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 - Denial
Season 15 - Episode 70 - Aired 11/4/1999
Carver loses a lot of friends when they realize how much he has changed; self-interested and drinking to excess, he finally goes too far.
#2 - Trade-Off
Season 15 - Episode 61 - Aired 9/30/1999
Beech pulls rank when Glaze arrests one of his informants, and they agree on a deal which Glaze lives to regret.
#3 - Treading Water
Season 15 - Episode 62 - Aired 10/5/1999
PCs Jim Carver and Cass Rickman wander through a CID obbo, allowing suspect Micky Harris to go free. Trying to make amends, Carver tries to contact a former snout from his CID days, Steve Raines. As they make enquiries, Carver's old friend, nightclub manager Alan Brooks notices Carver's dissatisfaction with uniform work and offers him a job as security manager at his club. Carver finds Raines, now a junkie, who gives Rickman a duff lead on a building society robbery. Carver convinces Raines's estranged wife Alice to give him a second chance, and eventually Raines agrees to testify against Harris. With the nightclub job all but his, Carver reluctantly prepares to hand in his notice, but when the job just as quickly falls through, he turns to a hip flask of vodka in his locker to console himself...
#4 - Look Again
Season 15 - Episode 63 - Aired 10/7/1999
Poor old Reg Hollis faces tragedy when he uncovers a protection racket on a housing estate.
#5 - Love and War (1)
Season 15 - Episode 64 - Aired 10/12/1999
Garfield is anxious to know where he stands with Jenny; Quinnan is behaving strangely, and seems to have something to hide.
#6 - Love and War (2)
Season 15 - Episode 65 - Aired 10/14/1999
Crime fighting takes a back seat as Quinnan and Garfield clash.
#7 - Hot Money
Season 15 - Episode 66 - Aired 10/19/1999
Burnside and Meadows take a gamble when they set up an undercover operation in a local casino.
#8 - Crash Landing
Season 15 - Episode 67 - Aired 10/21/1999
A plane makes a crash landing in Sun Hill, plunging Daly into an investigation in which his ex-lover plays an uncomfortably crucial role.
#9 - Father's Day
Season 15 - Episode 68 - Aired 10/28/1999
Family ties are rekindled at Sun Hill; Boyden's estranged daughter asks him for protection and when Boyden helps her out, they start to rekindle their relationship.
#10 - Sweet Sixteen
Season 15 - Episode 69 - Aired 11/2/1999
Skase feels he is the laughingstock of CID when he is abducted and robbed by a gang of teenage girls and he's determined to get revenge.
#11 - The Three Sergeants
Season 15 - Episode 60 - Aired 9/28/1999
Sgt. Matt Boyden is not looking forward to another night shift in Custody, but a noisy prisoner demanding food turns out to be the least of his worries. Sgt. June Ackland and PC Dale Smith bring in a drunk and disorderly vagrant who they nickname 'Olly'. Chaos sets in as a drink-driver, some cat-fighting prostitutes, an immigration officer with two deportees and two lay visitors conducting a surprise inspection arrive. As the F.M.E. takes a blood test from the drink driver, Boyden has Olly placed in a cell to rest. When the lay visitors inspect his cell, he is dead. Faced with a death in custody, Ch. Supt. Brownlow calls in CIB, and the three Sergeants on duty, Boyden, Ackland and Cryer argue amongst themselves over who was responsible. Ackland manages to find Olly's real identity, and his widow threatens to sue the Met, but June talks her out of it and discovers that his wife blames herself for his death.
#12 - Walking the Line
Season 15 - Episode 71 - Aired 11/9/1999
A Polish shopkeeper tells police he was attacked by three black youths, and DC Lennox and DC Proctor arrest the main suspect, Davy Rawlings. After an attempted escape, Rawlings accuses Lennox of racial abuse, saying that he called him a 'black bastard' during the arrest. As usual, Ch. Supt. Brownlow scrambles into damage control with more regard for the Met's public image than for the welfare of his officers.
#13 - Cover Stories
Season 15 - Episode 72 - Aired 11/16/1999
Burnside discovers Carver's drinking habit, but he has secrets of his own to protect.
#14 - Security
Season 15 - Episode 73 - Aired 11/18/1999
Quinnan tries to catch the person who is threatening his friend, making it difficult to find the right moment to propose.
#15 - Up in Smoke (1)
Season 15 - Episode 74 - Aired 11/23/1999
DCI Meadows and DC Skase are furious when PC Jim Carver turns up drunk to give evidence in a court case - evidence which is so unreliable the judge throws the case out of court. As his colleagues begin to realise the extent of Carver's problems, Insp. Monroe decides to put him on an easy task - escorting a convoy of confiscated drugs to a Home Office depot for destruction. As Carver enjoys a sly drink with depot floorman Vernon Liggett, he accidentally mentions the convoy's destination. The next day, he and Stamp drop behind as Carver dashes out to be sick. When they catch up, the convoy is under attack from four armed men. With little regard for his own safety, Carver dashes forward and tackles one of the men, who abandon their assault, although an SO19 officer is shot during the raid. Despite his heroics that day, Carver is in trouble for breaking procedure, and it could be far worse as there could be an inquiry into how the convoy route was known.
#16 - Up in Smoke (2)
Season 15 - Episode 75 - Aired 11/25/1999
DCI Scanlon from Kent Constabulary arrives to investigate the attack on the Home Office convoy. PC Jim Carver pays Vernon Liggett a visit, but he denies any involvment. Scanlon and Meadows interview the warehouse staff, with Liggett high on their list of suspects, but when DC Lennox goes to his flat, Liggett has disappeared. One of Liggett's colleagues mentions him drinking with a copper named Jim, and Lennox confronts Carver and demands he admit his mistake to Meadows. Insp. Monroe makes Carver go on leave, but when Carver returns to the station he is so drunk he passes out in the yard. Sgt. Ackland and hide him in the FME's room and a van, but he ends up in the Elcott Arms where Lennox drags him out and forces him to confess. Tracing a call Liggett made from the pub to a hotel, Lennox poses as a taxi driver to drive their suspect to a nightclub where he and his associates are arrested in an SO19 raid.
#17 - Homework
Season 15 - Episode 76 - Aired 11/30/1999
Sgt. June Ackland is planning a romantic evening alone with her new boyfriend, Steve Bryant, when her neighbour arrives from across the street with a shotgun she found under the floorboards of her lodger's room. CID arrive and want to set up an obbo - with June's flat as the perfect location.
#18 - Knowing You
Season 15 - Episode 77 - Aired 12/2/1999
Holmes falls out with Proctor when he publicly undermines her.
#19 - Consumers
Season 15 - Episode 78 - Aired 12/7/1999
Jim Carver has gone missing. Among the relief fears for his safety grow when a youth is arrested in possession of his credit card.
#20 - Wedded Bliss
Season 15 - Episode 46 - Aired 7/27/1999
PC Smith and PC Rickman deal with a disturbance at a registry office that leads to Proctor and Holmes discovering an immigration scam.
#21 - Lone Ranger
Season 15 - Episode 33 - Aired 6/1/1999
PC Eddie Santini tries to convince his lover, Jess Orton, to set him up with some drug dealers - he wants out of Sun Hill, and DS Timpney, his friend in Area Drugs, has promised him a place in the squad if Santini can get him evidence on them. At parade, Sgt. Bob Cryer assigns the relief a door-knocking campaign to warn the elderly residents of the area about two bogus callers posing as social workers who are responsible for a string of robberies. Leaving PC Hagen to cover for him, Santini meets Jessica, but not before hearing the culprits have been following the local Meals-On-Wheels van. Jessica has met up with an old friend, Ferguson, who is a big-time drugs importer. She wants Eddie to pose as her husband when they next meet to seal the deal. When Eddie returns to duty, Cryer is furious. An old army Major has had all his medals stolen by the bogus callers, and Santini had neglected to warn him. A desperate Santini gets Hagen to investigate the Major, and finds his claim is a scam.
#22 - Old Flame
Season 15 - Episode 34 - Aired 6/8/1999
As he and PC Quinnan investigate a burglar alarm, PC Eddie Santini sees Jessica Orton meeting covertly with Ferguson. Making excuses, Santini borrows the panda car and races to the Ortons' club where he confronts Jessica. As she storms off, there is a huge explosion. Santini is shocked when one of the officers assigned by AMIP to investigate the explosion is his old nemesis, DS Rosie Fox. Fox is suspiscious of Santini's involvement, but her colleagues put it down to the animosity between them. As Santini returns to his flat, where his lover PC Vicky Hagen is waiting, he is kidnapped by Ferguson who assigns him the task of picking up a consignment of drugs from Amsterdam.
#23 - Kiss Off
Season 15 - Episode 36 - Aired 6/22/1999
Vicki Hagen finds Eddie Santini's tickets to Amsterdam, and questions him about them, but he is evasive. DCI Pallister takes DS Fox off the Jessica Orton case after her accusations against Santini, but she decides to do some investigation of her own. Santini, meanwhile, acquires a gun and some Class-A drugs to plant in Ferguson's boss's house when DS Timpney and the Area Drugs Squad raid it. Fox stumbles upon the house and is captured by Ferguson. His boss Mr Sherman is displeased that Santini allowed a police officer to find them. When Area Drugs arrive at Sun Hill for the raid, CID realise that both Santini and Fox are in trouble. Sure enough, Ferguson's radio scanner warns him of the forthcoming raid and he locks Santini in the same room as Fox. The two argue, but are pulled apart when Santini attacks Fox. She manages to escape, and Sherman's men are intercepted by SO19. Back at Sun Hill, Fox realises the keys in Hagen's possession are Jessica Orton's - and she arrests Santini for murder.
#24 - Foreign Body
Season 15 - Episode 37 - Aired 6/24/1999
An armed robber dies after his car crashes during a chase with the police, and the body of an English woman is found in the boot. When it appears she has been murdered, D.C.I. Meadows and D.C. Skase head to France to interview the suspect's sister.
#25 - Borderline
Season 15 - Episode 38 - Aired 6/29/1999
New PC Cass Rickman loses a gun that Beech believes was used in a recent shooting.