Episode
The Bill: Tinderbox
Overview
Tension, drama and comical mishaps abound as Brownlow, Meadows and Conway head to the Yorkshire Moors for an orientation course alongside the top brass from Barton Street. The tension builds as Conway backs out of the rock climbing due to his fear of heights, and Meadows is reprimanded by the instructor for both abandoning Conway to complete the test alone and his continual attempts to contact Daly as he tries to keep abreast of the investigation into an armed robber, who has stunned CID by suddenly handing himself into custody. Meanwhile, Brownlow clashes with his Barton Street counterpart Guy Mannion, a fast-track young go-getter who is prime candidate to rival Brownlow for the Borough Commander post. As the teams are tasked with crossing the Moors, Meadows plots an escape, but they unite in their determination to beat the Barton Street contingent after discovering they have used the Stafford Row team's knowledge of the course to give them an edge.
Details
- Series
- The Bill
- Season
- Season 15
- Episode
- Episode 31
- Air date
- 1999-05-18
Episode context
Tinderbox is Episode 31 in Season 15 of The Bill. It aired on 1999-05-18.
Previous / Next
Episode 30: Makeover
It's Jim Carver's first day back in uniform, and he puts up with some good-natured ribbing from his new colleagues. Paired with P.C. Luke Ashton, they are called to the Canley Arms Hotel, where the landlord has been brutally attacked and robbed. When D.C. Rod Skase and Carver's replacement, D.C. Danny Glaze, arrive to investigate, Carver can't help putting his detective skills back to work - while following a lead on the case, he gets into trouble with Sgt. Boyden when he leaves Ashton dealing with a gang of teenage shoplifters on his own. Forensic evidence points to the Baker brothers, and Carver's persistence pays off when he finds out the location of the missing brother, Mark Baker.
Episode 32: Set Up
A young girl, Emma Finney, is attacked in the street and DC Kerry Holmes suspects a racial motive, as Emma and her family are gypsies living on a nearby waste ground. Holmes and an impatient DS Boulton are unable to get any information out of them, and Boulton even has Emma's older brother Michael arrested when he drives off with a rifle in his truck. Boulton has other things on his mind: he has an upcoming interview for a transfer to the Flying Squad. With Michael locked up for the night, Holmes worries about the Finneys' safety. As she watches their caravan, three men approach and firebomb it, Kerry barely manages to save them in time. Angry at Boulton's attitude to the case and his colleagues, Holmes arranges for an old friend, DI Long who is on Boulton's interview panel, to give him a real grilling and then pass the videotape on to her, which she gleefully shows to the rest of CID. Boulton is furious, but DI Deakin convinces him his attitude and methods are to blame for his colleag
More episodes from this season
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.
Episode 33: Lone Ranger
PC Eddie Santini tries to convince his lover, Jess Orton, to set him up with some drug dealers - he wants out of Sun Hill, and DS Timpney, his friend in Area Drugs, has promised him a place in the squad if Santini can get him evidence on them. At parade, Sgt. Bob Cryer assigns the relief a door-knocking campaign to warn the elderly residents of the area about two bogus callers posing as social workers who are responsible for a string of robberies. Leaving PC Hagen to cover for him, Santini meets Jessica, but not before hearing the culprits have been following the local Meals-On-Wheels van. Jessica has met up with an old friend, Ferguson, who is a big-time drugs importer. She wants Eddie to pose as her husband when they next meet to seal the deal. When Eddie returns to duty, Cryer is furious. An old army Major has had all his medals stolen by the bogus callers, and Santini had neglected to warn him. A desperate Santini gets Hagen to investigate the Major, and finds his claim is a scam.
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 34: Old Flame
As he and PC Quinnan investigate a burglar alarm, PC Eddie Santini sees Jessica Orton meeting covertly with Ferguson. Making excuses, Santini borrows the panda car and races to the Ortons' club where he confronts Jessica. As she storms off, there is a huge explosion. Santini is shocked when one of the officers assigned by AMIP to investigate the explosion is his old nemesis, DS Rosie Fox. Fox is suspiscious of Santini's involvement, but her colleagues put it down to the animosity between them. As Santini returns to his flat, where his lover PC Vicky Hagen is waiting, he is kidnapped by Ferguson who assigns him the task of picking up a consignment of drugs from Amsterdam.
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 35: Push It
Jessica Orton is brought in for questioning, but is released without charge. When she returns home, PC Santini is waiting for her, desperate to know if she grassed him up. They fight, and Santini hits Jessica, knocking her down the stairs and killing her. Realising her house is being watched, he escapes out the back. Vicki Hagen finds a set of keys under Santini's bed which she brings to the station to return to him.
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 36: Kiss Off
Vicki Hagen finds Eddie Santini's tickets to Amsterdam, and questions him about them, but he is evasive. DCI Pallister takes DS Fox off the Jessica Orton case after her accusations against Santini, but she decides to do some investigation of her own. Santini, meanwhile, acquires a gun and some Class-A drugs to plant in Ferguson's boss's house when DS Timpney and the Area Drugs Squad raid it. Fox stumbles upon the house and is captured by Ferguson. His boss Mr Sherman is displeased that Santini allowed a police officer to find them. When Area Drugs arrive at Sun Hill for the raid, CID realise that both Santini and Fox are in trouble. Sure enough, Ferguson's radio scanner warns him of the forthcoming raid and he locks Santini in the same room as Fox. The two argue, but are pulled apart when Santini attacks Fox. She manages to escape, and Sherman's men are intercepted by SO19. Back at Sun Hill, Fox realises the keys in Hagen's possession are Jessica Orton's - and she arrests Santini for m
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 37: Foreign Body
A suspected armed robber dies after his car crashes during a chase with police. He is identified as Alain Savoie, a French national, and the body of an English woman is found in the boot of his stolen car. The woman is identified as Carol Archer, and scorch marks on her back indicate she was electrocuted in her bathtub, and Savoie was trying to dispose of the body. According to Carol's mother, Carol's husband Peter was in France looking for her. DI Chris Deakin, a fluent Francophone, suggests they send officers to interview Savoie's sister in France. DCI Jack Meadows insists on making the trip himself, and Deakin suggests he take DC Rod Skase with him. Once they are on the ferry, Meadows and Skase realise neither of them can speak French. With some trouble they manage to find their hotel, and despite the language barrier, Meadows clearly hits it off with the landlady Claudette. CID hear that Peter Archer is headed back to England, but he does not board the ferry, and Interpol reports t