coe

'the bill' sideblog for hyperfixation purposes. requests are open. if there's a particular scene, character or guest star you want giffing just send an ask. ^^ @everythingisdragons - mainblog, all likes and asks will come from here @coernixen - anime, gaming and fanfic

[foxtrot-oscar]

The Bill » 18x30 - On The Pitch (019) » Charging Jeff Simpson

June: I'm going to charge you; that on the 26th March 2002, at Sun Hill Police Station, London East One, you - Jeffrey Simpson - did unlawfully kill officers of the Metropolitan Police.

[foxtrot-oscar]

in my professional opinion, there is nothing wrong with max carter that could not be fixed with a little time, attention, and a 24-crate of white monster.

[foxtrot-oscar]

The Bill » 6x101 - Out of the Blue

[foxtrot-oscar]

The Bill » 10x96 - You Belong To Me » DI Sally Johnson & DS Jo Morgan

[foxtrot-oscar]

The Bill » 23x92 - Assault on Sun Hill: Part 2

[foxtrot-oscar]

The Bill » 26x15 - Bad Blood » Ferrier's Funeral

[foxtrot-oscar]

The Bill » Top 100 Episodes (In No Particular Order) » 8x11 - Lost Boy

Alistair: Look at that. Business at usual, isn't it... Mike: Just carries on, doesn't it?

One of the classic Alistair eps, and also one of the episodes that does a good job of incorporating characters from other task forces, something the showed often had mixed results with but does well with here.

A young boy has gone missing and it is believed he may of run off to a friend who is working as a rent boy in central London, with the search for him leading Team Sun Hill into the middle of an ongoing Vice Squad operation.

Obviously it's a really good Alistair ep - we see both his strengths as a policeman and as a sergeant and I do like how frank he is with Frank about his reasons for not wanting Steve on the obbo. We also get to see his background as a Vice Squad officer come into play and it's always fun when characters get to pull out their previous skill sets. For the most part, the show was quite good with keeping the character's specialisms and service-related backgrounds at the forefront of relevant cases, but this is absolutely one of the stronger examples of it.

It's also the second of four guest spots for Pete Lee-Wilson before his appearance as Steve Hodges.

[foxtrot-oscar]

The Bill » 21x14 - Confessions of a Killer (288)

Sam: You stupid, selfish little cow!

[foxtrot-oscar]

The Bill » 9x24 - Trivial Pursuits

[foxtrot-oscar]

The Bill » 6x57 - Unsocial Hours » "Working" Lunch

Gordon: I'm going to bite people for this.

[foxtrot-oscar]

the post queue is running about four weeks ahead so you do not have to bear witness to the intense terry perkins situation i am having right now but please be assured that i am having one.

[foxtrot-oscar]

The Bill » Extra gifs » 16x62 and 16x63 - Old Friends / New Friends

[foxtrot-oscar]

The Bill » 23x61 - Code of Silence » Jacob Anderson as Clayton Fortune

[foxtrot-oscar]

The Bill » 25x33 - Blame Game » 👀👀👀

[foxtrot-oscar]

The Bill » 19x80 - Haunted: Part Two (155)

[foxtrot-oscar]

The Bill » Top 100 Episodes (In No Particular Order) » 17x06 - PC Smith

Smithy: So how would you have handled it? Nick: If I'd have been you, knowing the way that you think, I'd never have volunteered in the first place.

Probably one of the most iconic episodes from Smithy’s run as a PC, and my overall favourite episode from season 17, which is a season which doesn’t have that many memorable episodes for me as the show does start to lose steam quite quickly in the second half of the year. 

A gay couple are in need of protection in the run up to a court case, and Debbie’s looking for volunteers. Nick’s the only one who put his hand up at this point, much to the amusement of everyone else. Bob later prompts Smithy into volunteering to show willingness ahead of his application for SO19, which is not treated any better by the rest of the relief. We’re now full swing into the run up of Smithy and Bob Cryer’s exits and there’s a lot of groundwork for both exits done in this ep. The scene between Bob and Tom Chandler is nice and tense, and I do enjoy just how unnerving early Tom could be.

The main plot of the episode on the most surface-level is much like 9x24 Trivial Pursuits in that the openly non-PC PC doesn’t handle the case involving gay guys well at first, but then does the work to save the day once he starts connecting with the victim as a person rather than just ‘a gay guy’. And like with Steve, this isn’t actually some grand revelation or pivotal change of direction for the character - both these men already know how to act like this and are fully capable of it, once they take the time to stop and think for a moment before opening their mouth to let their unfiltered thoughts come out

Another similarity to Steve, and one I don’t think is intentional at all but is inevitable, is the way Smithy’s attitude is contrasted to the rest of the relief. Like Steve, Smithy is brusque and openly intimidating, and so his actions and words are judged much more harshly than his peers who are, quite frankly, just as bad with the comments, jokes and dismissiveness. Like Steve, Smithy is the one labelled as the persistent problem despite some of the more ‘personable’ members of the relief regularly saying vile shit with no lasting repercussions and it's a language-vs-content issue that really hasn't improved over the years since, and the show actually gets worse with as time goes by.

Debbie is also not great, but that is fully intentional and her open self-serving nature really does give some substance to the character that is lacking with most of the post-Beech replacements at this point.

It’s also a solid episode for Nick, and even aside from the slashy moments (of which there are many) he really does feel like Nick here. It often feels like some of the writers really didn’t know what to do with the character and he occasionally ends up as a spineless little brat, but the spine is fully intact here and it plays against Smithy well.

Neil Daglish and Nick Patrick are both great as the main guest stars, and this episode really does show how much Nick Patrick was wasted when he returned as JT a few years down the line. 

We also get a second appearance by Harry Towb as Frank Kennedy in the run up to his storyline in The Leopard, but more on that another time.

[foxtrot-oscar]

The Bill » 21x88 - Back to Basics: Part 2