kevin North. Meanwhile, DC Mickey Webb tries to cultivate an unofficial 15-year old snout named Tyro Shaw, in the hope that he will grass up his father, Steve Shaw. Singh poses as a car thief, and is soon in with the gang, even gaining a meeting with North's boss - Jennifer Salter. As Webb gets frustrated by Shaw's dead-end leads, Singh pushes the boy too far about his involvement with the gang.
#4 - Complicity (2)
Season 17 - Episode 39 - Aired 6/1/2001
Tyro Shaw threatens to blow DS Singh's cover in the car-ringing gang, but is convinced otherwise. Singh seems to have impressed both Kevin North and his boss, Jennifer Salter, who seems quite taken with him. Salter tells Singh the gang is moving on soon, and he realises he must get the evidence in North's office. As Singh enters the office, Webb realises that Tyro Shaw has set them up, and Vik is abducted by North and Salter. Webb convinces Tyro to tell them where Vik was taken, and CID narrowly rescue him from being set alight.
#5 - Suffer the Little Children
Season 17 - Episode 40 - Aired 6/8/2001
DI Cullen leads a drugs raid on a warehouse owned by his old nemesis, Terry Barlow, but finds nothing. Cullen is furious with DC Glaze, whose snout tipped them off about drugs on the premises. PC Harker and PC Rickman deal with a domestic case involving an argumentative couple, the Carters, and their baby. Neither case makes any progress until a neighbour reports that Barlow has been to visit the Carters on several occasions. Determined to get one up on CID, Harker puts the pieces together and comes up with a theory that the Carters are putting their baby up for sale on the Guatemalan black market with the help of a doctor at St Hugh's, and Barlow is the broker. Despite warnings from Glaze, Harker presses on and is proven correct when they raid a hotel where the exchange has taken place. Baby Sean is recovered, and the police race to an office building where Jackie Carter is threatening to kill herself.
#6 - Happy and Glorious (1)
Season 17 - Episode 41 - Aired 6/15/2001
The Section House is closing, and Hollis is not only looking for a new place to live, but he is also applying for a transfer to SO14, the Royal Protection unit. He is about to buy a flat owned by an elderly friend, Doreen Tyler, but she changes her mind at the last minute, so he moves in with Stamp temporarily. Hollis's intuition gives CID an important lead on a planned armed robbery, but his uniformed colleagues conspire against him to have Klein organise the Section House closing party instead of him. Upset that his colleagues no longer value his credibility, Hollis decides to skip the party and goes round to visit Doreen, only to find her lying on her living room floor with head injuries.
#7 - Happy and Glorious (2)
Season 17 - Episode 42 - Aired 6/15/2001
With no alibi, Hollis is the prime suspect for Doreen's murder, and he is suspended from duty. While CID try to trace the victim's long lost daughter, with little to no information, Stamp and Klein try to find an alibi for Hollis. They interview a witness outside of Doreen's house, who claims that he saw Hollis hanging around the property more than hour before he stated that he arrived. With the evidence mounting, Stamp and Klein's only hope of clearing Hollis' name lies with a tom, who provides a statement claiming that Hollis was with her at the time of Doreen's death. When a scam involving her 'long-lost daughter' comes to light, Hollis is cleared and CID attempt to track the imposter down.
#8 - Gun Crazy (1)
Season 17 - Episode 43 - Aired 6/19/2001
A mad gunman is on the loose in Sun Hill. Chandler takes a personal interest in the case, but when he confides his reasons to a young woman who was threatened by the gunman, he is horrified to find she was a journalist and the story is published in the Sun Hill Gazette. Feeling unappreciated in the job, Meadows considers other options, and attempts to smooth things over with his long-suffering wife, Laura. Meadows teams up with McAllister and the two of them strike out on their own, and after a few close calls, arrest their prime suspect: a motor mechanic named Alan Merrick, who has a history of firearms offences. As they interview him, however, the gunman strikes again.
#9 - Gun Crazy (2)
Season 17 - Episode 44 - Aired 6/22/2001
Chandler and Cullen are not too pleased after Meadows and McAllister release their prime suspect, Alan Merrick. Meanwhile, Lennox receives a call from the Army, informing them of another possible suspect, a recent deserter named Jason Starr. As Meadows and the team capture Starr following a stake-out on the Larkmead estate, McAllister and reporter Andrea Roper are taken hostage by Merrick and Matty Fletcher after investigating the contents of Merrick's basement. As the situation intensifies, Merrick shoots Fletcher when he tries to leave the building, and is himself shot dead by SO19. Meadows and McAllister are congratulated by Chandler for their handling of the situation.
#10 - The Jury's Out
Season 17 - Episode 45 - Aired 6/26/2001
After a minor car accident in the High Street, Carver breathalyses an elderly man, but takes sympathy on him and allows him to leave in a taxi. The man turns out to be Hugh Alexander, a High Court judge with a renowned pro-police stance, and Carver finds himself suspected of showing bias, particularly when the other man involved in the accident threatens legal action against the Met. At the trial of a man accused of murdering a police officer, Worrell feels marginalised as a black officer when she is asked to testify and be a character witness for the dead officer. Conway meets with Gary Fablon, and discovers that Fablon is addicted to litigation, and the accident was his fault.
#11 - Billy the Kid
Season 17 - Episode 36 - Aired 5/15/2001
A ten-year-old boy who calls himself 'Billy the Kid' is arrested twice in one day, and when Sgt. Boyden speaks to him, he reveals he wanted to speak to the police without being a grass, and that he is concerned about his sister, Kate, an underage prostitute who is being used by her stepfather in a blackmail scam. DI Jane Edmonds from SCG arrives to investigate the scam. She flirts with Boyden - the two clearly have a previous history together - which stirs up the jealousy of Vicky Hagen. When Billy is hit by a car, he is abducted from St Hughs hospital by Kate and their stepfather Tom Adams, who is behind the blackmail and whom Kate is besotted with. Edmonds is all for arresting Adams when they use one of the previous victims in a sting operation, but Boyden risks letting him go so he will lead them to the missing kids.
#12 - Temptation
Season 17 - Episode 47 - Aired 7/3/2001
Clarke has been working double shifts all week, and goes behind Ackland's back to get some more overtime from Boyden as she is desperately in debt. Taviner promises her some time in the Area Car, much to Hollis's annoyance. Taviner and Clarke interview Warren Debdale, a student who was brutally beaten, but he insists he didn't know the perpetrators. His father suspects the boy's friends are involved, but Glaze discovers the father is being blackmailed by a drug smuggling gang. Assigned to watch Warren in the hospital, Clarke has a coffee with a nurse, and is horrified to find Warren missing when she returns. Clarke's flatmate then threatens to throw her out unless she pays the rent she owes.
#13 - Envy
Season 17 - Episode 48 - Aired 7/6/2001
Glaze is outraged when Clarke falls asleep on an obbo watching the Borrovitch brothers, who are suspected of running a protection racket. Taviner and Clarke then investigate the theft of stolen diggers on a building site. The main suspect is Mick Abbott, an occasional employee at the site, and when they visit him in the bus where he lives, his wife reacts angrily and attacks Clarke. Desperate to clear her debt, Clarke begins moonlighting in telesales at her flatmate's company. While out at a bar with her new co-workers, she spots the Borrovitch brothers, allowing Glaze to make a connection with the stolen diggers and German arms dealers, and a successful raid sees all the culprits behind bars.
#14 - Greed
Season 17 - Episode 49 - Aired 7/10/2001
Clarke fails her probationer exams, and goes AWOL instead of returning to the station. A gang of thieves on rollerblades are rampant in Sun Hill, and their mobility makes it very difficult for the police to catch them. Taviner arrests a girl, Jackie Burns, at a skate park, but she insists she was just watching the skaters. As the skate gang gets more violent, animosity between Worrell and Clarke also grows fiercer, and the two come to blows in the corridor. A tearful Clarke admits her debt problem to Taviner. Scrutinising CCTV footage reveals Jackie's involvement with the gang: she phones them when a potential victim withdraws money from an ATM. Clarke discovers her telesales commission has fallen through.
#15 - Redemption
Season 17 - Episode 50 - Aired 7/13/2001
Clarke unsuccessfully applies for a police loan. Taviner buys her a pushbike and suggests she sell her scooter, but she is far from impressed. Meanwhile, Carver and Rickman find a young boy, Gavin Billson, overdosed on drugs, and Glaze and Webb investigate some of the local dealers. When it turns out Gavin overdosed on diamorphine, and after several dead ends, suspicion falls on Dr Stuart Bremner, a doctor at St Hugh's, who is also the boyfriend of Clarke's friend Ruth. A review of the hospital's CCTV footage reveals Ruth herself sneaking into a storeroom, and Clarke is forced to arrest her best friend. When Ruth refuses to grass up her lover, Clarke finds herself in a very difficult position.
#16 - The Dark Side
Season 17 - Episode 51 - Aired 7/17/2001
Hayward breaks down during a talk with primary school pupils, when he is forced to talk about the death of his sister. Gilmore is not happy, but the teacher thinks Hayward's sensitivity will help the students get the message, and may also help them trust Hayward enough to report a bully. An old friend of his sister's asks him out, although when he meets her at a gallery opening, Hayward thinks her friends are dealing drugs. Klein and Hayward find the bully, "Red", who has been using two fierce dogs to steal money and mobile phones from school children. They trace the dogs to the flat of drug-addicted prostitute Stacy Dodds, and a search of her flat uncovers a large stash of heroin.
#17 - Angel Rooms
Season 17 - Episode 52 - Aired 7/21/2001
Hayward and Klein arrange to get their stories straight over the missing bag of heroin. Stacy insists her pimp forced her to deal drugs and have sex with "Red". Clarke ends up sleeping with "Phil the Pill", and is surprised when he turns up at Sun Hill the next day and announces himself as DC Phil Raven from the Drugs Squad. Raven arrests Benji Pullinger for intent to supply, but inevitably the missing bag is mentioned in the interview. Station gossip starts to point towards Klein, and Hayward confesses to Gilmore what really happened. While out at a nightclub with his new girlfriend, Fiona, Hayward sees Raven selling drugs, and discovers that he and Fiona are former acquaintances.
#18 - Paint it Black
Season 17 - Episode 53 - Aired 7/24/2001
With Klein's help, Hayward tries to set up a sting to catch Raven in the act, by offering to sell him the missing bag of heroin. They decide to meet in a car park, and Hayward, carrying a bag full of baking soda, is surprised when the tables are turned on him and Raven arrests him for possession. Klein's doubts about an unstable Hayward seem to be justified when his friend puts his life in the hands of Raven, and the undercover cop begins to show his unconventional methods. Meanwhile, back at the station, suspicions begin to grow about Hayward's innocence, and the relief are flabbergasted when they discover that Hayward has been arrested for possession with intent to supply.
#19 - Eye of the Lens
Season 17 - Episode 54 - Aired 7/31/2001
Chandler assigns Spears to a project involving CCTV cameras in the area. When a number of cameras are damaged, two youths who have threatened one of the operators, Pat Spencer, are suspected, but the culprit turns out to be Robert Slade, whom the youths call "weird". Spears discovers that Robert lives in community care, and in interview, he reveals that he thinks the cameras are specifically spying on him. Hollis finds a picture that Slade has taken of a shopping centre security guard, Tony Malone, being given an envelope by known robber Roger Franklin, who has just finished doing time. Cullen assigns both Singh and Spears to find out how all these disparate players are involved in the operation.
#20 - Lies of Silence
Season 17 - Episode 27 - Aired 4/13/2001
On temporary assignment to the Serious Crime Group, DC Lennox is surprised to find Liz Rawton is Acting DI at SCG. The body of a young girl, later identified as Hayley Mills, is found in a concrete slab in a cement works. Rawton and Lennox question the new owner of the cement works, Digby Leake, and Rawton tells Lennox off for his aggressive approach to the case. Hayley's ex-boyfriend tells them of a modelling agency which doubled as an escort service where Hayley worked and that Hayley was pregnant, and the owner Leon Walsh is certainly suspiscious, especially when the police find a car of his containing Hayley's blood. Forensics reveals that Hayley died of an ectopic pregnancy, and was not murdered, Leake admits that he was the father and that his assistant Harry Rawlings dumped the body when Hayley died from the complications. Lennox forms a bond with Hayley's friend Karen, who confides to him that Rawlings and Leon are involved in smuggling heroin from Hong Kong.
#21 - Family Honour
Season 17 - Episode 7 - Aired 1/26/2001
Supt. Chandler is speaking at a meeting on the Larkmead Estate, but vandalism and a petrol bomb cut short his talk. Sgt. Ackland is called to the house of local MP Stephen Hadley and his wife Fiona, where their infant child has died of serious injuries. Forensic examination reveals the baby was thrown to the floor, and Fiona Hadley says her husband was responsible. Hadley is arrested, but denies her claim. A lack of evidence sees him released, but he is arrested again for beating his wife when he returns home. It turns out the Hadleys' other child knocked the baby's high chair over.
#22 - Words of Wisdom
Season 17 - Episode 8 - Aired 1/30/2001
After an ear-bending from Marsha Harris, Supt. Chandler is determined to bring to an end the one-boy crime wave on the Larkmead Estate caused by resident hooligan Peter Rogers. Chandler persuades Sgt. Ackland to talk to Peter's mother, and also tries to get Marsha Harris's daughter Cassie to make a statement to the police against Rogers, but both are too scared of the boy to comply. When Cassie Harris is found half-drowned in a river, and PCs Stamp and Hollis turn up a CCTV tape of Rogers smashing up cars, it seems they may be able to put him away at last - although it turns out that Cassie's drowning was self-inflicted and the CCTV tape is actually Peter's brother Gavin trying to frame him for criminal damage.
#23 - Faultline
Season 17 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/23/2001
Dave Quinnan just stands and watches as a shopkeeper and a young woman are attacked by a gang of thugs at his local corner shop. When he finally turns up at the station, he identifies the leader of the gang as Robbie Gaitskill. Polly Page turns up in tears, and she and the rest of the relief are concerned as Dave seems to be cracking up. The crackheads arrested the previous night identify Quinnan as the policeman who attacked them. As Hagen and Page try to find him, Quinnan goes AWOL and tracks down the woman from the shop, Tricia Martin, and demands she tell him Gaitskill's address. Half the relief turn up on Gaitskill's doorstep, only to find Quinnan sitting in a car outside. Gaitskill is arrested, and Quinnan is told by Supt. Chandler to take his sick leave and seek professional counselling.
#24 - Long Shadows (2)
Season 17 - Episode 17 - Aired 3/6/2001
Under pressure from Supt. Chandler and the NCS to release Phil Brown, DCI Meadows convinces Moira Scott to admit to George Stubbs's involvement in the armed robbery as well as drug dealing. DC Kate Spears goes undercover as a cocaine buyer, and with some help from NCS and SO19, they catch Stubbs and his supplier red-handed with the drugs. During his interview, Stubbs makes an allegation of corruption against Supt. Chandler. Before he calls in CIB, DI Cullen convinces Meadows he's only been told half the story.
#25 - Higher Power
Season 17 - Episode 18 - Aired 3/9/2001
PC Jim Carver attends to a drug dealer found badly beaten on the Larkmead Estate, but finds himself in a dilemma when a friend Ossie from his AA group confesses to the crime. DS McAllister follows Carver when he tries to convince his friend to turn himself in, and to his horror, Ossie is arrested shortly after. Carver realises that Ossie had suffered an alcoholic blackout at the time, and that the real beating was committed by a rival drug dealer on the Larkmead. Meanwhile, Uniform contend with the BIC gang, a group of youths harassing local shopkeepers.