Editor Reports: Revamps killed The Bill

Yesterday ITV announced that it was culling its police-drama series The Bill after 27 years on-air.

The cancellation of the series was hardly surprising given last years final revamp of the series had angered fans and saw a drop in ratings. It was a revamp too far after several format facelifts that took the premise of the show away from cops and robbers to who was bedding who, who hated who and who was more corrupt; the police officer or the robber. ATV Reports has found a very good article on how revamps killed The Bill.

It’s at Media Guardian and you can read it here >>

It’s likely to be one of many articles written over the next couple of days over the fate of The Bill and just why it was axed by ITV. Last year when ITV announced The Bill was being moved to a 9pm slot with a “grittier” feel, less episodes, less cast and a new theme tune ATV Reports wrote a little piece titled “Is the end nigh for The Bill”.

You can read that here >>

I also wrote a review of the first episode of the “new-look” The Bill which opened with “how to piss off your fans” or what we really wanted to say “how to kill off a drama”. It’s a very good little review if we can throw modesty to the wind for a minute and it refers back to previous revamps which spectacularly failed such as London’s Burning.

To read that article click here >>