In August 2010, after almost two and a half thousand
episodes since October 1984, the UK's greatest police procedural series in
history came to an end. At least 95% of the acting was of the very
highest level.
Admittedly, in the middle years, what had been a
series of awesome quality began to sag quite badly as it turned itself, perhaps
unwittingly, into a soap opera:
1) There was a silly tendency to try to boost ratings
by having officers murdered on a regular basis - and then even to kill 'em off
in groups with nonsensical plot-lines.
2) Episode after episode of extravagant, impossible
scenarios involving a medium-sized police station taking on Colombian drug
barons international assassins and major terrorist networks could never ring
true. Having started one such - the storyline would go on ad
nauseam.
3) The cop shop itself bulged with murderers in police
uniforms. Spin offs as far as Australia were laughable.
4) At one point it tried to sell a major homosexual
agenda to the watching public.
5) Far too often, it fell into that turgid trap of
showing officers being involved in the crimes investigated. 
6) As in the American Law and Order series it
made the deadly error of joining the personal lives of characters into
plot-lines.
Then suddenly, it righted itself and became watchable
once again as it dealt with REAL situations as it had done in its early
showings.
Later, in Season 25 - major changes were made and a gritty
reality was just one of a number of positive changes which ensured that the
series had truly got its act together. It got even better in Season 26 and then
- out of the blue, as it were - the series shut down just when it was producing
its best work since the 80s.
Time for The Bill to be resurrected in its
most successful format.
