BS: UK TV - The Bill

Subject: BS: UK TV - The Bill
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 05:29 PM

Ok, Ok, I know I'm sad so don't remind me!

Is there a better drama series at the moment than 'The Bill'? I have just watched last Thursdays episode on video. What are they going to do about Cathy the madwoman? And more importantly did Honey and the kids survive? Is Phil going to go (more) off the rails? Is Okaru just a political puppet or will he 'come good'?

I am out next Wednesday (LOTR - Return of the King) and Thursday (Grateful customer I can do without) so I will be having a 2 hour Bill session over the weekend. DON'T tell me what happens before then.
Just let me know what you think.

And how we can fit folk music into it...;-)

Cheers

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: UK TV - The Bill
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 05:57 PM

"Tell Old Bill..."

Subject: RE: BS: UK TV - The Bill
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 06:04 PM

Hehehe. Nice one Kevin! What is the origins of 'the Bill' (or old Bill) BTW?

Cheers

:D

Subject: RE: BS: UK TV - The Bill
From: Gareth
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 06:08 PM

Actually I think Gilbert and Sullivan sumed this up in the score of "The Pirates of Penzance"

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: UK TV - The Bill
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 06:13 PM

Here's what the Bill themselves (ie the Metropolitan Police) have to say about that - a whole bunch of definitions and they don't have a clue which might be the right one:

We are often asked about the origins of "The Old Bill" or "The Bill" as slang names for the police. The simple answer is that no one really knows for sure. Over the years at least 13 different possibilities have been proposed, as follows:

"Old Bill" was King William IV, whose constables were an early form of police. (It is often said erroneously that he was on the throne when the police were founded. Actually he did not succeed George IV until 1830)

The play "The Custom of the Country" written by John Fletcher in 1619 has constables of the watch refer to themselves as 'us peacemakers and all our bill of authority'.

Constables of the watch were sometimes nicknamed for the bills, or billhooks they carried as weapons.

Kaiser Wilhelm I of Prussia visited England around the time in 1864 when the police uniform changed from top hat and swallowtail coat to helmet and tunic. Such 'Prussian militarism' may have led to the police being nicknamed after the first (and today less remembered) Kaiser Bill.

The 'old bill' was, in Victorian times, a bill presumed to be presented by the police for a bribe to persuade them to turn a blind eye to some nefarious activity.

New laws for the police to enforce all come from bills passed through Parliament.

"Old Bill" might refer to Bill Bailey of the music hall song 'Won't You Come Home...?' used in conjunction with a pun on the Central Criminal Court at the Old Bailey.

In the 1860s there was a Sergeant Bill Smith in Limehouse. He was a popular character and people used to ask after 'Old Bill'.

Many police officers wore authoritarian-looking "Old Bill" moustaches like that adorning a famous W.W.1 cartoon character 'the wily old soldier in the trenches' by Bruce Bairnsfather. In 1917 the government used Bairnsfather's character in posters and advertisements putting over wartime messages under the heading "Old Bill says...". For this campaign the character was dressed in a special constable's uniform.

The original vehicles used by the Flying Squad all had the registration letters BYL, so the squad became known as 'the Bill'. The London County Council at one time registered all police, fire and ambulance vehicles with the letters BYL

According to old Etonian illegal gaming club organizer and author the late Robin Cook ('Derek Raymond'), 'old bill' is a racing term for an outsider or unknown quantity. From the point of view of the underworld, police would be outsiders.

Despite all these suggestions, the earliest documented usage traced by the Metropolitan Police Historical Museum is from 1970 and 'Partridge's Dictionary of Slang'. Without giving citations the book dates "Old Bill" from the 1950s "or perhaps earlier". So the term may possibly be post W.W.2.

Subject: RE: BS: UK TV - The Bill
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 06:16 PM

What amazes me is that Cathy Bradford is still a serving officer - she's been proved more than once to be a truncheon short of a uniform.....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: UK TV - The Bill
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 06:38 PM

Why should that surprise you, Liz? There are lots of examples in real life who are barking mad and still on the force.

I know, I had to put up with James Anderton on a train journey back from the smoke once!

Thanks for all the info McG - I will file it away and may use it in evidence later...;-)

Cheers

:D

Subject: RE: BS: UK TV - The Bill
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 08:05 PM

I have never really been a great fan, but I think the best shows were usually the Christmas episodes, and also most of the ones where "Reg" is central to the episode.

The DVD of highlights is now available in Australia - think it is in the ABC Shop.

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: UK TV - The Bill
From: The Walrus
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 08:14 PM

Another possible origin of the ter 'The Old Bill'.

After ther Great War, a fair number of former soldiers either joined or returned to the Police.
During the War, Bruce Bairnsfather, the cartoonist had created the popular character 'Ole Bill', a sort of 'soldier's everyman'.
I believe that Bairnsfather was commissioned to produce some posters for police recruiting )or something similar), but even if not, it is a short step in association between the cartoon soldier and the ex-soldier in a different uniform - Perhaps some thought that the policemen truely had found the 'Better 'Ole'.

Walrus

Subject: RE: BS: UK TV - The Bill
From: Edain
Date: 14 Dec 03 - 10:26 PM

DtG

It is indeed a good drama, am sadly missing it while in foreign parts for a year, have to cope with the just the episode overviews on to get my fix!

Edain

Subject: RE: BS: UK TV - The Bill
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Dec 03 - 07:32 AM

Subject: RE: BS: UK TV - The Bill
From: Beardy
Date: 16 Dec 03 - 06:43 AM

Have you noticed that recently the coppers themselves are commiting an ever increasing percentage of the crime?

Des Taviner firebombed the station to destroy his counterfeit £50 notes. Polly assisted the suicide of the Doctor and has been convicted of his murder. Phil is as bent as any 1970's flying squad officer. Nick Klein was dealing and taking drugs. Phil & Nick have been concealing evidence and blackmailing each other. As for Cathy the list is endless culminating in arson.

Its amazing they have time to investigate any crimes commited by the public.


Stewart

Subject: RE: BS: UK TV - The Bill
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 Dec 03 - 08:08 AM

That "'Ole Bill" suggestion was one of those in the Met list I posted, Walrus.

Another one I haven't seen is that it might be a distortion of "The Peelers", which could well be heard as "The Bills". However if it's correct that it only turned up in post World War II years, that doesn't see too likely, since calling them Peelers in England had died out many years before that.