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Report: The Bill reboot in development

Yet to be greenlit, but new version could see veterans as consultants for young recruits.

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Long-running UK police drama The Bill could be getting a reboot.

British reports suggest a new version is still in early development and has not yet been greenlit. But should it get the go-ahead it is expected to feature three former stars: Graham Cole, Trudie Goodwin, and Mark Wingett as PC Tony Stamp, Sgt June Ackland and DC Jim Carver, respectively.

The plan is for the established cast members to be joined by some fresh faces, with the plot seeing the old hands acting as consultants for the new Sun Hill recruits.

According to reports the project began to pick up pace last year when members of the original cast met to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the show’s final episode.

“Simon (Sansome, writer) started investigating the rights and managed to acquire them. Three of the best-known stars are in talks and he’s hopeful he can get them on board. Tony [McHale, EastEnders writer and Holby City creator] has seen the script and they hope they can get him signed up too,” an unnamed source suggests.

The original series ran for 27-years between 1983 and 2010 and screened in Australia on ABC.

Source: Radio Times

25 Responses

  1. I note the repeats on Free To Air were showing eps with Ciaran Griffiths recently, have I missed Scott Neal? Loved those two on The Bill back in the day, and still do. Alright, Ste, is everything pucker?

  3. Mark Wingett tweeted:
    If I could just put the record straight..we are at a very early stage of producing a spin-off to The Bill named “Sunhill”. We have been approached by several production companies and are reviewing our options. It has not been “green lit”, yet.

  4. Can remember my Gran watching this every Saturday night when I was a little kid staying over at her place. My brother and I had to be silent so she could hear every word haha.

  5. I think my lounge room has been bugged by TV producers who have stolen a rambling idea I had along these lines. The only things missing is I was going to make Bob Cryer the Lord Mayor of London who is dealing with a crime wave, Sun Hill had been closed since the last episode (to account for the unavailability of the old set) and merged with Barton St but was being reopened by Mayor Cryer to deal with the surge in crime, with the old hands brought in as “local knowledge consultants”.

    I was hoping Jack Meadows and John Heaton could have recurring roles as people now high up in The Met, and DI Cullen could be brought in as Superintendent, which is a rank he could conceivably have reached by now.

  6. … they might have a bit of difficulty getting access to the old “Sun Hill” police station … after being sold by Thames after production on The Bill finished, it’s been through a few owners (and administration) and is now owned by Persian Television company Marjan!!!

  11. I’m cautious of reboots. I stopped watching when the producers decided to change The Bill into a soap. The beauty of this once must-watch series was in its simplicity.

    1. I agree. Once I wouldn’t go out on a Saturday night until I had watched The Bill. When they stopped the uniform/CID eps and started the ridiculous storyline’s I never even bothered to watch.

  12. Interesting that the very first episode was about Carver’s first day on the job at Sun Hill as a rookie, and Ackland was his ‘buddy’ partnered up, showing him the ropes

  14. Very interesting..
    The ABC a few years ago were running classic eps early in the morning but they abruptly stopped..

    Good to see Gem now broadcasting eps but they are from series 20 I think..shame they didn’t do it from the start..

    1. You can catch “The Bill” – The Early Years” on UKTV, the same people who run Eden, History etc… We have been watching since season 1 episode 1 “Woodentop” is the name of the first ever episode of the Bill. We we discussing how we surprised that the polically correct brigade hasn’t had it removed because of some of the racial language and culture which is now, more or less, banned from history and is classed as unwatchable by today’s pc brigade.

  16. As long as they take it back to 30 min episodes, even if we see 2 eps back to back. It died when they moved to longer episodes. Maybe Daniel McPherson could visit Sun Hill

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