Episode
The Bill: A Growing Concern
Overview
Sgt Sheelagh Murphy regains consciousness in the back of the stolen cab and texts PC Des Taviner her whereabouts. She escapes, only to be recaptured, but Des arrives in time to disarm her attacker. Relieved that they have actually caught their man, Sheelagh tells Des how grateful she is he helped clear her husband's name. Sgt Dale Smith and PC Cameron Tait stake out a local club where they suspect manager David Wemmick is running rent boys. Cameron poses as a client, and rent boy Justin gives him an address where he finds enough evidence for a raid. While waiting for Tait, Smith sees PC Luke Ashton enter the gay club with a male companion. After the raid, the rent boys are using the same number to call 'home' - a number that belongs to the club's barman, Colin Meakes. Now it's a matter of convincing Justin to help them. Sgt June Ackland is bemused that Marie Graham, Jim Carver's intended, is involved in an assault, but decides to dig into her past anyway - could Marie be a violent woma
Details
- Series
- The Bill
- Season
- Season 19
- Episode
- Episode 43
- Air date
- 2003-06-04
Episode context
A Growing Concern is Episode 43 in Season 19 of The Bill. It aired on 2003-06-04.
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Episode 42: Boomerang: Part 2
PC Luke Ashton is first on the scene of a horrific car crash, but is shocked to hear a familiar voice when his backup arrives - Sun Hill's new sergeant: Dale Smith. Smith takes a huge risk when he and Luke rescue a boy trapped in the car, a fact which does not escape the notice of Insp. Gina Gold, who is already well aware of Smiffy's reputation from his last posting to Sun Hill. Linking the boy and the car to a local gay nightclub, Smiffy believes the club is pimping underage rent boys, but his brusque manner sees a complaint brought up against him by the club's owner. PC Tony Stamp tries to do a good deed and convinces PC Jim Carver to invite Sgt. June Ackland to his wedding, but he underestimates June's feelings for Jim. Things aren't looking good for Patrick Murphy after the Garda in Dublin supply DS Debbie McAllister details of his form for assault, but Murphy is bailed due to lack of evidence. When one of PC Des Taviner's young snouts finds Murphy's wallet and cab in a warehouse,
Episode 44: Rescue
Sgt June Ackland and PCs Jim Carver, Tony Stamp and Polly Page are trapped in a cellar, and with Jim's wedding to Marie Graham only hours away, tempers start to fray amongst the group as old tensions boil to the surface. A leather-clad biker who turns up at the station turns out to be the new Detective Constable, Juliet Becker, who is paired with Mickey Webb when PC Gary Best realises that four Sun Hill officers have gone missing. It's a race against time, as a gas leak threatens the trapped officers, but Webb and Becker manage to rescue them in the nick of time. Despite his discussions with June Ackland in the cellar in which she asks him to call off the wedding, Jim and Marie get married. PC Luke Ashton is terrified that Sgt Dale Smith will ""out"" him to the rest of the relief - Smithy is non-committal, but it's Ashton's estranged wife Kerry Young who reveals his secret at Jim's wedding reception.
More episodes from this season
Episode 41: Boomerang: Part 1
PC Tony Stamp is avoiding Sgt. June Ackland after their drunken kiss the previous night. Sun Hill officers investigate a series of assaults on homeless people in the area, but when social worker Clare Johnson is brutally attacked, the prime suspect is cabbie Patrick Murphy - Sgt. Sheelagh Murphy's husband. Despite warnings to tread softly from DCI Meadows, DS Debbie McAllister is sure Murphy is her man, with little regard for her colleague's sensibilities. PC Des Taviner and PC Luke Ashton have their hands full when two elderly men fight over some misplaced books.
Episode 45: Security Risk
A furious DCI Jack Meadows finds DC Ken Drummond asleep at his desk, and also hauls DS's Debbie McAllister and Phil Hunter over the coals for failing to meet their crime targets. Deeply in debt to Hunter, Drummond is moonlighting as a security guard for Mortis Security - a private security firm which has taken over ""looking after"" the Coal Lane Estate. As Mortis boss Alan Trent moves into the ward office previously occupied by PC Des Taviner, DCI Meadows and Supt. Adam Okaro begin to suspect that Trent's company is causing many of the crimes they claim to prevent, as well as racially harassing black residents. PC Cathy Bradford turns a blind eye to Trent's methods. When DS Hunter discovers Drummond's second job, he threatens to spill the beans, which could cost Ken his job. DS McAllister and DC Juliet Becker are paired when a young mother, Lindsey Holland, and her son are run off the road. McAllister is irritated when Becker's enthusiasm and fresh ideas in the investigation conflict wi
Episode 40: Charlie Foxtrot: Part 2
Sgt. June Ackland is feeling sheepish about last night's blunder - thinking PC Jim Carver was about to propose, but work beckons. An elderly Czechoslovakian woman is being victimised on the local estate and June feels it is racially motivated. DS Phil Hunter and DC Eva Sharpe are puzzled when solicitor Robert Fenn withdraws his assault complaint against colleague Kim Bradbury, but then they discover Kim has resigned. Eva confesses she visited the seedy bar where Robert and his friends hang out and where the assault happened and she convinces Phil that they're dealing drugs. Cameron Tait goes undercover to check out the action, gets the evidence and they raid the bar. PC Gemma Osbourne is determined to help Ziba and her daughter Niki and can't even conceive of their returning to Iran, but at what cost to her career? Having already been warned off by Insp. Gold, her conscience gets the better of her, and she helps the woman escape. A screaming match ensues and Gemma is given her marching
Episode 46: Underground Railroad
DS Phil Hunter tells his bosses about DC Ken Drummond's moonlighting as a security guard - DCI Jack Meadows and Supt. Adam Okaro tell him to forget it, but secretly plan to use Ken to get the evidence they need on Alan Trent, so posing a bent copper, Drummond manages to convince Trent to rehire him. Trent meanwhile, has charmed DS Debbie McAllister into a dinner date, which he uses to question her about her supposedly corrupt colleague. Concerned with Trent's moving in on the estates, the Borough Commander, Okaro and Meadows organise a residents' meeting on the Jasmine Allen which is interrupted by three armed men in masks. Forensics of the shots fired indicates a flood of converted replica firearms on the estates. PC Cathy Bradford once again has her sights on DC Brandon Kane, and she will stop at nothing to get her man. Since his public outing, PC Luke Ashton is convinced he is being assigned all the 'gay' cases, and he confronts Sgt. Smith, and is horrified to find out that Smith an
Episode 39: Charlie Foxtrot: Part 1
Osbourne finds herself troubled after dealing with an asylum seeker, and finds it difficult to keep her professional and personal objectives separate. Torn between a war-torn Iran and a troublesome Sun Hill estate, Osbourne can't work out what sounds better for the woman and her young daughter. Osbourne is later reprimanded by Gold and warned to stay well away from the situation. Meanwhile, Sharpe and Hunter investigate an alleged assault on a lawyer by a female colleague, but Hunter suspects that ulterior motives are at work. Meanwhile, Ackland's hopes of engagement to Jim are boosted when she finds a ring in his desk, only to be told by Jim that he's engaged to Marie Graham.
Episode 47: Written In The Stars
Sun Hill comes under fire from a gun epidemic due to the illegal firearms flooding the area, and Webb is convinced that Trent is the cause. As he and Drummond investigate Trent's activities, Drummond comes across an arms cache. McAllister finds solace in her boyfriend Michael, surprised at how much interest he is showing in her. However, Webb's investigation throws up some interesting facts and McAllister puts her life at risk after making the alarming discovery about who her boyfriend really is. It's the end of the road for Ashton when he comes face to face with an armed teenager in a local mini mart. Page finds herself falling in love again after getting emotionally involved with Dr. Owen Preston.
Episode 38: Turning Back The Clock
PC Jim Carver is in a quandry over the marriage proposal from his girlfriend, Marie Graham, which he has just turned down. His old flame, Sgt. June Ackland, is about to return from leave and PC Honey Harman advises him that her astrology book suggests that he steer clear of his colleague and return to Marie. DC Danny Glaze finds himself in a dangerous situation when he goes looking for the gang that have abducted Nathan Morley. PC Des Taviner takes a witness statement from a cabbie, and tries to dissuade him when the cabbie insists on seeing Sgt. Sheelagh Murphy after the interview. Taviner is unaware that the cabbie is Sheelagh's husband Patrick. Sgt. June Ackland arrives back at Sun Hill.
Episode 48: High Speed Chaos
PC Reg Hollis intervenes when he sees a trio of youths harassing a bus driver, but the situation takes a dangerous turn when one of the youths pulls out a gun, and they hijack the bus with Hollis, the driver and a busload of terrified passengers. The gun is one of Alan Trent's replicas from the Coal Lane estate, and it backfires, hitting the driver. PCs Best and Harman spot the runaway bus, but their moment of glory is lost when PC Taviner and Sgt Murphy take over the pursuit in the area car. A man is found beaten in the street, with PC Polly Page's friend Dr Owen Preston tending to him. When it is revealed that this was the man who killed Preston's wife in a drink-driving accident, to Page's horror he becomes the prime suspect. When the victim revives, he clears Preston of any wrongdoing, but Page's decision to help Preston end his life could have far-reaching consequences. PC Cameron Tait and PC Honey Harmen investigate a green-thumbed resident at an retirement home, whose plants are
Episode 37: Laid To Rest
Life goes on at Sun Hill, after the recent murder of Sgt. Matt Boyden. When PC Gary Best and PC Honey Harmen bring in an Australian girl believed to be part of a shoplifting gang, it attracts the interest of CID. DC Mickey Webb uses Aussie PC Cameron Tait to infiltrate the gang, run by the Fagan-like Gene Bishop, but Cameron may have gone too far when Robbie and Bob Cryer witness him shoplifting in a department store. DC Danny Glaze finds Nathan Morley stuck through with a spear, and Mickey Webb and TDC Brandon Kane face a brush with death when an armed gang springs Nathan's brother Prince from a prison transport. Bob Cryer rallies the troops when Sgt. Boyden's unpopularity casts a cloud over his funeral, and Tony Stamp is surprised by the arrival of Cass Rickman's mother. PC Jim Carver helps his girlfriend Marie out with some domestic issues, and is shocked when she proposes marriage.
Episode 49: Count Me Out
A distraught PC Polly Page is told by her friend Cathy Bradford to cover up her involvement in the death of Dr Owen Preston, but as Polly types up her statement for the police she receives a letter naming her as the beneficiary of Owen's will - will Polly's conscience get the better of her? CSU gains a new officer - sexual offences expert DC Ramani De Costa, who hasn't even reached the station when she is assigned to investigate the alleged rape of a university student. Acting DI Samantha Nixon has her hands full when a daring armed robbery is carried out on Sun Hill's patch, but as Nixon takes on the case, she is distracted by the presence of reporter Dougie Pritchard, who threatens to reveal the father of Nixon's daughter Abigail, a fact passed on to him by the late Sgt Matt Boyden. Sgt Sheelagh Murphy betrays more than professional concern when shots are fired as PC Des Taviner pursues the armed robbers.