Trudie Goodwin, who played June Ackland, on how this final plot twist will lead to tears

Friday, 26 March 2010
I was saddened, but not surprised, to hear that The Bill is to be axed. Having played June Ackland for 24 years, Sun Hill was an important part of my life.

In its heyday – when it was watched by 16 million viewers weekly – The Bill attracted some great writers and directors who understood the tight format, and how to shoot quickly and efficiently without compromising character or storyline.

One great episode took place inside a police van as we waited to be deployed to quell a riot. It was composed of just two handheld shots – one before the ads and one after – and the sense of boredom and frustration inside the van was brilliantly captured.

The key to the show then was that the plot was seen entirely from the point of view of the police. The audience only knew what we knew: there was no dramatic irony. We also never forgot that the police are human: part of the internal life of Sun Hill was the way that characters bickered and joked with each other so that, whatever the rigours of the job, viewers could see the funny side of the characters. That was also true of us as actors and crew: I have extremely fond memories of the seriously rude and seriously funny people I spent my working hours with. It was laughter that saw us through long gruelling hours of shooting, shivering on Thames' Bank at three in the morning, or huddled in freezing concrete estate stairwells with only a sense of humour to keep us going.

We never won awards but we plodded on knowing well-acted, tight scripts and our pioneering use of handheld cameras would always be appreciated by loyal fans. I left two years ago, finally finding the 14-hour-days too much. I'm sad to see it ending; sad for the people who worked tirelessly for the programme over all those happy years; people without whose close friendship and many talents we would never have lasted so long. I think I can say, for all of us, tears will be shed.