History of The Bill - 2009-2010: Gritter Drama

2009-2010: Gritter Drama

In 2009 the show moved to 9:00 PM with only 1 episode a week, and the format would also receive significant changes, the new show would be much more focused on the crime rather than the officers, personal stories vanished and incidental music was introduced. The show moved post-watershed, after been pre-watershed for twenty one years, in order to feature more Gritter, action packed scenes. This was arguably one of the most serious revamps in the shows history.

The result of the once a week move was a significant cutdown of the cast. During 2009, 9 on-screen characters were written out;

• PC Beth Green- Departed in Leap of Faith: Part 2 on 18 February 2009, She joined Witness Protection.
• PC Aruin Ghir- Departed on Decision Time on 19 February 2009, after he was suspended following an incident and later resigned from the force.
• PC/ Sgt Diane Noble- Returned to Sun Hill as a sergeant, the 3rd uniformed sgt after Rachel Westons promotion, following a sabastical but later announced she was transferring to Barton Street the 3rd uniformed sergeants job was not replaced.
• DC Kezia Walker- Departed in Conviction: Judgement Day, she left Sun Hill to join a People Trafficking unit after been asked by Superintendent John Heaton. Her position in CID was not replaced.
• DS Stuart Turner- Departed in Conviction: Judgement Day, she left Sun Hill to join a People Trafficking unit after been asked by Superintendent John Heaton. His former position of DS was given to DC Stevie Moss.
• Inspector Rachel Weston- Departed in Conviction: Judgement Day, she left Sun Hill to join a People Trafficking unit after been asked by Superintendent John Heaton. Sergeant Dale Smith replaced her as Inspector. Smithys position was not replaced.
• Superintendent John Heaton- Departed in Conviction: Judgement Day, he left Sun Hill to join a People Trafficking unit. DCI Jack Meadows took over as Sun Hill's Superintendent, Jacks former position of DCI was not replaced and DI Neil Manson took over the reins as head of CID.
• PC Sally Armstrong- Departed in Unforgiven on 17 December 2009, the reasons behind Sally's departure are not given.
• PC Millie Brown- Departed in On the Streets: Part 2 on 29 December 2009, like PC Sally Armstrong, Millie's reasons for departing are not revealed.

Long running veteran character PC Tony Stamp was sacked by the shows producers, they said that Stamp did not 'fit in with the shows new dyanmic' Actor Graham Cole said he was devastated to leave the show, Tony Stamp last appeared in the episode, Rescue Me on 5 November 2009, the character left to join Police Training school Hendon as an advanced driving instructor. Stamps position at Sun Hill, however was replaced by new area car driver PC Kirsty Knight.

The show began High Definition broadcasts on 1 July 2009 with episode number 682, titled "Conviction: Cover Up". 2 episodes later, the episode numbers were reset to 001, rather confusingly being on the third episode of a 6 part story, and also, due to episodes being aired out of production order, meaning that the episode numbers 684-689 and 691-693 went unused even though episodes 690 and 694-697 have already been broadcast.