#the bill fans

[georgefairbrother]

Leading TV historian and author, Oliver Crocker, pictured here with Jon Iles (DC Mike Dashwood in 194 episodes of The Bill from 1984), has over the past few years been compiling an incredibly detailed oral history of the The Bill from those who actually made it, including its stars, supporting talent and behind the scenes artists and technicians. The ITV (Thames) police drama ran for nearly 2500 episodes, from its pilot, Woodentop, in 1983 to its final episode in 2010. At its peak, it was watched by 18 million viewers in the UK. Jon Iles was the very first interviewee for the podcast series, and set things off to a very high standard.

In over 100 podcast episodes, Oliver has interviewed many of the major stars of the programme across its entire run, including Trudie Goodwin and Mark Wingett (above), Chris Ellison (DI Frank Burnside), Graham Cole (PC Tony Stamp), Eric Richard (Sgt Bob Cryer), Barbara Thorn (Insp Christine Frazer), Larry Dann (Sgt Alec Peters), Seeta Indrani (WPC Norika Datta); from some of the originals including Robert Hudson (Yorkie), Nula Conwell (Viv Martella), Colin Blumenau (Taffy) and Ashley Gunstock (PC Robin Frank), to stars of the later era including Todd Carty and Beth Cordingly. And many luminaries in between, from uniform and CID, too numerous to mention.

One or two have remained elusive - Jeff Stewart (Reg Hollis) has thus far declined, perhaps understandably as his departure from the series was deeply and personally traumatic. John Salthouse (DI Roy Galloway) declined the podcast but was very friendly and helpful with information for Oliver's first of two books on the series, Witness Statements: Making The Bill Series 1-3. (Witness Statements II is now also out).

The interviews are fascinating as pretty much all the participants have been breathtakingly honest; about producers and their behaviour and often brutal decision-making, and about the rollercoaster life of an actor even in a successful series. It's not always as much fun as it looks. Having said that, it was a happy cast which made a big effort to make guest stars and extras welcome, and it's interesting to note that the older, more experienced actors, playing CID and uniformed supervisors, tended to mentor the younger actors in the same way their real-life counterparts took care of junior officers.

Tony Scannell (DS Ted Roach) had agreed to be interviewed but sadly passed away before the recording date.

The Bill Podcast is on all the major platforms, and according to Listen Notes is in the top 1.5% of podcasts globally.

@robbielewis thought you might be interested in this one.

[ekko-idk]

Epilogue :)

Yknow the line "he'd speed up my mind when it was sluggish" in the journal 3 lost pages? Yea this is how I think that went

[shnikkles]

It’s always okay to laugh at two dimensional chaos demons.

[varchaiiart]

relativity falls is SO cool. as someone who wasn't particularly in the fandom sphere when gravity falls was big, i missed out on a lot of the cool hcs and aus but that just means i can experience them NOW!!!

also, isnt the idea of stan and ford being gen alpha kids hilarious???

support me on ko-fi!

[eggsistential-breakdown]

Okay, but hear me out -- what if his parents weren't usually red and blue?

[fantasydoctor]

[kroyfisher]

missed opportunity

[leeseechkeens]

Ford knows exactly what to do when Bill’s freaking out :D

Audio from Sam and Max

[magentasnail]

I'm absolutely obsessed with the book of bill, best thing i've ever read and it no joke gave me actual nightmares !! 100/10

[dyspri]

Bill Cipher Canon Backstory in the year 2024???

Im so normal about it.

[viveela]

Toxic exes and twink form canon? What a time to be alive...

[inkubann]

More of them !

[miss-americanbi]

so glad that gravity falls is back so we can finally discuss how ford sees himself as the protagonist of every story while stan can’t see himself as anything but the antagonist

[shnikkles]

I made a comic out of a certain section of The Book of Bill! It's one of my favorite bits. It's just so VISCERAL and disturbing, and I really wanted to try capturing that. Anyways, hope y'all like it lmao

[gearoxbutabox]

Is this anything

[mollykflood]

I remember this old song and dance.

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