Peter Cregeen he worked on numerous popular television series, including: "The Troubleshooters" (1965); "King of the River" (1966); "Out of the Unknown" (1969; 1970); "The Onedin Line" (1971; 1976); "The Sandbaggers" (1978); "Colditz" (1972; 1974) and "Wings" (1977–1978). Cregeen has worked on various police dramas, including: "The Gentle Touch" (1980); "The Expert" (1969); "Softly Softly" (1969–1972); "Z-Cars" (1965); "Juliet Bravo" (1983), and the pilot to ITV's successful long-running drama, "The Bill", which was originally named "Woodentop" (1983). As original director, Cregeen was responsible for "The Bill"'s "distinctive and atmospheric feel", which he created by adopting a "fly-on-the-wall documentary style" with a single
BBC television drama major location and shot entirely on videotape and thus comparatively cheap to make, longer runs of drama series became rare, with short series of six or eight episodes becoming the norm. The single play, in its original studio-based form, also began to disappear from the schedules, with the final series of "Play for Today" airing in 1984, and the last single drama recorded at Television Centre being "Henry IV, Part 1" in 1995. The BBC was envious of the success of its rival Channel 4's newly formed film arm, which had seen made-for-television one-offs such as Stephen Frears' "My Beautiful