End of 'The Bill'

Filming for the ITV series The Bill is to cease in June this year for good.

The channel has cited that the show has been axed due to a decision of creativity rather than cost cutting. Peter Fincham, ITV’s director of television said “times change, and so do the tastes of our audience”.

The show, which has been running since its 1983 pilot episode, was revamped in its latter years with the timeslot being moved to post-watershed and given a serial format, which was later dropped. The theme tune was also controversially changed in 2009.

Long standing actor for The Bill, Mark Wingett (PC Jim Carver) said “I think moving the slot was an unwise decision. It got kind of lost.”

The news has been met in the industry with concern. ITV is said to be investing the money into new drama instead.  The Writers’ Guild of Great Britain General Secretary, Bernie Corbett, has said in response that it is imperative that Mr Fincham keeps his word.

He said, “We welcome Mr Fincham’s ongoing commitment to drama programming. But when he says that ITV will continue to invest more in drama programming than any other commercial broadcaster, we note that broadcast hours of drama on other commercial channels are already very limited..Our message to ITV and Peter Fincham is: Nothing less than 52 hours of new, original, exciting drama each and every year will do.”

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