Episode
The Bill: A Sprat To Catch A Mackerel
Overview
When an apparent drug-related murder leads Operation Trident onto Sun Hill's patch, they suspect Yardie street gangs could be active in the area. A new scheme by Conway to encourage taxi drivers to help the police bears fruit when an overzealous cabbie brings a 'prisoner', Wesley Carter, to the station, saying he heard him making a drug deal. When Carter is linked to gangster Leroy Jones, Trident get Rickman to go undercover. As they reunite, Jones admits there are Yardies operating on the patch and he is trying to take on their drug running operation - but that a rival firm is trying to stop him - leaving Rickman caught in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting.
Details
- Series
- The Bill
- Season
- Season 16
- Episode
- Episode 39
- Air date
- 2000-06-02
Episode context
A Sprat To Catch A Mackerel is Episode 39 in Season 16 of The Bill. It aired on 2000-06-02.
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Episode 38: Going Public
Webb investigates the brutal beating of businessman Kevin Hewlitt, who is found unconscious in his kitchen by his wife, Sandra. The investigation provides little information as to the motive for the attack, and very little description of the assailant is given by those who saw him. CCTV footage shows Sandra having intercourse with another man in her car a week before Kevin's attack, and she later admits to Webb that she and her husband were no longer in love. Lennox tries to break the alibi of Hewlitt's business partner Paul Wilcox, convinced that he is somehow involved in the attack. Webb makes the decision to mix business with pleasure as he begins to fall for Sandra.
Episode 40: The Hare & The Hounds
To finance his buy-in to the Yardie drug dealing operation, Jones and his gang rob a building society, with Rickman forced to be getaway driver. Despite Trident being tipped off, the relief are left lying in wait for them at the wrong bank when Jones spots a cash in-transit van, with a special constable who tries to disarm Rickman being seriously injured. The relief buzzes with rumours that Rickman has "gone native", and she finds loyalties torn as she gets close to her target. However, she is given a harsh reality check when Jones is kidnapped by rival gang leader Touissant - who gives her an ultimatum.
More episodes from this season
Episode 37: Love Or Money
Boulton and Holmes are left to pick up the pieces when the key witnesses in a robbery case refuse to give evidence. Holmes notices Boulton's change of attitude and suspects he may have found himself a woman. As word gets around the relief, Stanton attempts to cool things off with Boulton, which leaves him devastated. Meanwhile, Stanton's suspicions about Beech increase after she discovers his involvement with a credit card thief, Billy Bullock. Bullock pays Beech £1000 to destroy a CCTV tape of him stealing credit cards from a hotel conference. When Smithy and Hagen pursue Bullock, Beech's cover is nearly blown. When Bullock goes to make the drop, Stanton follows with the hope of catching Beech.
Episode 41: The Deep Blue Sea
With Leroy Jones being held captive by rival dealer Touissant, Rickman is sent to make a second purchase from the syndicate. Rickman tails her contact to a tower block in the city, where Touissant's crew burst in and shoot the ringleader of "The Syndicate" and Rickman's contact. When Jones is ordered to kill Toussaint's main rival, Nathan Clarke, Rickman finds she has fallen for Jones and confesses her love and status as a police officer. When he abandons her, she goes back to Sun Hill before getting into Touissant's so SO19 can conduct a raid. With Jones a surprise member of the group, Rickman warns him to leave, but she finds herself as a hostage for a vengeful Touissant when SO19 storm in.
Episode 36: Search Me
Stop and search is resumed when there is an outbreak of street robberies. Mannion asks Brownlow to stand in for him for a TV interview, but he ends up shifting blame after two undercover journalists are subject two stop and searches. With the relief furious at their chief, Brownlow joins Conway on the beat in the C.I.D. car. They respond to a call and collar one of the street robbers, but when the other robber hops onto a bus and Brownlow gets uniform to stop the bus, he comes under public criticism, although uniform can only see the funny side.
Episode 42: Room Service
Stanton is desperate to be discharged from the Beech case due to her love for Boulton, but Hodges assures her she is doing well. Boulton accepts a free night at a plush Docklands hotel, and invites Stanton to join him. Sure enough, as the pair settle down for their evening of luxury, an assault and robbery at the hotel sees Sun Hill officers arrive to investigate, and their night is ruined. The next day, CID investigates the theft of a laptop computer, and Beech is intrigued by reports of a "mystery blonde" sighted fleeing from the hotel. Horrified that Beech could have discovered their affair, Boulton and Stanton send Beech to the other side of London on a wild goose chase while they solve the case themselves.
Episode 35: White Lies
A Barton Street PC is stabbed when he pursues two robbery suspects into Sun Hill. A black youth, identified as Mark Okin, is found beaten unconscious at about the same time. Carver is assigned to the Okin family in his first role as Family Liaison Officer, but further investigation by CID discovers Mark to be a suspect in PC Brennan's stabbing. Carver is horrified when Daly asks him to use his position of trust with the Okin family to collect evidence against Mark. Evidence soon mounts against John Wilson, the boyfriend of Mark's sister Amy, as Daly suspects that he is responsible for the robbery, stabbing PC Brennan, and assaulting Mark when he refused to take the rap for Brennan's stabbing.
Episode 43: Soft Talking
Responding to an urgent call for assistance, Smithy arrives and has to deliver a baby in the street. Worried about the mother's condition, he investigates her background, and discovers a history of prostitution and drug abuse. When she vanishes from the hospital and abandons her newborn baby, Smithy has no choice but to inform her father, who subsequently reveals that he and his wife will be adopting the baby and bringing it up as their own. Smithy enlists the mother's help to catch her pimp, who is also dealing drugs in the process, by setting up an obbo to catch him in the act. However, the obbo goes badly wrong when the girl makes off with the drugs and tries selling them herself to local users.
Episode 34: The Squad
With the Flying Squad suffering from a staff shortage, Stamp is seconded away as a temporary driver. He struggles to impress senior officer, DS Harrap, but DI Lomax continues to encourage him. Lomax is left furious however, when a bank robbery they are trying to discretely bust is ruined by a silent alarm and appearance by Klein and Hagen in the Area Car. Stamp's standing with Harrap declines when he loses a car that kidnaps the bank manager's family. Lomax works with Monroe to negotiate with the robbers, but when he is arrested, he refuses to reveal the location of the missing family. Stamp gets a chance at redemption when the family are tracked down at a remote country house, taking a major risk to draw out the kidnappers.
Episode 44: Beyond Conviction
Klein and Hagen are called to a stabbing at a shopping centre, where a foreign aid worker has been attacked and left for dead. Initially, suspicion falls on a local youth, Wayne Stevens, who has previous for similar offences and was seen running away from the scene. However, when another witness claims she heard the victim shouting something before she was attacked, the pair find themselves on the trail of a Rwandan war criminal, Colonel Augustus Ngeze, who is wanted for mass genocide and rape by the UN. Klein's personal views begin to cloud his judgement when they fail to obtain any evidence to prove Ngeze's identity, so he sets up a chance meeting with a Rwandan national in an attempt to identify him.
Episode 33: Catch A Falling Star
Conway jumps at the chance of helping Sixties pop idol Sadie Tyler after the draft of her autobiography is alleged to have been stolen by an obsessive fan. When the compere for a charity event Conway is organizing drops out at the last minute, he asks Sadie to step in and perform instead. As Klein and Worrell continue to investigate obsessive super-fan Pete, a conversation between Conway and Sadie's manager Bob Warner reveals a shocking revelation – Pete believes he is the father of Sadie's daughter. As Conway's personal feelings get in the way of his professional judgement, Warner uses Conway's information to exact revenge on Pete.
Episode 45: Whispers
Proctor, under pressure over his poor performance, decides to trap a burglar to avoid being transferred from Sun Hill after being told by Deakin that he has a new job lined up for him at the Isleworth CSU, who are looking for a DC to investigate domestic violence. Proctor's hospital interrogation of the victim nearly results in the man's death and a bust up between his wife and his secret girlfriend. Proctor goes undercover with Page in an attempt to catch the culprit, but a jealous Quinnan, leaves the obbo, and Proctor's Sun Hill career in tatters. Meanwhile, when Hagen hears an Area Car crash on the main set, her investigation uncovers the car being chased by the officers wasn't the only vehicle involved in the crash. Things escalate when one of the officers involved in the crash dies.