The Bill The Bill The Bill is a British police procedural television series, first broadcast on ITV from 16 October 1984 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, "Woodentop", broadcast in August 1983. In its final year on air, "The Bill" was broadcast once a week, usually on Tuesdays or Thursdays, in a one-hour format. The programme focused on the lives and work of one shift of police officers, rather than on any particular aspect of police work. "The Bill" was the longest-running police procedural television series in the United Kingdom, and among the longest running of any
BBC television drama Mal Young, best known for producing Liverpool-set Channel 4 soap "Brookside", to head up the Drama Series section of the in-house Drama Department, which had become something of a poisoned chalice with many Controllers departing in quick succession. As Controller of Continuing Drama Series, Young oversaw the move to volume production and also commissioned a new medical Series, "Holby City". By the time Young left the BBC to join 19 Television Limited as head of Drama in December 2004, the BBC had increased Series production to nearly 300 hours per annum, including "EastEnders" at four times a week, "Holby City"