The Bill was broadcast on ITV under the title "Woodentop" on 16 August 1983. "Woodentop" starred Mark Wingett as PC Jim Carver and Trudie Goodwin as WPC June Ackland of London's Metropolitan Police, both attached to the fictional Sun Hill police station. Although originally only intended as a one-off, "Woodentop" impressed ITV to the extent that a full series was commissioned, first broadcast on 16 October 1984 with one post-watershed episode per week, featuring an hour-long, separate storyline for each episode of the first three series. The first episode of the full series was "Funny Ol' Business – Cops & Robbers". With
British Academy Television Award for Best Soap and Continuing Drama British Academy Television Award for Best Soap and Continuing Drama The British Academy Television Award for Best Soap and Continuing Drama is one of the major categories of the British Academy Television Awards (BAFTAs), the primary awards ceremony of the British television industry, presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Eligible drama series must be transmitted for at least 20 episodes a year. Only one episode of no more than an hour may be entered, and the episode selected must not be a special, as it must be fully representative of the series. The award was first