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Bill actor attempts suicide

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The Bill actor Jeff Stewart, who played PC Reg Hollis, slashed his wrists on Monday after being told his contract would not be renewed.

The 52-year-old actor was the only original 1984 cast member left on the show.

Stewart cut his wrists in his dressing room at the south London studios where the show is filmed but then telephoned for help. Security staff found him and called an ambulance.

Stewart was suspended for a week from the show shortly before Christmas following a furious on-set outburst but later dismissed.

An unnamed source linked to the program said Stewart’s suicide bid had been “a desperate cry for help”.

“It’s extremely sad,” the source said. “He is in hospital and is being cared for.”

Source: Yahoo / AAP

9 Responses

  1. He and Des made the best team. Now those were some funny story lines.

    I agree with Audience Member. Despite the change in times, the Bill managed to carry itself quite well. Around 2000 it went down hill. There were just too many story lines involving interpersonal relationships, crooked cops and drug usage. I have “given it a go” quite recently and I’ll admit there have been slight changes. But nothing too dramatic and certainly nothing that makes me want to waste my time watching it frequently.

    Reg being gone is the icing on the cake. Reg had such a deep loveable character and he was always up to something whacky that made you laugh.

    I’m not Derry Hinch but I’m signing off anyway.

  2. How terrible. I’m shocked. Cannot imagine The Bill without him. I hope he gets over his depression, it’s a crippling mental illness. Good luck Reg, you have many followers who love you!

  3. Audience member, if you haven’t already give the bill another go, while there are a few story lines that are serialised, many of the episodes are now self contained and each has a name again. With Paul Marquees having been out of the way for a while now as Exec Producer the soap suds have cleared and its getting back to what we used to know and love..give it a shot!

  4. I dunno audience guy.
    A show will change regardless of writers, actors, directors, producers, networks, grips, best boys.
    1984, thats a long long time ago and you can hardly expect them to be running around with mullets and ignore the changes in technology etc etc what not. Shows dont last forever, the format gets stale, the writers run out of ideas for characters, and his reaction is sad yes, but one has to keep on rolling.
    You cant please everyone, and sometimes the viewer can outgrow the show rather than the show outgrowing the viewer. I liked Big Brother back in 2001-02 but not anymore. I blame my aging process rather than the format, but like you said the demographic will always be there and new viewers will tune in.

  5. Isn’t is sad how writers think they create a TV shows popularity – since the cast have been continually changed the show has taken on a different persona – in the worst possible way. The original cast members had the public’s interest – THEY created a show people wanted to watch – but as with all ENGLISH TV shows they degenrate into a directors “cut” with – “current Topics” being the theme rather than an interesting story line. Still gives a chance to any new show, no matter how bad, to get an audence

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