The Bill (series 1)

The Bill (series 1)
Series 1 (Australian DVD Cover)
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	11
Release
Original network	ITV
Original release	16 August 1983 – 22 January 1985
Series chronology
Next → Series 2

The first series of The Bill, a British television drama, produced by Thames Television, consisted of eleven episodes, broadcast between 16 October 1984 and 22 January 1985.

This series was commissioned to be shown on the ITV network following the success of the pilot one-off play Woodentop, originally broadcast a year earlier, on 16 August 1983, as part of the Storyboard series.

Commissioned during September 1983, with the aim of production commencing within six months, the series would be called "The Bill", similar to "Old Bill" - creator Geoff McQueen's original title for Woodentop.

Filming began in March 1984, running until June that year. The series was due to contain a total of twelve episodes, but only eleven were fully completed, due to industrial action by technicians at Thames Television. (The requirement for film editors to edit videotape used by the production, formed an element of the dispute)

The first series was transmitted on the ITV network at 9.00pm on Tuesdays, with a break in episodes of four weeks during December.

Originally scheduled for transmission on 23 October 1984, Episode 3, "A Friend in Need", was not shown that evening as industrial action by technicians at Thames Television prevented the ITV network from receiving programmes made by the company. This episode was instead shown in February 1985, two weeks after the transmission of Episode 11 "The Sweet Smell of Failure".

Whilst Wooodentop used a traditional three-wall set built at Thames Television's studios at Teddington, for the series, Sun Hill Police Station was created by converting the premises of a two-storey former cigarette packing company on the corner of Artichoke Hill and Pennington Street, in Wapping, East London.

The police station was significantly smaller than subsequent versions, with almost-all of the interior offices being seen on-screen - Only the original packing/warehouse area alongside the rear yard not featuring. Production offices doubled with some of the sets, with the canteen being used by cast and crew, and notably Chief Superintendent Brownlow's office actually being that of producer Michael Chapman. When shooting was taking place upstairs, the production team were unable to continue typing or to take phone calls.

Located in the shadow of the towering wall that surrounded the then-disused Tobacco Dock, and alongside the cobbles of Pennington Street, the nondescript 1950's building was very much in an East-End setting. Fronting onto the short stretch of road called Artichoke Hill, road signs were simply covered with those reading Sun Hill when exterior filming was taking place.

The use of real buildings instead of traditional sets within TV studios was very unusual at that time, with Channel Four's "Brookside" being one of the few others then to do so. Hand-held video cameras allowed the actors to move from within the building directly onto the street - Something that was just not possible with traditional studio-based production and created a new degree of realism for the viewer.