Episode
The Bill: Cracked Up
Overview
Ashton reels after being accused of cowardice by new boy Smithy. The team attend a group counselling session over Smithy's attack, but tensions only rise further between the uniform officers. After Ashton leaves the meeting, Rickman speaks up for him, but Ashton is convinced his colleagues have turned against him. Paired with Quinnan, Ashton investigates claims by a reformed dealer, Larry Moore, that a bag of drugs have been planted at his home. When a local youth accuses Moore of dealing again, Beech arrests him and comes down hard, but his methods leave Moore unhinged. After discovering his wife was responsible for the drugs, he abducts his young daughter. When Moore feels he has been backed into a corner, he snaps and takes horrific action, with a shell-shocked Ashton questioning his capability for the job in the wake of the day's shocking events.
Details
- Series
- The Bill
- Season
- Season 15
- Episode
- Episode 45
- Air date
- 1999-07-22
Episode context
Cracked Up is Episode 45 in Season 15 of The Bill. It aired on 1999-07-22.
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Episode 44: Taxed
PC Luke Ashton and PC Dale Smith chase a stabbing suspect onto an estate, but are separated and Ashton is paralysed with fear when confronted by the knife-wielding youth. Smithy is contemptuous of Ashton from that point on, who starts to feel that the rest of the relief is ganging up on him. The stabbing seems to be part of a racially-motivated vendetta between two families on the estate, the Wests and the Cords, but DS Daly and Sgt. Cryer work out that the Jasmine Allen's Estate Manager is behind the harassment. When Doreen West is abducted, the police find her in an empty council flat, but as Smithy pursues the Cord and his accomplice, Ashton stands frozen in fear. Stamp and Quinnan rescue Smith, who is furious with Ashton for not backing him up.
Episode 46: Wedded Bliss
PC Smith and PC Rickman deal with a disturbance at a registry office, and DC Proctor and DC Holmes discover an ingenious immigration scam in which British lookalikes of Romanian illegals marry Irish women to gain UK residency. Smith and Rickman follow up a case of forged speeding tickets, and come across a mail holding centre run by Colin Briggs at his garden centre, where they discover a stash of Romanian passports. Undercover at the registry office, CID and Immigration arrest the 'Romanian Godfather', Ion Goga, behind the scam and his wife, Sheila Devlin.
More episodes from this season
Episode 43: Big Fish
Skase is skeptical when an informant tells him a small-time dealer is in cahoots with a South American dealer. However, when his informant mentions a major contact, Skase gets his hopes up and pushes Deakin to conduct a raid. When the raid goes down, Skase is concerned when the cash briefcase is a dud, but he uncovers multiple kilograms of cocaine in the seller's briefcase. Skase and Deakin are paraded as heroes in the wake of the raid, but their glory is about taken from them by the National Crime Squad after they identify the seller as Ben Carter, who is wanted in several countries around the world. Events take a sinister turn when Skase's informant turns up dead, and things only gets worse when it appears the two NCS officers who took Carter to their station for questioning were actually imposters. With Deakin's rep in particular taking a major blow and the real NCS officers keen to make someone pay, the team are left scrambling to find their target and save the DI's career.
Episode 47: Lucky Jim
Worrell and Garfield fail to catch a stolen 4x4 in pursuit, the latest in a long line of such vehicles being stolen, but luckily the vehicle is abandoned for them to analyse. Meanwhile, Carver and Harker intervene at a domestic where a man is being refused access to his daughter by his ex-wife. After talking to Carver, the woman invites him to a drink with her father, local car dealer Gerry Metcalfe. Carver meets Metcalfe's associate Samantha as they have a drink, and after having a meal, they go back to a hotel. The following morning, he discovers that Metcalfe's daughter has reported her ex-husband has abducted their child because Carver failed to make a meeting between the warring parents. Worse still, he discovers a £500 deposit in his account from Metcalfe, and that his associate Samantha is an escort who has skimmed Carver's cards. Using a rival car dealer for leverage, Carver sets out to nail Metcalfe without his "bribe" being exposed.
Episode 42: Good Relations
Rising crime levels on the council estates sees Ch. Supt. Brownlow with two additional problems: a gang of over-zealous security guards patrolling the Copthorne Estate, and a ""mobile community liaison unit"" - a caravan done up by PC Reg Hollis. When these two initiatives rankle a local gang, the guards are attacked at one end of the estate and Hollis finds himself a hostage in a potentially explosive situation. Managing to get the potential arsonist Tony Leyton on side with tales of his past misdemenours, Hollis convinces Leyton to make a statement naming Danny McCormack as the ringleader in the attacks, but the rug is pulled out from under him when Brownlow cuts a deal with McCormack in order to preserve their public image.
Episode 48: Screwdriver
Holmes and Proctor investigate the rape of a woman inside a mental health facility. After discovering a separate attack occurred at another facility six months earlier, DS Acton from Park Rise Station is seconded to Sun Hill to help investigate both cases. A staff member from the other facility claims Acton had a relationship with a nurse, Ken Forbes, who moved from the facility where the first attack occurred to the second. After Forbes uncovers a condom in the victim's room, Proctor is infuriated that he has corrupted the evidence. As Forbes is implicated by a security guard who spotted his car at the time of the attack, Proctor and Acton arrest him, and a besotted Proctor ignores Forbes protesting that Acton planted a screwdriver with paint at the scene. As the guard reveals he saw Acton at the scene scraping something off a window, Proctor realises the plant allegations may be true.
Episode 41: Heavy Plant Crossing
Sgt. Matt Boyden organises a simple obbo to catch a gang stealing an excavator from a building site. The situation is made more complicated when another gang turn up carrying guns and a man is shot and abducted. As Boyden angrily collars his snout, PC Garfield and PC Quinnan volunteer to check the hospital. Garfield's girlfriend Jenny is about to leave for South America, and he is keen to ask her to marry him, however Quinnan gets word that Jenny actually has feelings for him. As Garfield tries to organise a romantic dinner, DS Beech poaches Boyden's snout, but he too is given bad information. Garfield's dinner plans are a disaster, but he manages to catch Jenny at the nurses' home. He pops the question, but she declines, as Dave Quinnan watches from the car outside.
Episode 49: Inside Out
Beech and Glaze are sent to Shadwell Prison to investigate allegations that three prison officers are responsible for the assaults of two prisoners. With the prison on lockdown, they try to get through to the angry victims, but they soon face outrage from the prison officers when one of the suspended officers is burgled and another is assaulted. Glaze tries to talk to a lifer but ends up being held hostage, however he provides info after the incident about a death in custody five years earlier. One of the victims is identified as a family member of the prisoner who died five years ago, and his brother is suspected to be the man behind the burglary and assault, but they are forced to turn to one of the accused for evidence. Will he turn on his colleagues to help them solve the case?
Episode 40: Pillow Talk
Worrell and Harker attend a deliberate hit and run. Quinnan and Garfield are tasked with tracking down the driver, Oliver Beaumann, who has allegedly run over his wife. When they transfer Beaumann to the nick, he passes out in the van. At the hospital a doctor asks one of them to stay, and while Garfield is happy at the idea of staying with Jenny for the night, Cryer demands Quinnan stays. Garfield is suspicious as Jenny is distant with him, and she later mentions to Quinnan she's doubtful over what Garfield wants long term. As they are distracted, Beaumann tries to escape, but Quinnan drags him back in. Beaumann then claims the husband of his wife's best friend is having an affair with his wife, and that he is armed with a gun intent on getting Beaumann out of the way. Quinnan is skeptical, but is quickly drawn into an armed siege.
Episode 50: Critical Mass
Insp. Monroe is skeptical but cautious when a young woman, Emma Crawford, rings Sun Hill and says she thinks her boyfriend may have hidden a bomb in the station. At Emma's flat, Ackland and Stamp find bomb-making equipment and a faxed warning due to be sent on a timer. PC Carver discovers a suspiscious paint can hidden in the ceiling - enough to trigger the evacuation of the station and the calling in of the Bomb Squad. The suspect, Ben Wallace, has been in trouble with the police before, and he is apprehended by DCI Meadows when he returns to the flat. As the Squad begin defusing the bomb, Ackland and Stamp visit Ben's parents whom he despises. The bomb is dismantled and the station declared safe, but Ackland and Stamp watch in horror as Ben's father is killed by a car bomb planted by his son.
Episode 39: Confessions Of A Zookeeper
Ch. Insp. Derek Conway organises a charity 'lock-up' in the Sun Hill cells - the prisoners for the night being himself, Insp. Monroe, famous boxer Dion Barrie and his manager Max Weir, and Paul Lake, the father of the sick little girl they are raising money for. When Monroe calls in sick, Ch. Supt. Brownlow volunteers to take his place. Sgt. Matt Boyden as custody sergeant must cope with having his superior officers in the cells, as well as a large group of drunken female rugby players. DS Feeney from Barton Street turns up to investigate Barrie for an attempted murder, but Boyden works out that his manager is the man responsible.
Episode 51: Ring A Ring O Roses