Woodentop (The Bill) "Woodentop" has an unusual place in the history of "The Bill" due to the original premise of this being a one-off play. After broadcast, Thames commissioned a full series to be shown the following year, under the name "The Bill" as the show had the potential to appeal to a mass audience. Although "The Bill" is clearly a continuation from this episode, the main series contradicts it in a number of ways. For instance, in Woodentop Litten has completed his secondment to CID and is close to securing his place in the detective branch, whereas in "The Bill" he does
BBC television drama "Brimstone and Treacle" and "Scum" were eventually transmitted some years later. Whenever writers and media analysts criticise the current state of British and particularly BBC television drama, it is frequently the 1960s and 1970s period which they cite as being the most important and influential, with a vast variety of genres (science fiction, crime, historical, family based) and types of programme (series, serials, one-offs, anthologies) being produced. "What may justly be rated as the golden age of television drama reached its zenith," as "The Guardian" described it in their 2004 obituary of Sutton. Or in the words of the Royal