Episode
The Bill: On The Road
Overview
Lennox and Rawton go to Salisbury to bring in a con-man, George Riordian, for questioning, but he proves to be a slippery customer when he first gives them the slip at a service station, and then later on absconds altogether when the car they are travelling in breaks down and Lennox has to pull over to repair it. The pair manage to find a missing £50,000 which Riordian supposedly stole from one of his victims, Stella Kauffman, but then Riordian appears at the station the following day to hand himself in. When Kauffman then announces she is withdrawing the charges against Riordian, Lennox realises that the whole incident has been a con from the start and that he and Rawton have been had. This episode was broadcast out of production order - using the older closing titles and fonts last used earlier in the series
Details
- Series
- The Bill
- Season
- Season 15
- Episode
- Episode 23
- Air date
- 1999-04-15
Episode context
On The Road is Episode 23 in Season 15 of The Bill. It aired on 1999-04-15.
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Episode 22: Kiss Chase
While PC Page is assisting Ruth Watts in filing assault charges against her husband, Ken Watts, Luke Ashton is having romantic problems with the woman's daughter, 16 year-old Abby Watts. When she finally corners PC Ashton, she tells him that she's pregnant and that he's the father. Luke, unwilling to accept this claiming 'I used protection', wants nothing more to do with the girl, this causing her to make a complete mess of giving evidence in her mother's case against her stepfather. While the relief continue to take the mick from Luke regarding his impending 'fatherhood', Polly and Sgt. Cryer take opposing views regarding the course of action that should be taken. It is only after a failed suicide-attempt, that Polly manages to get the truth out of the young girl: She was raped by her stepfather, and since he didn't use protection, the baby is down to him. This leaves Polly at the hospital taking details, a furious Sgt. Cryer and a relieved, but still slightly concerned Luke Ashton. [
Episode 24: Pressure Point
Proctor and Lennox find themselves at the cutting edge of forensic science when they try to solve a burglary case, where the burglar has left an 'earprint' at the scene. Meanwhile, Proctor receives a call from a woman who reports to have information about a serious crime. She reports that she was witness to an assault that Carver and Skase have been investigating, where they are unable to prove their prime suspect is responsible. Proctor tries to convince her to testify, but she does a disappearing act. Proctor then discovers she is having an affair, which is making her scared to testify. When her boyfriend is found beaten up, Proctor heads straight for his prime suspect and discovers the weapon used.
This episode was broadcast out of production order - using the older closing titles and fonts last used earlier in the series
More episodes from this season
Episode 21: Out & About
Quinnan returns to work after his stabbing. Questions are raised about his capabilities, and when he manhandles a suspect, Stamp thinks he's losing it. However he goes from overboard to lax when he attends a death notice, opting against returning to duty by talking to the man whose wife has been killed. Realising the man is a former soldier who is being bullied by his upstairs neighbour, Quinnan bottles a noise complaint call, and the neighbour is later found beaten and sprayed with CS gas. Hollis clashes with Garfield over his handling of Quinnan's attack, and out of spite, Hollis mentions Quinnan disappearing on shift to Brownlow. As the relief try to track Quinnan down, he shows up at Sun Hill, and while they try to clear his name with the assault victim, Boyden gives Quinnan a chance to prove himself to the relief once and for all.
Episode 25: Look Away Now
Monroe notifies uniform of a private investigation group conducting surveillance on local criminal family, the Drakes, who have already received a flurry of complaints from their new neighbours. Harker deals with their direct neighbour when he reports he has been victimised and subject to a robbery of his bank card. Harker ends at odds with Beech when the rogue DS manipulates Harker's words to launch a drugs raid on the home, and winds the PC up further by spreading a rumour that he and Holmes are an item. With the drugs raid failing, Harker employs the father to give up his oldest son Eamonn before he can manipulate his two brothers any further, when Eamonn savagely attacks another neighbour for talking to the police. As they stage a second obbo on the Drake household, the PI van is attacked, but events take a sinister turn that sees the Drakes get a reality check.
Episode 20: Sex Lies & Videotape
Brownlow has agreed for a fly-on-the-wall documentary crew to film in the station. Boulton and Carver soon become the subject of their attentions, as they film a raid on a drug dealer that Boulton has been eyeing up for some time. Meanwhile, Boyden and Worrell investigate when a prostitute is attacked and her hair is cut off. When Boulton's raid goes pear-shaped, he stops his prime target just as he is about to reach for gun. The prostitute that Boyden and Worrell have been helping surfaces in the back room, and manages to escape, taking the prime target's gun with her. The film crew then accuse Boulton of attacking a suspect for no reason when the director says that she didn't see a gun.
Episode 26: A Question Of Trust: Part I
Boulton and Skase get a major lead from an informant on local armed robber Anthony Payne, who has been off the radar for a number of years. Boulton is determined to nail him, but the rest of CID think he's being excessive in his approach due to Daly being named Acting DI ahead of him in Deakin's absence. The raid nearly goes perfect, but Payne escapes and attacks Boulton while he's in pursuit. Skase ends up split up from his DS, and when he catches up to him, Boulton is pulling Payne's lifeless body out of a creek. After CPR fails, CIB are called in to investigate the death in custody. Rumours and speculation are rife, and Boulton's approach with CIB leads to a reprimand about his attitude ahead of an inquest. His day only gets worse when his informant turns against him after being bought by Payne's brother. Can the rogue DS survive with his career intact?
Episode 19: Piggy In The Middle
Ashton intervenes as a pair of masked men try to set fire to a house. Burnside is seconded from Crime OCCU to investigate, due to another arson with the same MO occurring on Stafford Row's patch. Meanwhile, Holmes is approached by a witness in the case of a vicious stabbing attack who has suddenly decided not to testify. It is soon revealed that the attempted arson attack victim is the brother in law of the witness, and that the other witness is the boyfriend of the woman hospitalised in the Stafford Row. With two out of three witnesses attacked, it's not long before Holmes is assaulted in a pub car park after a night out. An informant of Holmes reveals that stabbing suspect's brother, Kevin Butcher, has sparked a dealing war on the local estate, and Meadows is livid as uniform become subject to a series of attacks by Butcher's gang.
Episode 27: A Question Of Trust: Part II
Boulton prepares to face an inquest for the death in custody of notorious armed robber Anthony Payne. Payne's brother Stephen continues to rile the media as he vows to end Boulton's career, but while Boulton isn't doing himself any favours, his colleagues investigate Payne's brother over claims by a woman identifying his voice from radio and TV, stating Stephen Payne savagely assaulted her now-deceased husband and fatally shot their dog during a burglary two years earlier. While Boulton is skeptical it will do any good at the inquest, the involvement in the burglaries of informant Terry Riley gives them hope that the leverage will make him change his mind about his so called recollection of Payne's death.
Episode 18: Weekends Are For Wimps
Conway is furious when Meadows asks him to cover for Brownlow due to a bout of flu. Determined to make it to Stamford Bridge for a game between Chelsea and West Ham, he is fuming when he is called in to take a sample for a rape case. To make matters worse, the victim drops the allegation before he arrives. Meanwhile, Hagen and Santini arrest a drunk driver for assaulting Hagen during a pursuit. As they prepare to bail him, Lennox recognises him as a suspect for a series of armed robberies. Conway tries to get on the case but Lennox calls in Meadows, who turns up sick but determined to sit in on the interview. Cryer and Harker investigate claims that an ex-con has been kidnapped by a retired Chief Superintendent, an old friend of Conway's. Enlisting Conway's help, Cryer confronts the ex-cop to get to the truth of the matter. With something clearly missing, it's the retired officer's daughter who supplies the link between Meadows and Conway's cases.
Episode 28: True Lies
Boyden tasks Garfield and Ashton with setting up an observation on a parade of shops where a gang of young dealers have been operating. When they catch a youngster taking a package left behind by a dealer, a search of his home uncovers a log of transactions. The pair hope they’ve found their ringleader, until Cryer identifies the boy and his mother of the family of a Barton Street sergeant who died of a heart attack during a raid a few months earlier. Admitting he has been tailing the ringleaders to supply Barton Street with info, the boy agrees to help Garfield and Ashton bring down the gang responsible. Meanwhile, an old flame of Boyden's approaches Harker with info an armed robbery involving her husband. Boyden is skeptical, but Harker is convinced of her story when she says her son is involved and she wants him to avoid punishment. However, when the raid goes ahead and the boy dies after being hit by a car during his attempts to escape the scene.
Episode 17: To Catch A Cobra
Burnside's failure to inform Sun Hill of a Crime OCCU stakeout on a local museum leads to Page and Harker blowing their cover. The group arrest three of the four robbers, but one is admitted to hospital for trying to swallow stolen gemstones. Meanwhile, Meadows sends Boulton on the trail of stolen war medals, but the robbery at the museum puts Boulton back on the trail of known villain, Atul Roy, who he hunted for a kidnapping two years earlier (Shades of Gray S13). To spite Boulton and Burnside, Roy's brother Amit leads a second raid on the museum. Forced to admit he has been running a 15-year-old informant, the boy tells them where to find the ringleader for the raid. As Amit is arrested in possession with the museum artifacts, Henderson tells them their informant has gone missing, forcing them to cut a deal for the boy's safety.
Episode 29: Back To Basics
Carver is devastated when his final transfer appeal is turned down, ending his hopes of remaining a DC and avoiding tenure. The news that the system is due to be scrapped is even more of an annoyance to Carver, who faces leaving Sun Hill after 14 years. Determined not to lose his local knowledge and experience, Ackland implores him to seek a voluntary transfer to Sun Hill's uniform and exit CID early. His final day in CID sees him pressed by Daly to investigate two cases at once, assisting a bank security manager over disappearing money and a gang of shoplifters running amok. Carver is furious that Skase is insistent on pursuing the case at the bank as a priority, telling him he's only interested because he fancies the security manager, and events escalate when the gang hospitalise a shop owner. However, Skase continues pursuing the bank case with Rawton and they end up uncovering a major fraud, while Carver teams up with McCann to track down the shoplifting gang.