Episode
The Bill: Old Flame
Overview
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. However, before he has the chance, the Ortons' club is firebombed, and Santini is shocked when one of the officers assigned by AMIP to investigate the explosion is his old nemesis, DS Rosie Fox. Fox is convinced that Santini is linked to the events in question, but her AMIP DCI, Richard Pallister, believes otherwise. When Santini manages to locate Jess Orton, he persuades her to make a false confession to bombing the club in order to gain the trust of the suspected drug dealers.
Details
- Series
- The Bill
- Season
- Season 16
- Episode
- Episode 21
- Air date
- 2000-04-02
Episode context
Old Flame is Episode 21 in Season 16 of The Bill. It aired on 2000-04-02.
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Episode 20: Meltdown: Part III
Quinnan reels following his rescue and the death of Robbie Hunter the day before. When savings of his sister Donna are reported missing the day of her funeral, the mother of the teenagers discovers Robbie gave Donna the uncut heroin that killed her and stole her savings to get a gun for revenge. With AMIP convinced Robbie killed Hall, identified as the burnt out body discovered by Boyden and Hagen the night before, Boulton and Quinnan put their differences aside to prove AMIP wrong. Convinced Mick Glover is responsible for the murders of Hall and Robbie Hunter, they seek the help of the youth club to nail Boulton for a series of burglaries. Quinnan thinks he's found the evidence to nail Glover for murder, until a shocking turn of events robs them of the result.
Episode 22: Kiss Off
Santini is determined to find out if Jess Orton has grassed on him, and when he breaks into her home to challenge her, he causes her to fatally fall down the stairs. Fox is ordered off the case by DCI Pallister and warned that if her actions directly resulted in her death, then she could be facing criminal charges. Vicky plugs DS Timpney for information, suspicious that Santini may not be telling the whole truth. Desperate to conceal his involvement with the Ortons, Santini and Fox find themselves captured by Sherman and Ferguson, and facing possible execution. Fox believes she has a confession for Orton's murder and is attacked by Santini, but after their rescue, it's Santini's girlfriend Hagen who nails him for the murder.
More episodes from this season
Episode 19: Meltdown: Part II
Boulton investigates the shooting of one of the youths from Quinnan's group. Convinced it is linked to the death of Donna Hunter, he searches the shooting victim's house, and Quinnan is disappointed to learn the girl has been dealing drugs. When Robbie Hunter disappears intent on finding his sister's killers, Quinnan conducts a private investigation, but finds himself attacked when he finds a badly beaten Robbie dying in a church crypt. Smith and Harker find Quinnan's car being joyridden but lose it when yobs on the estate interrupt the chase, but Stamp and McCann find it ablaze on wasteground. Jenny fears her husband has been killed, and while Brownlow reassures her and his troops, uniform believe he is deluded. When Boyden and Hagen find a burnt out body in a factory, the team are left fearing the worse.
Episode 23: The Trial
Santini goes on trial at the Old Bailey accused of the murder of Jessica Orton, but tries to talk to CIB and implicate Quinnan and Rawton. A prison guard tells Santini that Sherman's drugs charges are being dropped in favour of conspiracy to murder Santini and Fox, who turns up dead in her hotel room after an apparent suicide. With Ferguson executed and Timpney taken on side by Sherman's heavies, Santini's trial starts falling apart. Hagen is discredited by her Sun Hill colleagues when she lies under oath and breaks down in the witness box after being caught out. With Santini found not guilty, he is warned by his recently released cellmate that he is in grave danger from Sherman's heavies.
Episode 18: Meltdown: Part I
When Quinnan and Stamp are attacked on the Jasmine Allen Estate trying to get an overdose victim to hospital, Brownlow organizes a community initiative scheme to earn back the trust of the estate's residents. Quinnan decides to face his demons and prove to the relief he can deal with the youth club, but soon finds himself haunted by the memories of his stabbing. Things get worse when a camera donating to the youth club is stolen, and Quinnan is furious when he is confronted by Mick Glover, recently released just a year after his son stabbed Quinnan on his behalf. Estate backlash is rife when the overdosing girl Quinnan and Stamp tried to get to hospital dies, and Boulton discovers local dealers are giving uncut heroin away to school kids. When Worrell, working at a women's drug groups, finds another teenager overdosing, Brownlow demands action. Boulton launches and ill-fated raid on the prime target, causing Brownlow to order the removal of Quinnan and Worrell.
Episode 24: The Driver
Hagen goes undercover as the driver for a manager of a chain of massage parlours, Allison Spencer. Suspected of running a prostitution racket for her uncle and old adversary of Meadows, Charlie Mayne, and the DCI is intent on having Mayne extradited from Portugal. Hagen, subject to gossip from her colleagues over her performance at Santini's trial, struggles to get in with Spencer until Hagen saves her from an ambush. Peter Van Reissen, Spencer's boss and contact for her uncle, asks Spencer and Hagen to rob diamonds from a luxury house. When Van Reissen discovers the man who accompanied Spencer and Hagen to the heist is an undercover cop, Hagen takes drastic action to save his life. When Meadows reveals to Hagen that Van Reissen is going to double cross Mayne, an arrest team is scrambled to arrest all the targets as Mayne flies into the country.
Episode 17: Nightwork
Worell goes undercover as a prostitute on Barrack Lane after a series of punters are assaulted and robbed, the most recent of which resulted in the punter being sliced across the face with a knife. Worrell gets close to Leanne Gibbs, a former tom who is recently back on the game after quitting rehab. Ackland, however, has a troubled past with Leanne, and resents CID using her again for an undercover operation. Ackland finds herself in too deep and nearly blows Worrell's cover, which agonizes Stanton and Meadows.
Episode 25: Protect & Survive
DC Mickey Webb arrives for his first night shift at Sun Hill, and assists an under strength uniform to track down dangerous prison escapee, Craig Ronson, who has served 8 years of life sentence for armed robbery and murder. Ackland warns the newer members of the relief that Ronson assaulted several officers when he was arrested in 1992. With Quinnan and Smith injured in separate mishaps, Ackland attends a break-in at a local sports complex and is confronted with an armed man who tries to attack her with a sledge hammer. Webb arrives and finds it to be Ronson's brother Colin, and uses his arrest to gain information as to Ronson's whereabouts. When Harker goes missing during a door-to-door on the Jasmine Allen, Rickman arrives to find him badly beaten – and herself confronted by an angry Ronson.
Episode 16: When The Bough Breaks
Boyden has a near miss on patrol when a van in front of him collides with a teenage girl. Her friend is identified by a mall security guard as a shoplifter, and after refusing to give her details, Boyden is shocked to discover the girl is Monroe's daughter Jackie. Boyden supports his boss through the ordeal, drawing on his own recent experience with his daughter Amy. As the relief rumour mill goes into overdrive, Monroe demands harsh action for Jackie to silence the officers claiming she will get off lightly. Monroe gets a reality check as he realises how badly fractured the relationship with his daughter is, and is determined to help her when she later goes missing. When Page finds drugs on Jackie's friend, Brownlow intervenes amidst media pressure about the fatal overdose of a teenage girl from Jackie's school, but has further media pressure to deal with when Jackie's arrest becomes public knowledge.
Episode 26: Take It Or Leave It
Holmes investigates a suspected money-launderer named Terry Jowit, who is wanted by police in Scotland. Holmes discovers a cheque in Jowit's mail from an antiques dealer, which leads her to suspect that he buys expensive antiques with 'dirty money' as a means of laundering it. What Holmes doesn't count on is antique dealer Judy Ryan having a tape of Beech accepting a bribe from herself and Jowit, and Beech willing to do anything to keep it a secret. However when Holmes confronts Beech, he threatens her with the evidence that she has illegally opened Jowit's mail. When Judy Ryan is later victim in a hit-and-run, Beech uses the opportunity to fit Jowit up – but he finds himself unsuspecting when Jowit tells Holmes' about his dodgy dealings, leaving the corrupt DS scrambling to cover himself.
Episode 15: Reasons To Be Fearful
Boyden and Worrell arrest a man dealing drugs to schoolchildren, but soon discover that he is the son of a key witness to a case which Beech is desperately trying to close. Beech warns Boyden off as he is desperate to nail long-term enemy Jack Masters , but Boyden has other ideas. After managing to get him off a dealing charge, the suspect then assaults one of Masters' informants, and again Beech manages to get him off; little does he know that he is using the case to clear his name completely.
Episode 27: Over The Edge
Brownlow and Mannion attend the panel for a Metropolitan Police hearing against a Sergeant who is charged with disobeying a direct order, which resulted in the career-ending injury of another officer. Mannion is easily convinced of Sergeant Gartland's guilt, but Brownlow isn't so sure. When Ch. Insp. Caine struggles to explain the evidence presented against him, and corroborative evidence from Sergeant Tillman, who is based at another station, soon begins to sway the evidence in Gartland's favour. However, when the injured officer, PC Beckett, takes to the stand, her testimony sounds a little too much like she is trying to cover for Gartland's mistake, but Brownlow remains convinced of Gartland's innocence.