History

In 1983, Thames Television transmitted a one-off drama called Woodentop. Written by Geoff McQueen (who had previously worked on LWT's hard hitting police series The Gentle Touch) and broadcast as part of Thames Television's Storyboard anthology series, Woodentop followed newly recruited police constable Jim Carver on his first day on the beat. The production was innovative for a number of reasons; hand-held cameras, natural lighting and colloquial dialogue all added up to create a sense of an authentic representation of modern-day policing. Thames recognised Woodentop's potential and commissioned 12 further episodes for transmission in 1984. At the time, there was nothing else on British television that offered as realistic portrayal of bobbies on the beat and The Bill looked set to exploit this gap in the market.

Jimmy Carver (Mark Wingett), was presented as a liberal-minded young man and an 'admirer of old fashioned policing methods.' Ironically he tells his Inspector that he has no interest in joining the CID, though he would spend most of his years in The Bill wearing a suit before returning to uniform in 1999.

Together with WPC Ackland (Trudie Goodwin), the day is an eventful one! They discover the decomposing body of an old lady in a bath and then Carver nearly ends up getting himself suspended when he clips a youngster round the ear.

As well as tracing the events of PC Carver's first day on the beat, the play also examined the conflict that exists between the two sides of many police stations; the uniform branch and the CID.

Woodentop was directed by Peter Cregeen who had a great deal of experience with British TV Police series, such as 'Z Cars' and 'Juliet Bravo'; "I was delighted to find that Geoff's script had a great freshness and a sense of immediacy to it. It also had a different approach which, to my mind, truly reflected present day society in the metropolitan area of London."

Other recognisable faces in the cast of 'Woodentop' included Peter Dean (later to play Pete Beale in EastEnders) as Sergeant Wilding, Gary Hailes (whose ear was clipped by Carver) went onto become the gay character Barry Clark in EastEnders, and Colin Blumenau as PC Taffy Morgan - later to become PC Taffy Edwards.

Reverting to a revised version of Geoff McQueen's original title, the series was to be called "The Bill".