The Bill (1984-2010)

'We've all got it coming son, today's your turn.' Detective meadows uttered to the last caught murder suspect on the final episode of what would sadly be the end of 26 year old 'The Bill', one of the longest running series in British TV history. The end for a great show is always sad but some are inevitable...they will end...most things do. However in the case of 'the bill', it's end was more to do with change destroying it, as oppose to cutbacks.

'The bill' was originally a half an hour slot, like most TV shows into the 90's, an hour was now the standard format and so it followed. With it's initial first line 'okay Carver, let's do it.' The ending titles sequence of the police officers feet walking down the street, was always pictured as it official image, even after it was dropped for a more upbeat, uptone, "modren" title sequence. 'The bill' was about police officers, the law and their work. The bill may have had storylines over the years with certain characters but essentially the bill was not a soap, which made it stand out from all other British TV programmes.

I throughly enjoyed watching it over the years, I always knew I could come back to watching it after a long period, not worried about missing any huge continous plotline, because there usually wouldn't be one. I was tuning it for a gripping story, based on people living in London, a crime, suspects, investigation, solved, end. No gimmicks, no music to disguise the reality, in fact using ambience sounds to their advantage, creating high realistic drama.

The most remembered and favourite TV year of the bill for me is quite recent with 2008, in which they had a very ambitious and extremely successful eight parter titled 'witness', which focused on knife and gun crime within young children on a council estate. 'Witness' was unrelentless, gripping, powerful and thoughtful drama. Later that year, a two parter 'Hold me tight' tackled the murder of a eight year school girl and the main suspect a young boy around the same age. In the end, the boy was convicted of the crime after confessing but the officers were not sure weather to file the crime under murder, accidental or manslaughter. 'Over the limit' focuced on PC Sally Armstrong, who drunk a bit too much at a nightclub and crashed her car into another, the episode focused on three of the officers as they attempted to avoid anyone else at the station finding out about the incident and Sally being involved. The episode ends with Sally not being found out. As the bill carried onto other episodes and other storylines, this was never referred to again, PC Armstrong never got her comeuppance, noramally forbidden in the TV world.

The bill changed it formats over the years, adjusted to the times, sadly it was change that brought about it's demise and sudden lowered viewing figures. The change was to happen in September 2009, in which the format changed the gritty cinematography to glossy, from handheld to dolly. With a title sequence, devoid of it's original music of 26 years, now replaced with a confusing other track, murky ambience and pointless fast images. It was a sadly a matter of time, as the Bill now, was no longer gripping, exiciting, relevent or interesting. With an ambitous final steadycam one shot through the station, moving outside the station, crane shot up and end credits, the final epsiode entitled 'respect' dedicated it's long TV run to the men and women of the Metropolitan police force, past and present, as the final words of detective Meadows echoed...

'Today was one of the good days.'

The bill, ordinary people in a uniform, taking a responsibily for society.

R.I.P. You're nicked!

French film-maker Claude Chabrol dies

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/sep/12/claude-chabrol-dies

When does it end? You decide!

In the great words of George Constanza 'It's a show about nothing.'

On the 14th July 2000, after the milluenium didn't crumble the world away, TV was about to take a leap into another direction and would never look back. Orwell's 1984 created the name for what was deemed originally as a social experiment, ten people unknown to each other, entered what was only known as a house back then, and were watched by the curious small public of audience over a half an hour slot, six nights a week. The show rattled along, people drinking tea, dinner, breakfast, taking care of the chickens, running around naked, playing games, arguements, flirting, likes and hates. It wasn't until the cheating scandal that rocked the nation and the front pages of the newspapers then, in which Nick Bateman manipulated hosuemates to vote his way by writing housemates names on pieces of paper, a house quickly became a big brother house and the reality TV show was born.

You could argue that without Nick Bateman, there wouldn't have been a funeral and a celebration for Big brother at it's demise on the 10/09/10. At the end of series one, the winner Craig Philips donated his winning prize of £70,000 to his Down's syndrome friend Joanne Harris to help pay for her heart and lung transplant in America. This all made it seemed so important, like the show had a purpose, that people had been watched, examined, judged, reflected on, and in the end, a hero was chosen and a life was saved. Watching it at the time, it changed the way I saw soaps, I stopped watching Eastenders, I was instead enjoying 'reality.' The editing of the show was incredible, how they mangaged to create narratves through hours of nothing, each day, for every night's show.

As Big Brother continues a year later, BBLB was born, a pre show to the main show, there was an episode of the main show on now everyday of the week, and once again, people sat around and mainly did nothing. Big brother would continues onto his most sucessful series three in 2003 and into it's least sucessful four, at which point it all changed. The idea of people doing nothing, suddenly wasn't so interesting anymore and big brother had become dull. A revamp was born, the evil big brother, where everything and everything was thrown at the show, like a overloaded garden shed.

Back in the days of 'the word', the greatest talk show ever created, where a section titled the hopefuls where indidivuals would do anything to be on TV, was now what Big Brother had become. BB was now an event, a show where people's lives were edited and played with, to create an entertainment. The show became a platform to gain instant fame, get your magazine deals, do a few TV jobs, some other reality TV shows, including making small appearances on shows related to big brother such as big mouth. Social quickly turned into ego, followed by hungry, followed by freaks. It's quite fitting that for the last series of the show, the house was created and decorated as a circus.

In January 2007, Big Brother would make world headlines and be at the front of what is ignorance and what is racism. The infamous race row, detroyed the career of the most famous housemate to come out of Big brother and challenged the public and disturbed ofcom in weather they were right in what they were broadcasting and how. Big Brother would later start to donate a part of the viewers phone phone call votes to charity, to show some charity.

As the old saying goes, all good things come to an end but let's not forget one thing. If someone says, 'I don't watch reality TV', they are sadly mistaken, as Big brother spawned all that defined the genre of what is considered to reality TV. From the farm, to I'm a celebrity, get me out of here, masterchef, the apprentice, survivor, come dine with me, love island, X factor, Britain's got talent, Big Brother created the idea of putting individual strangers together in front of cameras, the rest continues to dominate the TV ratings.

With it's brilliant advertising for the final season, in which past housemates bury the diary room chair from the first series, the show has ended on a rather simple note, celebrating what it once was and is today. BB, the show that changed the way TV is watched and made, whether you like it or not, the father of new genres, always goes first. The social experiment is over

R.EYE.P. Big Brother is no longer watching