Episode
The Bill: Critical Mass
Overview
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.
Details
- Series
- The Bill
- Season
- Season 15
- Episode
- Episode 50
- Air date
- 1999-08-10
Episode context
Critical Mass is Episode 50 in Season 15 of The Bill. It aired on 1999-08-10.
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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 51: Ring A Ring O Roses
More episodes from this season
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 52: The Only Way Is Up
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 53: Rock Bottom
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.
Episode 54: Sunhill Boulevard
Episode 45: Cracked Up
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.
Episode 55: Lola
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 56: Integrity: Part I