Episode
The Bill: Faultline
Overview
Dave Quinnan just stands and watches as a shopkeeper and a young woman are attacked by a gang of thugs at his local corner shop. When he finally turns up at the station, he identifies the leader of the gang as Robbie Gaitskill. Polly Page turns up in tears, and she and the rest of the relief are concerned as Dave seems to be cracking up. The crackheads arrested the previous night identify Quinnan as the policeman who attacked them. As Hagen and Page try to find him, Quinnan goes AWOL and tracks down the woman from the shop, Tricia Martin, and demands she tell him Gaitskill's address. Half the relief turn up on Gaitskill's doorstep, only to find Quinnan sitting in a car outside. Gaitskill is arrested, and Quinnan is told by Supt. Chandler to take his sick leave and seek professional counselling.
Details
- Series
- The Bill
- Season
- Season 17
- Episode
- Episode 15
- Air date
- 2001-02-23
Episode context
Faultline is Episode 15 in Season 17 of The Bill. It aired on 2001-02-23.
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Episode 14: Going Under
Dave Quinnan arrives late after rowing with Jenny all night. Ever the troublemaker, Sgt. Boyden sends him out on patrol with Polly Page, Tony Stamp and Vicky Hagen. Quinnan and Page have trouble keeping their mind on the job, and this gets dangerous when Stamp is attacked by a gang of thugs on the DLR and Quinnan is nowhere to be seen. When Jenny leaves him and returns to Dublin, Dave starts to crack up. He puts on his uniform after his shift and goes on a vigilante mission to find the gang responsible for the attack on Stamp. DC Webb gets an anonymous call and finds some of the gang members tied up and sprayed with pepper spray.
Episode 16: Long Shadows (1)
When DC Lennox is accused of planting evidence in an armed robbery case, DCI Meadows is determined to charge the suspect's accomplice, Phil Brown. Unfortunately, Brown claims to have been an informant for DS Don Beech, which makes Supt. Chandler determined to drop the case. When an old friend of Meadows' reveals that George Stubbs had previously bribed Chandler's DS at Park Rise, Meadows realises he has some ammunition against Chandler. Meanwhile Sgt. Boyden and PC Hagen help PC Roz Clarke recover her ASP when it is stolen while pursuing a robbery suspect.
More episodes from this season
Episode 13: Home and Away
Supt. Chandler is outraged when he finds out about the aggrevated burglery of a deaf and blind woman in the local paper rather than from CID. Reg Hollis overhears Matt Boyden gossiping to Vicky Hagen about Dave and Polly, and soon the news of their affair is all over the station. Accompanied by a reporter from the newspaper, CID and Uniform raid the house of suspected burgler Mick Corcoran, but when Corcoran attacks Polly Page, he is brutally beaten by Quinnan and requires hospital treatment. Sgt. Boyden arranges tickets for a charity ball, but the limo breaks down and they all take refuge in a country pub, where Jenny Quinnan finally works out that Dave is having an affair.
Episode 17: Long Shadows (2)
Under pressure from Supt. Chandler and the NCS to release Phil Brown, DCI Meadows convinces Moira Scott to admit to George Stubbs's involvement in the armed robbery as well as drug dealing. DC Kate Spears goes undercover as a cocaine buyer, and with some help from NCS and SO19, they catch Stubbs and his supplier red-handed with the drugs. During his interview, Stubbs makes an allegation of corruption against Supt. Chandler. Before he calls in CIB, DI Cullen convinces Meadows he's only been told half the story.
Episode 12: Real Crime
DC Kate Spears is assigned to a domestic violence case, but is alarmed when DC Mickey Webb realises the perpetrator, Neil Hayes, is also a suspect in a series of truck hijackings he is investigating, and requests he be bailed so he can lead them to the gang. Spears's sympathy for the victim, Lisa Hayes, starts to wear thin when she refuses to press charges, harasses Spears at work, and then is discovered to be having an affair with Hayes's boss.
Episode 18: Higher Power
PC Jim Carver attends to a drug dealer found badly beaten on the Larkmead Estate, but finds himself in a dilemma when a friend Ossie from his AA group confesses to the crime. DS McAllister follows Carver when he tries to convince his friend to turn himself in, and to his horror, Ossie is arrested shortly after. Carver realises that Ossie had suffered an alcoholic blackout at the time, and that the real beating was committed by a rival drug dealer on the Larkmead. Meanwhile, Uniform contend with the BIC gang, a group of youths harassing local shopkeepers.
Episode 11: Cruise Control
DC Webb poses as a 'rent-boy' in Eddington Park, a well-known gay beat in Sun Hill, as he and DC Lennox investigate a series of brutal attacks on gay men in the area. A car alarm alerts Webb and Lennox to the car of a local MP parked in the bushes. When questioned, the MP claims he was car-jacked and certainly was not 'cruising' in the park. He threatens legal action and Supt. Chandler moves quickly to prevent further damage to Sun Hill's reputation. A helpful security guard offers the police an observation post in a nearby office building, but Webb is suspiscious of the guard's attitude.
Episode 19: Touched By Evil
PC Roz Clarke is on attachment to CID, and puts up with the usual teasing from the detectives and her uniform colleagues. She cracks the case she is working on with DC Glaze though, when she realises that a series of break-ins are all one surname in the phone book. When Ch. Insp. Conway and DI Cullen attend a rugby match between the Met and the Army, Conway is abducted when a disgruntled soldier decides to take revenge on those responsible for the abuse he received while at a children's home.
Episode 10: Mexican Stand Off
DS McAllister pushes her informant and lover Jamie Ross too far when she tapes a privileged conversation between Ross and a client who admits to intimidating a witness in a court case. When Ross makes an official complaint against her, she turns to DC Riley for help and threatens to expose his cover-up of his brother's involvement with the French car gang unless he backs her up and says that he was present at all her meetings with Ross.
Episode 20: The Leopard (1)
PC Smith and PC Klein attend to Mr Kennedy, whose house and garden shed have been attacked by vandals repeatedly over the past few weeks. When Kennedy threatens to take matters into his own hands, Smith casually comments that he wouldn't blame him if he did. Smith and Klein both apply for new jobs - Smith submits his application to SO19 and Supt. Chandler wants Klein to take the position of partnership officer at the Town Hall. When Kennedy shoots a young boy, and insists that PC Smith told him to do so, Klein reluctantly confirms what was said, and Smith accuses him of grassing him up. After attacking Klein in the corridor, and under investigation by CIB, Smith is suspended from duty.
Episode 9: Out Of The Frying Pan
DS McAllister continues to get useful tip offs from her informant and lover, Jamie Ross, including one about an armed raid on a betting shop. Meanwhile, there's a war brewing on Sun Hill turf between rival hot dog vendors, one of whom is DC Paul Riley's brother Joe. When Joe Riley's lockup is set on fire and several of his vendors attacked, PCs Hollis and Hayward and DC Riley go undercover as hot dog vendors to catch those responsible.
Episode 21: The Leopard (2)
PC Klein is offered the position of partnership officer, but he is shunned by the relief, who think he grassed Smithy up to get the job. Sgt. Cryer has a funny feeling about Frank Kennedy, and decides to do some digging of his own, and he encourages Smith to do the same. With Klein's help, Smith infiltrates the gang of youths intimidating the local residents, and discovers that the real estate firm Mather & Devine is indeed behind the harassment. Meanwhile, Cryer uncovers the fact that Kennedy was a notorious East End gangster named Ken Franklin who stored weapons for the Kray brothers, and that Kennedy's claim of shooting in self-defence is disproven by the forensic evidence and a statement from the other gang member. Smith is re-instated, Supt. Chandler approves his transfer to SO19, and Klein turns down the partnership officer job.