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 - Real Crime
Season 17 - Episode 12 - Aired 2/13/2001
DC Kate Spears is assigned to a domestic violence case, but is alarmed when DC Mickey Webb realises the perpetrator, Neil Hayes, is also a suspect in a series of truck hijackings he is investigating, and requests he be bailed so he can lead them to the gang. Spears's sympathy for the victim, Lisa Hayes, starts to wear thin when she refuses to press charges, harasses Spears at work, and then is discovered to be having an affair with Hayes's boss.
#2 - Upon Information Received
Season 17 - Episode 3 - Aired 1/12/2001
CID investigate a spate of car thefts, and DS McAllister's informant Jamie Ross gives her a tip-off about a gang of French car thieves working in the area. Ross is reluctant to name his contact though, who turns out to be Joe Riley, DC Paul Riley's brother. The gang is arrested, but are broken out of Canley Crown Court by a trio armed with shotguns. An SO19 raid on Joe Riley's lock-up sees them in custody again, but DC Riley must work hard to hide his brother's involvement, particularly as Ross informs McAllister that it goes deeper than Riley thinks.
#3 - No Victim
Season 17 - Episode 4 - Aired 1/16/2001
PC Worrell and PC Quinnan attend to a woman threatening to jump off a bridge. She turns out to be Sarah Collins, the wife of Terry Collins, a DS at Stafford Row CID. Despite the doubts of some of her colleagues, PC Worrell is determined to pursue the matter as a domestic violence case. She convinces Sarah to make a statement and testify in court by telling Sarah of her own experience with domestic violence. The case is dismissed, however - Sarah becomes reluctant to testify, and there are doubts about her character. When Worrell goes to check on her at the Collins house, she finds that Sarah has murdered her husband. Meanwhile, Dave Quinnan struggles to find the right time to tell his wife about his affair with Polly Page.
#4 - Common Language
Season 17 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/19/2001
A young Russian girl leads Dale Smith out of a nightclub, where he is promptly attacked by three men. Despite Smith's protests, Supt. Chandler assigns DI Cullen to investigate the assault. They track down the Russian woman, Natasha Ivanova, through a language school which seems to be recruiting students to work as prostitutes. Natasha is desperate as her visa is about to expire, and her sister has disappeared. Her sister is found murdered, and Smith realises the men responsible for her death and his assault are linked to a man from his old army unit (episode: Blurred Around the Edges).
#5 - PC Smith
Season 17 - Episode 6 - Aired 1/23/2001
Hoping it will convince Supt. Chandler to endorse his transfer to SO19, PC Smith volunteers with PC Klein to 'babysit' Clive Allein, the victim of a gay bashing who is reluctantly testifying against his assailant, Gary Cook, in court the next day. Smith nearly blows it when his angry reaction to Clive's partner Ian Jones's teasing causes Jones to run off, where he is promptly attacked. Allein refuses to testify, until Smith convinces him otherwise. The trial goes ahead, and the attacker is found guilty, but further threats from Cook's friend Paul Taylor cause Ian to storm off again, this time he goes missing. Smith and Klein fear the worst when a stabbing victim is reported, but it turns out to be Paul Taylor who is the vicitm, and Ian Jones the attacker.
#6 - 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.
#7 - 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.
#8 - Out of the Frying Pan
Season 17 - Episode 9 - Aired 2/2/2001
DS McAllister continues to get useful tip offs from her informant and lover, Jamie Ross, including one about an armed raid on a betting shop. Meanwhile, there's a war brewing on Sun Hill turf between rival hot dog vendors, one of whom is DC Paul Riley's brother Joe. When Joe Riley's lockup is set on fire and several of his vendors attacked, PCs Hollis and Hayward and DC Riley go undercover as hot dog vendors to catch those responsible.
#9 - Mexican Stand-Off
Season 17 - Episode 10 - Aired 2/6/2001
DS McAllister pushes her informant and lover Jamie Ross too far when she tapes a privileged conversation between Ross and a client who admits to intimidating a witness in a court case. When Ross makes an official complaint against her, she turns to DC Riley for help and threatens to expose his cover-up of his brother's involvement with the French car gang unless he backs her up and says that he was present at all her meetings with Ross.
#10 - Cruise Control
Season 17 - Episode 11 - Aired 2/9/2001
DC Webb poses as a 'rent-boy' in Eddington Park, a well-known gay beat in Sun Hill, as he and DC Lennox investigate a series of brutal attacks on gay men in the area. A car alarm alerts Webb and Lennox to the car of a local MP parked in the bushes. When questioned, the MP claims he was car-jacked and certainly was not 'cruising' in the park. He threatens legal action and Supt. Chandler moves quickly to prevent further damage to Sun Hill's reputation. A helpful security guard offers the police an observation post in a nearby office building, but Webb is suspiscious of the guard's attitude.
#11 - The Morning After
Season 16 - Episode 86 - Aired 12/29/2000
PCs Quinnan and Page are acting suspiciously, and try to rekindle their affair without their colleagues noticing.
#12 - Home and Away
Season 17 - Episode 13 - Aired 2/16/2001
Supt. Chandler is outraged when he finds out about the aggravated burglary of a deaf and blind woman in the local paper rather than from CID. Reg Hollis overhears Matt Boyden gossiping to Vicky Hagen about Dave and Polly, and soon the news of their affair is all over the station. Accompanied by a reporter from the newspaper, CID and Uniform raid the house of suspected burgler Mick Corcoran, but when Corcoran attacks Polly Page, he is brutally beaten by Quinnan and requires hospital treatment. Sgt. Boyden arranges tickets for a charity ball, but the limo breaks down and they all take refuge in a country pub, where Jenny Quinnan finally works out that Dave is having an affair.
#13 - Going Under
Season 17 - Episode 14 - Aired 2/20/2001
Dave Quinnan arrives late after rowing with Jenny all night. Ever the troublemaker, Sgt. Boyden sends him out on patrol with Polly Page, Tony Stamp and Vicky Hagen. Quinnan and Page have trouble keeping their mind on the job, and this gets dangerous when Stamp is attacked by a gang of thugs on the DLR and Quinnan is nowhere to be seen. When Jenny leaves him and returns to Dublin, Dave starts to crack up. He puts on his uniform after his shift and goes on a vigilante mission to find the gang responsible for the attack on Stamp. DC Webb gets an anonymous call and finds some of the gang members tied up and sprayed with pepper spray.
#14 - 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.
#15 - Long Shadows (1)
Season 17 - Episode 16 - Aired 3/2/2001
When DC Lennox is accused of planting evidence in an armed robbery case, DCI Meadows is determined to charge the suspect's accomplice, Phil Brown. Unfortunately, Brown claims to have been an informant for DS Don Beech, which makes Supt. Chandler determined to drop the case. When an old friend of Meadows' reveals that George Stubbs had previously bribed Chandler's DS at Park Rise, Meadows realises he has some ammunition against Chandler. Meanwhile Sgt. Boyden and PC Hagen help PC Roz Clarke recover her ASP when it is stolen while pursuing a robbery suspect.
#16 - 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.
#17 - 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.
#18 - Touched By Evil
Season 17 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/16/2001
PC Roz Clarke is on attachment to CID, and puts up with the usual teasing from the detectives and her uniform colleagues. She cracks the case she is working on with DC Glaze though, when she realises that a series of break-ins are all one surname in the phone book. When Ch. Insp. Conway and DI Cullen attend a rugby match between the Met and the Army, Conway is abducted when a disgruntled soldier decides to take revenge on those responsible for the abuse he received while at a children's home.
#19 - The Leopard (1)
Season 17 - Episode 20 - Aired 3/20/2001
PC Smith and PC Klein attend to Mr Kennedy, whose house and garden shed have been attacked by vandals repeatedly over the past few weeks. When Kennedy threatens to take matters into his own hands, Smith casually comments that he wouldn't blame him if he did. Smith and Klein both apply for new jobs - Smith submits his application to SO19 and Supt. Chandler wants Klein to take the position of partnership officer at the Town Hall. When Kennedy shoots a young boy, and insists that PC Smith told him to do so, Klein reluctantly confirms what was said, and Smith accuses him of grassing him up. After attacking Klein in the corridor, and under investigation by CIB, Smith is suspended from duty.
#20 - All Fall Down (2)
Season 16 - Episode 72 - Aired 10/31/2000
The future of Sun Hill CID hangs in the balance; Stanton, meanwhile, is on a personal mission to catch Beech.
#21 - Old Enemies
Season 16 - Episode 62 - Aired 9/26/2000
PC Carver stops a driver who appears a little the worse for wear – former DS Ted Roach. He opens up and says he is after a villain from his past, and rekindles his relationship with a former informant.
#22 - New Friends
Season 16 - Episode 63 - Aired 9/29/2000
Former DS Ted Roach, now working as a private investigator, helps Sun Hill CID nail local villain Mickey Owen.
#23 - Supping with the Devil
Season 16 - Episode 64 - Aired 10/3/2000
DS Don Beech is bribed by 'businessman' Howard Fallon to find who hijacked one of his lorries. DS Geoff Daly is suspicious when Beech tries to get involved with the investigation.
#24 - Touch and Go
Season 16 - Episode 65 - Aired 10/4/2000
Beech is alarmed when his mobile number is amongst the possessions of Rachel Booker, a dancer at one of Howard Fallon's clubs, when she is attacked.
#25 - Fake Fur
Season 16 - Episode 66 - Aired 10/6/2000
Another dancer at Howard Fallon's club reveals a money laundering operation to DS Stanton and DS Boulton.