Hi everyone,

I was just wondering if any of you guys have been watching The Bill on the new Freeview Drama channel?

They are currently showing episodes from 1999. I've been recording them each day and stacking them up on my box, keeping some of my favourite episodes to watch again.

They started showing these episodes in July, starting off with when the Bill went to hour long episodes in 1998. The first major storyline was Eddie Santini harrassing Rosie Fox.

I've been loving these episodes. What I love about the stories they've told such as Eddie/Rosie and Tony running over a pedestrian is that these stories have been told in a very subtle and understated way. A lot of drama on TV nowadays is done for shock value and drama is littered with pantomime villains a lot of the time nowadays. Eddie Santini is complex and Michael Higgs plays him with subtlety. There's no over the top theatrics - stories are allowed to play out naturally.

My only criticism is that a couple of the CID episodes have been a bit dull. I definetly prefer the uniform characters to CID in this era.