Episode
The Bill: Lick of Paint
Overview
A spate of graffiti taggings in Sun Hill sees the police showing zero tolerance to the perpetrators. PC Carver is sympathetic towards an alcoholic teacher at Canley Art College when his classroom and students' work are defaced. Sgt. Boyden asks PC Hagen to move in with him, but she is reluctant, wanting her own space. To her outrage, Boyden moves her belongings to his house as a surprise. Boyden arranges for the council to paint a wall blank to set a trap for the graffitists, catching quite a few in the process. The defacement at the art college turns out to have been committed by the teacher who is jealous that one of his students is sleeping with his ex-girlfriend, life model Moira Sutherland.
Details
- Series
- The Bill
- Season
- Season 17
- Episode
- Episode 45
- Air date
- 2001-06-29
Episode context
Lick of Paint is Episode 45 in Season 17 of The Bill. It aired on 2001-06-29.
Previous / Next
Episode 44: The Jury's Out
After a minor car accident in the High Street, PC Jim Carver breathalyses an elderly man, but takes sympathy on him and allows him to leave in a taxi. The man turns out to be Hugh Alexander, a High Court judge with a renowned pro-police stance, and Carver finds himself suspected of showing bias, particularly when the other man involved in the accident threatens legal action against the Met. At the trial of a man accused of murdering a PC, PC Worrell feels marginalised as a black officer when she is asked to testify and be a character witness for the dead officer. Ch. Insp. Conway meets with Gary Fablon, and discovers that Fablon is addicted to litigation, and the accident was his fault. Carver, meanwhile, has a chance to redeem himself when Conway hears that Alexander may be drink-driving again that night.
Episode 46: Temptation
PC Roz Clarke has been working double shifts all week, and goes behind Sgt. Ackland's back to get some more overtime from Boyden as she is desperately in debt. PC Taviner promises her some time in the Area Car, much to Reg Hollis's annoyance. Taviner and Clarke interview Warren Debdale, a student who was brutally beaten, but he insists he didn't know the perpetrators. His father suspects the boy's friends are involved, but DC Glaze discovers the father is being blackmailed by a drug smuggling gang. Assigned to watch Warren in the hospital, an exhausted and miserable Roz Clarke has a coffee with a nurse and is horrified to find Warren missing when she returns. With DI Cullen and CID holding back from raiding the gang in case they hurt the boy, Clarke spots Warren's friend Karen on the estate and she admits he is staying at her flat. CID sweep in and arrest the gang, and Clarke is off the hook for the moment, although her flatmate threatens to throw her out unless she pays the rent she o
More episodes from this season
Episode 43: Gun Crazy (2)
At the stakeout of the prime suspect, Chandler prevaricates, and Meadows has to act quickly when McAllister is in mortal danger.
Episode 47: Envy
Clarke helps Taviner track down stolen diggers and crime families while moonlighting in telesales to pay off her debts.
Episode 42: Gun Crazy (1)
A mad gunman is on the loose in Sun Hill. Supt. Chandler takes a personal interest in the case, but when he confides his reasons to a young woman who was threatened by the gunman, he is horrified to find she was a journalist and the story is published in the Sun Hill Gazette. Feeling unappreciated in the job, DCI Meadows considers other options, and attempts to smooth things over with his long-suffering wife, Laura. Meadows teams up with DS McAllister and the two of them strike out on their own, and after a few close calls, arrest their prime suspect - a motor mechanic with a history of firearms offences. As they interview him however, the gunman strikes again...
Episode 48: Greed
A distraught PC Roz Clarke fails her probation exams, and goes AWOL instead of returning to the station. A gang of thieves on rollerblades are rampant in Sun Hill, and their mobility makes it very difficult for the police to catch them. PC Taviner arrests a girl, Jackie Burns, at a skate park, but she insists she was just watching the skaters. As the skate gang gets more violent, animosity between PC Worrell and Clarke also grows more fierce, and the two come to blows in the corridor. A tearful Clarke admits her debt problem to Taviner. Scrutinising CCTV footage reveals Jackie's involvment with the gang - she phones them when a potential victim withdraws money from an ATM. Clarke returns home to find the bad news that her telesales commission has fallen through and her flatmate Caitlin wants her out.
Episode 41: Happy and Glorious (1)
The Section House is closing, and PC Reg Hollis is not only looking for a new place to live, he is also applying for a transfer to SO14 (the Royal Protection unit). He is about to buy a flat owned by an elderly friend, Doreen Tyler, but she changes her mind at the last minute, so he moves in with Tony Stamp temporarily. Hollis's intuition gives CID an important lead on a planned armed robbery, but his uniformed colleagues conspire to have Nick Klein organise the Section House closing party instead of him. Deciding to skip the party, Hollis goes to visit Doreen, but finds her dead in her flat. With no alibi, Hollis is the prime suspect for her murder, and he is suspended from duty. As Stamp and Klein work to find someone who can verify Hollis's whereabouts, CID discover a woman posing as Mrs Tyler's adopted daughter.
Episode 49: Redemption
PC Roz Clarke unsuccessfully applies for a police loan. PC Des Taviner buys her a pushbike and suggests she sell her scooter, but Roz is far from impressed. PCs Carver and Rickman find a young boy, Gavin Billson, overdosed on drugs, and CID investigate some of the local dealers. When it turns out Gavin overdosed on diamorphine, and after several dead ends, suspiscion falls on Dr Stuart Bremnar, a doctor at St Hugh's, who is also the boyfriend of Roz Clarke's friend Ruth. A review of the hospital's CCTV footage reveals Ruth herself sneaking into a storeroom, and Roz is forced to arrest her best friend.
Episode 40: Suffer the Little Children
DI Cullen leads a drugs raid on a warehouse owned by his old nemesis, Terry Barlow, but finds nothing. Cullen is furious with DC Glaze, whose snout tipped them off about drugs on the premises. PC Harker and PC Rickman deal with a domestic case involving an argumentative couple, the Carters, and their baby. Neither case makes any progress until a neighbour reports that Barlow has been to visit the Carters on several occasions. Determined to get one up on CID, Harker puts the pieces together and comes up with a theory that the Carters are putting their baby up for sale on the Guatemalan black market with the help of a doctor at St Hugh's, and Barlow is the broker. Despite warnings from Glaze, Harker presses on and is proven correct when they raid a hotel where the exchange has taken place. Baby Sean is recovered, and the police race to an office building where Jackie Carter is threatening to kill herself.
Episode 50: The Dark Side
PC Ben Hayward breaks down when telling primary school pupils about the death of his sister during an anti-drugs talk. Sgt. Gilmore is not happy, but the teacher thinks Hayward's sensitivity will help the students get the message, and may also help them trust Hayward enough to report a bully. An old friend of his sister's works at the school, and she asks him out, although when he meets her at a gallery opening, Hayward thinks her friends are dealing drugs. PC Klein and Hayward find the bully, who goes by the nickname ""Red"", and has been using two fierce dogs to steal money and mobile phones from schoolkids. They trace the dogs to the flat of drug-addicted prostitute Stacy Dodds, and a subsequent search of her flat uncovers a large stash of heroin. Stacy insists her pimp forced her to deal drugs and have sex with Red, and instead of having the dogs picked up, Hayward and Klein search the pimp's boat, finding more heroin. The pair argue: Klein wants to set up an obbo to catch the pimp r
Episode 39: Complicity (2)
Tyro Shaw threatens to blow DS Singh's cover in the car-ringing gang, but is convinced otherwise. Singh seems to have impressed both Kevin North and his boss, Jennifer Salter, who seems quite taken with him. Salter tells Singh the gang is moving on soon, and he realises he must get the evidence in North's office. As Singh enters the office, Webb realises that Tyro Shaw has set them up, and Vik is abducted by North and Salter. Webb convinces Tyro to tell them where Vik was taken, and CID narrowly rescue him from being set alight.
Episode 51: Angel Rooms