More Stunts and Drama for The Bill

When ITV’s long-running police drama The Bill is shunted to a 9pm slot later this year it’ll feature more stunts and grittier storylines.

This summer will see the long-running ITV series The Bill moved out of its 8pm slot and into a new post watershed slot as ITV moves the series and cuts it back to one episode a week.

The move is make or break for the series which has been struggling in the ratings of late – rarely breaking past the five million mark. Yet despite the low ratings it did kill of BBC One rival Holby/Blue and has consistently beaten another BBC drama in the ratings, Waterloo Road. However, while BBC One has faith in Waterloo Road and has re-commissioned it for further episodes ITV is shunting The Bill back to 9pm and just a single episode a week – effectively halving the amount of episodes per year the series airs.

The move to 9pm will see slight changes to The Bill as it becomes more ambitious telling grittier storylines, delving deeper into the characters and including more stunts. The move back to the post watershed slot, the series originally aired after the watershed but when it became a weekly series was promoted to its 8pm slot, will allow the series to become darker and tackle more subjects.

“The Bill is getting a real makeover for the new slot. There are lots more stunts which make it more glossy and adrenaline-fuelled. It will be more dramatic and exciting – it needs to be to compete with other 9pm dramas out there.” – An insider quoted in The Mirror

Last month the series was awarded the Bafta for Best Continuing Drama which was something of an embarrassment for ITV who had already announced their intention to cut back on the episodes and shift the series out of its 8pm slot.