the bill: classic or dud

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i've searched and searched to no avail for a Bill thread. so who loves it like we Australians do?

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 01:31 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.apocalypse.org/pub/u/gilly/Schoolhouse_Rock/pix/bill.jpg

― ron (ron), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 01:38 (twenty-two years ago)

this is officially the last thread i ever start.

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 02:17 (twenty-two years ago)

I love the bill! Last nights ep with the unexpected death was quite the suprise. I havent paid as much attention to it lately as I'd like, thanks to it being on twice a week, but yeah.

They kill off way too many characters though.

What do people prefer - the old style single-story episodes or this new ongoing soap format?

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 02:21 (twenty-two years ago)

http://wsp3.wspice.com/~bsawyer/imagemills/celeb/bill-clinton.jpg

― ron (ron), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 04:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I much prefer the oldschool episodes. Ever since it got all soapy I can't stand it.

― Andrew (enneff), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 05:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah a lot of people I know say that. I am finding it a lot harder to keep up with having to pay all this attention but I do still like watching it. The Jim alcoholism story line was really good.

― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 05:52 (twenty-two years ago)

esoj this was for YEARS my favourite programme!!

i too think it has tumbled a long way downhill lately

the deathless cult of eddie santini

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 08:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I used to really like the Bill, but now I have to pay it the fire has gone out somewhat.

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 09:32 (twenty-two years ago)

the fire was a turning point, unfortunately, not least bcz it rid the series of DEREK CONWAY, who wz possibly my favourite character on tv evah!! testy, tubby, a middle-aged redhead caught always between astonishment and resignation at the uselessness of the world and/or his colleagues/bosses

things i still like:

how it deals with the induction of green young cops
how it deals with grizzled old-timers (conway excepted YOU BASTARDS)

the current attempt to overglamourise CID is tremendously irritating: if i wanted to watch uber-rub like THE VICE i would watch it

plz end all:
stories abt child porn rings
stories abt serial killers

i have been watching the bill for longer than chupa cabras has been alive
june ackland and jim carvah!!

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 10:00 (twenty-two years ago)

for years it seriously had the best character acting and deftest half-hour plotting (i speet on yr softly softly) but no more, alas, no more

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 10:03 (twenty-two years ago)

i used to really watch it when from what 13-18. hardly missed an episode.

now its dull like all TV.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 10:04 (twenty-two years ago)

The half hours were a masterpiece of form. Did get a bit tales of the unexpectedy near the end of that run since it was never the bloke they first collared.

I love Sun Hill, and I live on the Jasmine Allen.

(Who is the Jasmine Allen named after? Surely not this person:
http://mystoryland2.topcities.com/BME/allen_jasmine.html)

― Pete (Pete), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 10:17 (twenty-two years ago)

*remind self to get jasmine's phone no*

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 10:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Classic. Best show on tv. Not least because of this exchange:

Kerry: He thinks hes got you by the nuts, but actually you've got him by the nuts.
Smithy: Everybody's got someone by the nuts kerry, it's human nature.

genius.
btw, i've never been tempted to post before, but the Bill, wow.

― Richard Pattison, Wednesday, 2 July 2003 12:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I do admit its going downhill though. What's with all the ex-eastenders?
Mark Fowler as PC Gabriel Something-or-other.
Worst character ever. Even worse than Honey Harmond.

― Richard Pattison, Wednesday, 2 July 2003 12:11 (twenty-two years ago)

yes it used to be a kick-off point for unknowns, young AND old, now it's a haven for, well, soap has-beens?

(a v.young jim carver can be seen in quadrophenia btw, wearing a porkpie hat!!)

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 12:14 (twenty-two years ago)

About half of TV is a haven for soap has-beens - Holby City is another key spot, and all mainline Sunday night TV set a few decades ago or in the countryside which is much the same thing, or both.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 16:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Old Bill: dud

New Bill: classic

I particularly like it when they use the Family Affairs set round the corner because they know that 99% of their viewers won't notice

― j0e (j0e), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 16:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Used to be total classic, now a bit like a crap soap opera in its own right. Still v.v. watchable, though slightly ruined by the breakup of the wondrous double act that is Reg and Des :)

Gina Gold = k-classic. One of the best TV characters going.

They were filming it outside one of the other branches of the company that I work for on Monday - one of my colleagues emailed me to tell me he'd just seen Mickey Webb run past his window.

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 16:33 (twenty-two years ago)

reg and des were classic, BUT that whole des being chased by racists storyline was ridiculous. Remember when Des told Reg that he was responsible for burning down the station, killing half of their friends? Reg was like "oh never mind, you've suffered enough" and it was never mentioned again

Kathy Bradford: 100% dud

― richard pattison, Wednesday, 2 July 2003 19:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Ew, Des and one of the Nolans :(

The Cathy Bradford storyline is one of the reasons I feel I may finally give up on watching the Bill (that and characters like Honey and Gary, and the way they keep killing everyone off / lezzing everyone up to keep the ratings high...) but it's like Coronation Street in that it's kind of dependable and watchable even when it's crap.

(N.B. I am aware at this juncture that I am turning into my mum, and I am only a couple of steps away from watching Heartbeat or somesuch)

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 19:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Gina is indeed ace and Cathy B is indeed awful. but you gotta have someone to hate. if anything would stop me watching it would be the continued luck of smuggy Phil Hunter but i have a feeling that's all about to change.

classic btw

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 2 July 2003 22:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I liked Mickey Webb... what happened to him, did they kill him too? I miss way too much of the show these days.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 3 July 2003 00:36 (twenty-two years ago)

nah he's still around. i don't really understand how anyone could dip in and out of the series now, not like you could with, say, neighbours or days of our lives

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Thursday, 3 July 2003 00:51 (twenty-two years ago)

It's not been the same since they changed the theme tune.

― Miss Marianna, Friday, 4 July 2003 08:33 (twenty-two years ago)

I used to love it when they occasionally did a "silly" episode (idea blatantly nicked by Joss Whedon). I can't remember the precise details but I do recall a trio of incompetent scottich car thieves constantly tapping the sides of their noses and saying "if you don't say nothing they've got nothing" whilst swanning about in a preposterous cadillac.

― Matt (Matt), Saturday, 5 July 2003 01:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't know the show you people are talking about. We had a tropical storm / hurricane here in New Orleans named Bill, which I thought was a dud. Thank you and good night.

― jewelly (jewelly), Saturday, 5 July 2003 04:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Not a particularly original argument I know, but it's had the gong. Classic example of a show gone one series too many. Now it can't make up its mind whether it wants to be Hill Street Blues or Coronation Street and it isn't the offcuts of either.

― Karen, Saturday, 5 July 2003 04:53 (twenty-two years ago)

five years pass...

http://images.mirror.co.uk/upl/m4/nov2008/6/4/DF43C7E9-0AE2-F7B8-16B4349AB192578D.jpg

Amazing picture of Reg Hollis. He's morphing into Jarvis Cocker.

― NickB, Friday, 28 November 2008 13:49 (sixteen years ago)

It was revealed in 1996 that Jeff and girlfriend Katy Kass, daughter of Joan Collins and 17 years his junior, visited seedy London bondage clubs.

Miss Collins was reported as saying he had “corrupted” Katy.

― Peter "One Dart" Manley (The stickman from the hilarious 'xkcd' comics), Friday, 28 November 2008 13:51 (sixteen years ago)

Oh shit, I didn't scroll down to that bit.

― NickB, Friday, 28 November 2008 13:52 (sixteen years ago)

There needs to be an unlikely nutjobs thread if there isn't one already.

― NickB, Friday, 28 November 2008 13:54 (sixteen years ago)

two years pass...

Maybe a reunion episode showing that they were all in the pay of the Murdochs.

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 19 July 2011 21:28 (fourteen years ago)

Were there cellphones at the time?

― Nathalie (stevienixed), Wednesday, 20 July 2011 21:02 (fourteen years ago)

Rotary ones.

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 20 July 2011 21:29 (fourteen years ago)

seven years pass...

woke up thinking about tosh from the bill

― findom haddie (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 30 May 2019 16:40 (six years ago)

this website is amazing however

http://www.thesantinists.freeservers.com/guest_book.html

― findom haddie (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 30 May 2019 16:47 (six years ago)

jesus christ

― a promiscuous, flighty art student looking for love (bizarro gazzara), Thursday, 30 May 2019 16:56 (six years ago)

don't sneer at my website plz

― mark s, Thursday, 30 May 2019 17:02 (six years ago)

"anyone fancy a smooth italian"

― findom haddie (jim in vancouver), Thursday, 30 May 2019 17:17 (six years ago)

Terrifying. pic.twitter.com/mreuVIHUVQ
— Trevor Bastard CEO & Co-Founder Grannymugger Media (@GRANNYMUGGER) June 1, 2019

― calzino, Saturday, 1 June 2019 13:32 (six years ago)

good not bad

― mark s, Saturday, 1 June 2019 13:34 (six years ago)

I always wondered whether 'Tosh Lines' was a comment on the poor quality of the script.

― Portsmouth Bubblejet, Saturday, 1 June 2019 20:17 (six years ago)

I still need to get around to overdubbing that Assange dragged out of the embassy footage with the original theme to The Bill

― Tokyo Ghetto Stüssy (King Boy Pato), Sunday, 2 June 2019 03:34 (six years ago)

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