We’re going back to the beginning of the Bill to relive all the biggest moments, noteworthy crimes and see the men and women in blue from Sun Hill Police Station. But before we get swept up in the action, let’s explore the world of The Bill.

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Welcome to
Sun Hill

The officers of Sun Hill police station are based right here, in the heart of the London borough of Canley.

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Another Canley hotspot is the Jasmine Allen housing estate, where officers are often called to sort out troublemakers and keep the peace.

Not far away is Barton Street station, where the officers have a long-running rivalry with Sun Hill’s finest.


MEET THE TOP COPPERS

Sun Hill has seen all kinds of coppers come and go, from by-the-book officers who play things straight, to hard-nosed detectives who bend the rules to get the job done.



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Sergeant

Bob Cryer

Details:

Bob Cryer

Rank:

Sergeant

Years active:

1984-2004

Service record:

Old school copper Bob Cryer was stern and stoic, yet suffered his share of traumas, even surviving an accidental shooting by a fellow officer. Dedicated to duty, he would make return visits to Sun Hill after retiring on medical grounds.

P.C.

Reg Hollis

Details:

Reg Hollis

Rank:

Police Constable

Years active:

1984-2008

Service record:

A likeable loner with a fondness for trains, Reg was always the odd one out at Sun Hill. Despite being socially awkward, he proved himself a capable officer, and always had his heart in the right place.

Sergeant

June Ackland

Details:

June Ackland

Rank:

Sergeant

Years active:

1983-2007

Service record:

A true Sun Hill stalwart, June Ackland exuded natural leadership and was looked up to by all who worked alongside her. Yet she also nursed private heartaches, and was perhaps too virtuous and sympathetic for her own good.

P.C.

Polly Page

Details:

Polly Page

Rank:

Police Constable

Years active:

1992-2004

Service record:

Polly Page was a fearless constable, but her policing career came to an ugly end when she was convicted of murder after assisting in the euthanasia of a friend. After being released on appeal, she became a civilian member of Sun Hill staff.

D.S.

Jim Carver

Details:

Jim Carver

Rank:

Detective Sergeant

Years active:

1983-2007

Service record:

Once determined to stay a uniformed copper for the whole of his career, Jim Carver actually became a high-flying detective. But that was only after overcoming his personal demons, including alcoholism and a gambling addiction.

D.C.

Tosh Lines

Details:

Rank:

Detective Constable

Years active:

1988-1998

Service record:

A scruffy old bloodhound of a detective, what Tosh Lines lacked in airs and graces, he made up for in brilliance. A natural, born copper, he could sniff out a culprit from a mile away, and inspired devotion from his Sun Hill colleagues.

D.C.I.

Frank Burnside

Details:

Rank:

Detective Chief Inspector

Years active:

1984-2000

Service record:

Tough, steely and a natural rebel, Frank Burnside was long suspected of being crooked by some colleagues. But he stayed on the right side of the law, even if he skirted very close to the edge during his time on the frontlines.

D.C.

Grace Dasari

Details:

Rank:

Detective Constable

Years active:

2007-2010

Service record:

Service record: Oxford-educated Grace Dasari took an academic, analytical approach to policing. Not much of a social animal, she liked to keep things strictly business with her colleagues – except when it came to DI Neil Manson.

P.C.

Dave Quinnan

Details:

Rank:

Police Constable

Years active:

1984-2008

Service record:

Former oil rig worker Dave Quinnan was a lad’s lad who took a no-nonsense approach to policing. But he suffered a mental breakdown after being stabbed on the Jasmine Allen estate, and eventually transferred to become an undercover officer.

P.C.

Tony Stamp

Details:

Rank:

Police Constable

Years active:

1987-2009

Service record:

A thoroughly decent man, Tony Stamp had a rocky time at Sun Hill, accidentally killing a civilian in a car chase and facing false charges of sexual harassment. Luckily, he endured it all, finding his comfy niche as a police driving instructor.

D.I.

Samantha Nixon

Details:

DI Samantha Nixon

Rank:

Detective Inspector

Years active:

2002-2009

Service record:

She’s a measured person both professionally and emotionally and she is genuinely, academically interested in police work. Prior to joining Sun Hill, she trained in criminal profiling but failed to be accepted into the Met's profiling team. Sam was by far one of the most capable of candidates and her instinctive skill at reading people earns her an "off limits" tag by some people, afraid that she might find something out about them.

D.C.

Mickey Webb

Details:

Mickey Webb

Rank:

Detective Constable

Years active:

2000-2010

Service record:

Mickey transferred to Sun Hill from Porter's Avenue police station near Dagenham as a cocky and ambitious 25-year-old. While good at his job he was more interested in getting results than in making friends and often rubbed his colleagues up the wrong way. But his time at Sun Hill Police, his undercover work to get ‘The Napp’, losing Gary, and finally losing Kate in the Sun Hill fire changed Mickey forever.

SUN HILL'S
ROTTEN APPLES

Not all the Sun Hill coppers were on the side of angels. A few supposedly fine and upstanding officers were every bit as bad as the villains they were supposed to catch. Take a butcher’s at this terrible trio.

Bribery, perverting the course of justice, drug dealing, robbery, murder.

DS Don BeechCharming, charismatic and apparently devoted to his job, Don Beech made quite an impression when he first joined the ranks at Sun Hill. While some suspected him of being dangerously fond of flouting the rules, nobody could have predicted just how far over the line he’d go.

His criminal career began with taking hefty bribes from criminals, and escalated to murder when he killed his own friend and colleague, DS John Boulton. On the run in Australia, Beech got involved in money laundering and robbery, eventually planning an audacious diamond heist back in the UK. Ultimately apprehended, Beech was wily to the last, fleeing police custody and disappearing into thin air.can you help?

Attempted rape, sexual harassment, manslaughter.

PC Eddie SantiniEddie’s morals were always a bit suspect, which is why a superior officer blocked him from joining CID before he got to Sun Hill. It didn’t curtail his career as a uniformed copper, though, and his sly sense of humour and dark good looks made him popular with the ladies. But his dark side surfaced when he became obsessed with fellow cop Rosie Fox. He attempted to rape her, then subjected her to a campaign of sexual harassment, as well as bullying other officers at the station.

After getting embroiled with drug dealers and accidentally killing his ex-girlfriend, Santini finally got what was coming to him when he was executed on the orders of a mobster.can you help?

Rap sheet: Fraud, perjury, perverting the course of justice, GBH, rape, murder.

PC Gabriel KentVicious, selfish, and sadistic, Gabriel Kent was one of the worst people ever to darken the doorway of Sun Hill. He bullied and victimized his colleagues – notably the lovely June Ackland – and had no issue with fabricating evidence and doling out a bit of police brutality to any suspects he took exception to.

He raped and eventually murdered fellow PC Kerry Young, and was also the co-conspirator who encouraged a series of vigilante killings by the so-called “Sun Hill Sniper”. He committed many more terrible crimes before finally ending his own depraved existence by stepping off a roof.can you help?

SOME RIGHT
BAD ‘UNS

It’s not just the coppers who are colourful at Sun Hill. Many of the villains they nicked were rather memorable too...

Sun Hill Crime Report

1The OAP Gangster

Officers were shocked when they found a helpless old man lying bleeding in a street after a vicious beating. Except he wasn’t quite so helpless after all, and turned out to be a legendary East End gangster whose son was involved in a drugs ring.

2The Angry Hot Dog Vendors

Never mind drug dealers and pimps, Sun Hill’s finest also had to contend with furious hot dog vendors locked in a bitter and very violent turf war. Coppers actually had to go undercover as vendors to put the offenders in the doghouse.

Sun Hill Crime Report

3Billy the Kid

A gun-toting cowboy outlaw loose on the streets of London? Not quite, but the police had their hands full when they arrested a 10-year-old lad dubbed “Billy the Kid” twice in a day, and uncovered a murky blackmail scam.

4The Lascivious Jockey

When a cocky Irish jockey agreed to testify against a bent bookie, a luckless female cop had to tolerate his endless cheeky flirtations. To make matters worse, he wasn’t just the sleaziest chap ever to trouble Sun Hill – he turned out to be the real villain of the piece, guilty of blackmail and even doping horses.

THE SUN HILL
SERIAL KILLER

Canley became the stalking ground of the so-called “Sun Hill Serial Killer”, a major nemesis of the team whose victims were found along the Thames. The crimes became known as the Canley River Murders.

Liz Chambers
a teenager who once testified in court against her father.

Tina Pope
a woman who was married to a known criminal.

Miriam Ray
a woman who’d identified a flasher exposing himself in a park.

Lucy Corrigan
a woman who’d pretended to be the victim of a hate mail campaign.

Vicki Casson
a teenager at war with her stepmum.

Cass Rickman
a Sun Hill officer in a relationship with local journalist Simon Kitson.

Liz Chambers’ boyfriend had been seeing another teenager and didn’t seem too bothered about Liz going missing, becoming a prime suspect.

Tina Pope’s husband was known to be a bad egg, but despite his violent past there was no evidence to implicate him here.

Convicted killer Peter Baxter, who’d already done a long stretch for terrible crimes, actually confessed to being the serial killer, but it was proven to be false.

Photographer Simon Kitson, who’d been involved with Cass Rickman, was strongly suspected of being the culprit, but committed suicide in a holding cell.

The serial killer was eventually unmasked as Simon Kitson’s sister, Pat, who was so obsessed with her sibling that she killed anyone she thought might threaten her closeness with him.

THE SUN HILL
FIRES

Sun Hill station itself hasn’t always been a safe space for our boys and girls in blue. It was ravaged by two deadly fires which remain the darkest days in Canley’s history.

Oct 2002

30p

SUN HILL GOES SUPERNOVA

Huge explosion claims six police lives

Why it happened: Sun Hill came under siege by yobs lobbing petrol bombs. But it was actually an officer, Des Taviner, who took one of their bombs and caused the lethal explosion in order to cover up evidence of a crime.

Fallen officers: DI Andrew Monroe. PC Di Worrell. PC Ben Hayward. DC Paul Riley. PC Sam Harker. DC Kate Spears.

Oct 2005

40p

HORROR BLAZE AT SUN HILL

Three die in latest police station fire

Why it happened: This second fire was also caused by a copper, the bigoted Colin Fairfax. Following a row with an Asian officer the enraged Fairfax sent a van filled with petrol containers hurtling into the station.

Fallen officers: SRO Marilyn Chambers. PC Andrea Dunbar. DC Ken Drummond.

SHOCKING
MOMENTS

Every day comes with its own surprises at Sun Hill. But some moments really stand out in the memory...

Gabriel Kent’s last stand
The most corrupt and monstrous officer Sun Hill’s ever known, Gabriel Kent pulled the wool over everyone’s eyes for too long. When finally cornered on a roof, he decided there was only one way to go: down.

Tom Chandler’s gun frenzy
When the ghosts of his own shady past came back to haunt him, top cop Tom Chandler was driven to breaking point. Grabbing a gun from the evidence pile, he took his own wife hostage, and things didn’t end well...

Smithy’s stabbing
When Dale Smith, one of the most popular coppers, got involved in just another scuffle with a suspect, few could have foreseen he’d get a knife lodged in his throat.

“Nipper” Cryer
As part of a prank, two officers warned a new WPC that Bob Cryer was known as “Nipper” Cryer because of his incessant bottom-pinching. And, shockingly, the cheeky officers framed poor Bob right under his own nose...

LOVE ON DUTY

When they’re not catching criminals, the regulars had a way of catching each other’s hearts. Here are some of the more arresting romances to unfold at Sun Hill.

Jim Carver and June Ackland

Canley’s answer to Richard Burton and Liz Taylor, Jim and June were star-crossed lovers who were fated to be together... and fated to stay apart. They’d had serious chemistry ever since she had taken him under her wing on his first day on the beat, but his growing personal problems would eventually doom their passionate relationship.

Reg Hollis and Marilyn Chambers

Everyone was delighted when lonely Reg Hollis finally found love in the form of desk officer Marilyn Chambers. It was a beautiful romance – she even shared his love of trains! – but it came to a tragic end when Marilyn was killed in the second Sun Hill fire just as Reg was going to propose.

Luke Ashton and Craig Gilmore

PC Luke Ashton was all set to marry Kerry Young when he ended up in bed with his colleague, Craig Gilmore. Not exactly the best timing for coming to terms with his sexuality, but the affair did force him to be honest with himself. At last.

Neil Manson and Grace Dasari

Having worked together for so long, Grace Dasari was a bit taken aback when the normally stern Neil Manson awkwardly asked her on a date. She admitted it was weird, but “good weird”. Aww.

The Bill Catch up on UKTV Playor Watch on Drama First broadcast in 1984, The Bill ran for over 25 years, making it one of the country's most popular crime dramas. The show follows the men and women in blue from Sun Hill Police Station, as they enforce law and order in east London.
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