The Bill, seasons two and three

The Bill returned for a second run of 12 episodes in 1985. Retaining the same hourlong format and post-watershed timeslot, the only clue that gives away that this was a different production block being a change in the regular cast line up.

The most obvious absence was PC Dave Litten (Gary Olsen), one of the main characters in the first season but now relegated to only a single guest appearance. Some new regular characters were introduced, including PCs Pete Muswell, Abe Lyttleton and Nick Shaw, with Muswell seemingly taking Litten's role as the PC who is a little bit dodgy. Actually that's an understatement - Muswell is several steps beyond Litten, being an unapologetic racist whose attitudes go unchallenged by his colleagues simply because they were so prevalent at the time. He also has a (topical, in 1985) backstory about having policed at the 1984 miner's strike, making lots of money from overtime and enjoying himself at the same time. Muswell and Lyttleton would only appear in season two, departing between seasons just as mysteriosuly as they arrived.

Overall the second season isn't as good as the first, with some episodes that struggled to make full use of the runtime, and which had to be padded out with unrelated B-plots that never quite joined up with the main plots in a satisfactory way. It still contains some really good episodes, including one of the best Bill stories evar, Ringer.

This was an episode about a serious car crash and the ensuing investigation that made excellent use of the regulars at all ranks and disciplines of the Sun Hill police force, from the PCs on the scene of the accident, to Mr Brownlow coordinating the response, to the CID team detecting who was responsible. It culminates with the second guest apearance from DS "Tommy" Burnside (Chris Ellison) when he unexpectedly turns up undercover, having been independently investigating the same criminals. This is a wonderfully put together piece of TV drama, and might well be The Bill's finest hour - certainly it's the best single episode of the early years.

After season two there was a gap of almost two years before the third season was shown on ITV in 1987. This season - another 12 programmes in the same format as the first two seasons - is remarkable for being script edited by Chris Boucher, the same role as he played throughout all four seasons of Blakes 7. It's therefore surprising that this season didn't end on a fantastic cliffhanger.

Once again there was turnover amongst the regulars. Perhaps the main new addition to the cast was Inspector Kite, who seemed to be there to be an antagonist for Sgt Cryer - outranking him but lacking his years of practical experience, they had very different approaches to policing that naturally brought them into conflict.

But Kite would last only the one season, so with hindsight it is fair to say that the more significant development was that PC Tony Stamp (Graham Cole) would finally get recognised as a named character with an occasional line all to himself, instead of just being the silent PC in the background he had been up until now.

Another noteworthy change in the series setup that would have long-lasting implications was that this is the point when PC Jim Carver (our original POV character back in the pilot, though now well-established as part of the ensemble cast) moved from the uniform branch to CID, where he would stay for many years to become one of the show's iconic detective constables. It does have to be said that this is quite a change for the character, going by his characterisation as established in his earliest episodes. In his attitude towards the CID he now seems more like Dave Litten was in the first season, so perhaps Carver took on some of his characteristics in the absence of Gary Olsen?

The pacing issues seen in season two seemed to continue through season three, though it did go out on a high with the last two being among its best. The standout episode of the season is Overnight Stay, which sees most of the cast guarding a jury overnight in a hotel, and makes great use of the setting to put our regulars in unfamiliar situations and combinations, and tells a distinctively different type of story as a result.

These episodes were also the last chance for the writers and producers to make use of post-watershed levels of nudity and violence, since after season three came the change of format - arguably the biggest single change in The Bill's 26-year history - when it moved to a half-hour timeslot at 8pm.

Just as significant in its own way as the format change at marking the end of an era, the end of season three also saw the departure of DI Roy Galloway (John Salthouse), a mainstay of the series and easily one of the most memorable and significant characters throughout the first three seasons.

At least we still have many more episodes ahead of us with Ted Roach and Sgt Cryer, my other favourite regulars. And you don't need to be a Detective Inspector to know who the perfect replacement for Roy Galloway would be, to be Frank...