Good in the 1980s & 1990s - Went off key after 2000

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The Bill
★★★★☆
4.0
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Guest's review of The Bill

“Good in the 1980s and 1990s - Went off key after 2000”

★★★★☆

written by on 07/08/2013

Just when you thought Julliet Bravo was the thinking mans cop show set in Burnley at a nice ploddy pace, the Bill was the up and coming camera following action show.

Good Points

Good acting.
Good storyline especially with the Don Beech departure.
Good tense working relationship between Brownlow and Derek.
Burnside in Tynside was a classic.

Bad Points

There's action packed and action packed, but how the hell did they manage to get a great big heavy camera in the back of a Metro/Cavalier for a chase scene. This was highly irresponsible as if the car braked suddenly then the equipment could have potentially fallen to the front of the car.

Poorly presented cars. The Vauxhall Cavaliers (D and E reg) did not have wheel trims.

Excessive waste of production costs. At the start of the series, ageing scrap cars sustained accident damage and were already time expired and not worth re-using. Examples were a red K reg Mk3 Cortina used in a serious accident with the roof cut off and a white M reg Cortina which overturned after driving into the rear of a 1970 H Ford Escort. I have to say that I would actually have reservations if such classics were damaged now. Later series damaged new Astras and Fiestas to such an extent that they could not be re-used.

The general plot lost the plot after Brownlow's departure and was too fast moving, erractic or in the case of the cheap low budget between high cost filming, just rambled on without any structure or format.

Overall - Early episodes Grade A or B+
Later Episodes - Grade D.

Verdict - Pretty good overall, although I do prefer a good Ruth Rendall mystery myself.

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