Episode
The Bill: Hold Fire
Overview
P.C. Smith and P.C. Melvin are first on the scene of a traffic accident. The cars are on fire, and both officers risk their lives to rescue the occupants. One of the cars explodes, killing a passenger, knocking Smith unconscious and burning Melvin's hands. One of the men they rescued is a big-time villain, and the F.I.O. (Fire Investigations Officer) reckons he had explosives in the boot. D.C. Carver and W.P.C. Martella stake out a pub, but get distracted playing video games. They eventually follow and arrest a man who is ripping off his employer. D.S. Roach attends the Met's firearms training for renewal of his firearms authorisation. He fails spectacularly and his licence is revoked, but it's clear he failed deliberately. At the hospital, Martella arrives to help Melvin keep an eye on their suspect, but they are distracted when a man high on drugs runs through the ward, and their villain disappears.
Details
- Series
- The Bill
- Season
- Season 4
- Episode
- Episode 12
- Air date
- 1988-08-25
Episode context
Hold Fire is Episode 12 in Series 4 of The Bill. It aired on 1988-08-25.
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Episode 11: Stealing Cars and Nursery Rhymes
Yorkie has problems with kids at a youth group. He chases a group of kids in a stolen car that ends up with 2 deaths after wrapping around a pole. Ramsey seems to have collected a stray dog which runs loose around the station. Haynes slags off the kids of Sunhill in front of Yorkie. Ramsey investigates a ufo which turns out to be a satellite dish.
Episode 13: Bad Faith
TSG, Haynes, Ramsey, Mike and Jim are staking out a tower block to bring in a burglary suspect. Bob and Taffy find some children on some waste ground. Mike's car get hit by a falling telly.
More episodes from this season
Episode 10: Alarms and Embarrassments
Yorkie investigates a robbery of an off-licence. Penny is thinking of his holiday. Roach has a case thrown out of court. Stamp is in charge of organising a line up. Taffy investigates a mugging of a handicapped man. A bag lady brought in by Frazer sets fire to her cell.
Episode 14: Requiem
P.C. Ramsey and P.C. Haynes attend a flat where the occupants have discovered a decayed skeleton in the wall where they were going to build a fireplace. Sgt. Cryer, D.S. Roach and D.C. Dashwood are called in, and a forensic expert soon arrives to examine the body. What looks like a baby's body is also found, but it turns out to be a doll. While CID search for former occupants and interview the Trants' obnoxious neighbours, a note is found in the wall from a merchant sailor who couldn't afford a funeral, so he put his dead wife's body in the wall.
Episode 9: Country Cousin
D.I. Burnside waits impatiently at the train station to pick up a D.S. Jarvis from one of the country forces, who is arriving in London to arrest a suspect believed to be living in Sun Hill. After warning Jarvis for punching the suspect in the face, Burnside takes Jarvis to an East End club where the badly-behaved country copper ends up fighting with the manager and bouncer over the cost of a prostitute. P.C. Edwards and P.C. Haynes attend a bus crash where the driver and several passengers are badly injured. Accompanying the driver to hospital, it is discovered he was suffering from epilepsy which he had not declared to his employers. W.P.C. Martella drives Sgt. Penny to a doctor's check-up to ascertain whether he can return to normal duties after his shooting.
Episode 15: Trespasses
P.C. Ramsey investigates noises in a rubbish chute, and finds a newborn baby which he rushes to hospital. In the CAD room, P.C. Haynes and W.P.C. Brind argue over why anyone would dump a baby. P.C. Edwards and P.C. Melvin follow up on the theft of items from a church, and Edwards is surprised when Melvin tells him he's a born-again Christian. D.C. Dashwood discovers the church property in an antique shop, and Sgt. Peters and D.C. arrests the culprits in another church. Edwards and Melvin catch a woman removing her property from her ex-husband's house.
Episode 8: Homes and Gardens
P.C. Yorkie Smith assists P.C. Taffy Edwards dealing with a traffic snarl-up caused by a young man, Mickey Cozens. Mickey's father is called to the station, and he tells the officers that Mickey has a mental age of 7. Smith drives them home, but when Mickey's dad tells his son off, Mickey lashes out and knocks Smith unconscious. His desperate father bundle's Smith into the panda car and drives away. A witness reports that a police officer has been kidnapped, and massive chase takes place until the car is stopped and Yorkie found alive but concussed. A couple come home from holiday to find their entire garden has been removed - trees, lawn and greenhouse. Turns out to be poetic justice as the husband is rumoured to have nicked the plants from the council in the first place.
Episode 16: Save the Last Dance for Me
A dangerous escaped prisoner is supposed to visit his girlfriend in Sun Hill, and a massive obbo is in place to catch him when he turns up. A bored relief waits in the canteen with P.T.17, and P.C. Ramsey suggests a little game of cards to pass the time. Sgt. Peters and D.C. Carver wait in a van, and while Peters is answering a ""call of nature"", Carver nicks a boy for damaging cars. D.C. Dashwood and W.P.C. Ackland wait in a dance school, where they each take a turn in partnering a dance student. The jealous husband of Dashwood's dance partner storms in and attacks them, taking Mike's gun, which fortunately is unloaded. Ch. Insp. Conway nearly blows the obbo when his impatience causes him to break radio silence, despite D.S. Roach's warnings, but his radio call is just the diversion Dashwood needs to overpower his assailant.
Episode 7: Caught Red Handed
P.C. Frank and W.P.C. Martella attend an incident where a pregnant woman has stabbed her husband with a bread knife. The husband doesn't want to press charges, and when he and his wife are re-united at the station, all is forgiven. Sgt. Penny and W.P.C. Ackland are at the local swimming pool to catch a thief stealing from lockers. When they apprehend a suspect, Penny starts to crack up when he realises he's failed to videotape the evidence properly, but the S.O.C.O. salvages the incident and gets a confession when she tells the suspect that one of the wallets was coated in a chemical marker. D.C. Carver watches P.C. Smith talking to a man in the pub and thinks he has stumbled on a drug deal in the toilets. He reluctantly informs D.I. Burnside who is delighted at the chance to get one over on Uniform. Pills are found in Yorkie's locker, and he admits they are anabolic steroids to help his rugby game. Smith is let off, but he is furious with Carver for grassing him up. CID raid the stero
Episode 17: Runaround
Viv has hay fever and tries to get medication but is called to a café with a dead body and is man-handled by the deceased's son. Yorkie visits a lady with agrophobia who thinks her neighbour is being burgled. He gets on their truck and helps June and Haynes arrest them. Haynes and Ackland run into a drunken driver in a bus garage using a sledge hammer to break windows.
Episode 6: Just Call Me Guvnor
Ch. Insp. Conway briefs the relief on a massive raid about to take place on Frontline, a gang of football thugs. Two police officers are undercover in the gang, and the relief are warned not to show them any signs of recognition, however Acting D.I. Roach and D.C. Carver are stunned when they see D.I. Frank Burnside in handcuffs, blowing his cover. Roach headbutts a suspect who spat at him. The suspect gives his name in custody as ""Get Stuffed"", and Burnside, who has arrived to take over Sun Hill CID, gives him a slap for his insolence. With no love lost between Sgt. Cryer and Burnside, Cryer threatens to report Burnside if he raises Roach's assault of the same prisoner, but Burnside shocks them all when he reveals that the unfortunate prisoner is the other undercover officer in the gang. Burnside catches up with his old flame, Insp. Frazer who later has a word with Cryer for spreading rumours that Burnside is corrupt. A chastised Cryer swallows his pride and apologises.
Episode 18: The Trap
D.I. Burnside sets up a trap on a residential street: an open vanload of video recorders. He, Carver, Roach and Dashwood sit in wait for some villains to take the bait. Eventually, a man pulls up in a BMW and takes one of the videos into his house. Roach and Dashwood arrest him, and back at the station he turns out to be Julian Pembridge, a slimy solicitor well known to Burnside. Pembridge claims he was merely exposing a police entrapment campaign, and manages to escape with a fine. With Sgt. Peters on leave, Sgt. Cryer and Insp. Frazer are concerned about Sgt. Penny's state of mind. Ch. Insp. Conway has a word with him and asks him to take some leave. Penny insists he's fine and refuses, but when the air conditioning breaks down in the CAD room, Penny's temper rises with the temperature. He spills a coffee on his keyboard, and tries to attack the electrician - taking leave is no longer optional.