I've just started watching The Bill again from the start. The "Woodentop" pilot is a bit dull, and most of the cast is completely alien (save a very young Carver and Ackland, plus Taffy) but the actual first episode of the proper series 1 is much better. Bob Cryer, Brownlow, Hollis etc... and Burnside! I'd actually forgotten he was in the very first one (he doesn't become a regular until season 4 when it went year-round), even though I knew he did pop up in a couple of the early ones as a rather dodgy-seeming DS from another nick (Cryer clearly thinks he's bent!
) The DI in the first three seasons is the less famous Galloway, but John Salthouse is awesome himself, so that's fine too.
