#don beech

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The Bill » 13x143 - Hot Plastic » Don stealing John's brownie points

Chris: Good work. Well done. Don: Thank you Chris: [to John] You too. John: 😐😐😐

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The Bill » 14x56 - Brighton Rocks: Part 2 » same tbh

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The Bill » Top 100 Episodes (In No Particular Order) » 15x37 - Foreign Body

Jack: The French are very snooty about their language.  Chris: Yes. Jack: Any idea who I should take? Chris: …Rod.

An incredibly strong episode to start the list off with, and one that was difficult to just pick 10 gifs from, especially since it was a feature-length episode. The script does really well with its extended run time; it allows for a lot of good character work while dealing a more complex than usual murder mystery without the pacing either being rushed or having to drag its heels at any point.

This remains one of my all time favourite Jack episodes, and that’s largely down to the fact his flaws are fully - and very intentionally - on display here. One of the problems I had with him, especially towards the end, was the increasingly pervasive perception that Jack had always been a stalwart father-to-his-men type of leader and while he does show shades of this throughout his tenure, especially to those he had a soft spot for, it isn’t really until Mickey comes along that this actually becomes a prominent character trait. Here we see classic Jack, and that is a shrewd, capable investigator, but also ultimately self-serving officer who is quick to leap onto an opportunity and quick to try and deflect blame when things go wrong, thinks nothing of cheating on his wife, and doesn’t know actually know his team well enough to have an opinion on who best to take to France or even question Chris’ suggestion. The script doesn’t shy away from any of this and is stronger for it, and it’s a good piece of set up for what is to come in a year's time.

It’s also a really fun episode for Chris, who gets to enact his revenge on Jack for snaffling the France trip while at the same time managing the investigation pretty well on the home front. There were points where Chris would just kind of fade into the background as the stock beleaguered CID senior officer, so it's always fun when they let him do things.

Another big part of why I love this episode is as much for the things it doesn’t do as much as the things it does; it would have been incredibly easy to turn this ep into a full-blown farcical comedy of errors, but for the most part they keep the balance right. Things go wrong, people mess up, but nothing that completely stretches believability. Rod isn’t a perpetual Butt-Monkey, as he often ends up being, and it’s very clear to both the audience and the writer that Jack is just as responsible (if not more so) for many of the problems they encounter. They could have easily drawn out the point of Rod not actually knowing French, but he comes clean about it the first time he’s outright confronted with it and while the bureaucratic roadblocks do cause issues and feed some conflict into the plot, they are perfectly navigable with some effort and common sense, and are presented as such, even if some officers show more common sense than others. 

We also get a very good showing for the supporting cast. Kerry, Duncan and Don all get to be funny and snarky without being annoyingly abrasive, and Tom and Jim both get to be there without getting dumped on, which leads to a really great team dynamic that is solid connective tissue for the main plot. While I do find Season 15 one of the strongest overall, like most TB eras it still suffers heavily from the Depending On The Writer trope and some don’t always do a great job of hitting the sarcastic banter but that is never really a problem here.

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The Bill » Top 25 Characters (In No Particular Order) » DS Don Beech

[clairestanton]

16.69 Fifty-Fifty

[augustusaugustus]

16.69 Fifty-Fifty (Part Two)

STANTON: Don’t you dare tell me what John thought of me. Don’t you dare. I know what John thought of me.

STANTON: I know that John went to meet you last night. BEECH: Yeah. STANTON: Did you kill him? BEECH: I could talk about John’s death, Claire. STANTON: Well, go on. BEECH: But who would I be talking to? STANTON: What do you mean? BEECH: Well, if you are fronting a CIB operation, then take me to your guv’nor. I’ll spill my guts to him. Tell you stuff that you never even suspected. STANTON: I don’t understand. BEECH: All you have to understand is that if you are CIB, you and I walk out of here together, all right? But if you’re just John’s woman, who got a bit nosy, well… I don’t know what I’m going to do with you, Claire. *cracks knuckles*

It’s what John would’ve wanted. 😂

Clara Salaman’s so good in this one and the juxtaposition of CID getting drunk in the pub and Don trying to cut a deal in the CIB office is very clever—both reducing John’s life to very little.

[dsboulton]

16.68 Find the Lady

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16.68 Find the Lady (Part Two)

John doesn’t really seem like a Jamiroquai kinda guy…

STANTON: You know I love you, John. BOULTON: No, I didn’t.

BOULTON: Do you trust me? STANTON: If you mean Lynette— BOULTON: No, I don’t. Do you trust me? Yes or no. STANTON: Yes.

BOULTON: Apart from the fact that you love me, is there anything else you forgot to tell me? [pause] I’m serious, Claire. Is there anything that you wanted to tell me? [pause] You know, whatever it is, or however bad that you think it is, you can tell me. I’m not going to desert you.

BEECH: Listen, you stupid bastard. I’m trying to save your life! Don’t you understand?

Don’s hair is short again and we’re back to 4:3. And, as always with the most important episodes, the image quality is dark & terrible.

Still not a fan of this episode, for obvious reasons, but I do think it does a good job of showing Don’s desperation & just how much he’s backed himself into a corner.