The Bill series 22

Theme

When Johnathan Young took over as producer for this series, the show began to shift away from the heavily serialised storytelling that had been introduced by Paul Marquess, instead putting more emphasis back on day-to-day police work and reducing the soap-opera elements. Most episodes now featured two parallel storylines running at the same time, echoing the format used when the programme first moved to hour-long episodes in 1998. A few episodes, however, were built around a single story, marking the start of a move toward self-contained episodes as part of a longer-term plan to eliminate serialisation entirely—a change that would not fully happen until 2007.

To make the most of the cast's experience from the soap era, the multi-part plots that Marquess had used were kept, helping to ease the transition into the changes that would come later. This meant several long-running storylines were set up, including the disappearance of schoolgirl Amy Tennant, DC Zain Nadir going undercover as a corrupt officer in a drugs ring, and Sergeant June Ackland's relationship with a school headmaster, none of which were resolved until the following year.

The 2006 episodes also focused on longer arcs such as Sergeant Dale Smith being wrongly imprisoned for murder, PC Tony Stamp trying to help his terminally ill father through his final days, and PC Roger Valentine confronting his own prejudices while dealing with PTSD. The show also underwent a major set modernisation, with the entire station being redeveloped. CID was relocated to the area above the front office, the old community safety unit was knocked down to make room for a larger CID, a new briefing room, and an expanded DI's office.

The admin offices for the Superintendent, DCI, and intelligence, which had been next to the CSU, were later moved to where CID had previously been on the other end of the upper level. Over the course of the year, the station was repainted a lighter shade of blue, the uniform briefing room and CAD spaces were refurbished, the sergeants' office was enlarged, and the custody suite was completely rebuilt, with all work finishing the following year.

Cast changes

Superintendent Adam Okaro, played by Cyril Nri, was among the most significant departures, moving up to Borough Commander and making way for Daniel Flynn as the new Superintendent John Heaton. Early in the season, the cast underwent heavy turnover, with many characters introduced by the previous producer Marquess—mostly support staff and civilian roles—being dropped to bring in fresh faces. Producer Young felt that several of Marquess’s characters lacked the staying power of the show’s established names, so he gave breaks to promising newcomers like Aml Ameen, known from Kidulthood.

At the same time, veteran guest actors such as John Woodvine, Andrew Sachs, and Les Dennis were brought in, and Gillian Taylforth joined as Sergeant Nikki Wright. Her casting added experience to the younger ensemble and restored Sun Hill to its traditional three-sergeant lineup, a structure that had been in place since the first proper episode in 1984 but was reduced in 2004. For the first time since 2001, no police officer was killed off during the series, though several recurring non-police characters died, including Sergeant Dale Smith’s girlfriend Louise Larson and PC Tony Stamp’s father Norman, played by John Woodvine.

Young stated early on that he had no plans to cut long-serving characters like Tony Stamp and Reg Hollis, both of whom had been on the show for over two decades. However, it had already been announced in autumn 2005 that Trudie Goodwin would leave her role as Sergeant June Ackland once her contract ended.