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The Best Episodes of The Bill Season 4

Genres:CrimeDrama
Network:ITV1

Every episode of The Bill Season 4 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of The Bill Season 4!

The daily lives of the men and women at Sun Hill Police Station as they fight crime on the streets of London. From bomb threats...
Episodes
48
Avg. Rating
7.2
S1
S2
S3
S4
E1
E2
E3
7.3
7.3
7.4

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  • Guessing Game
    8.1/10(59)
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    #1 - Guessing Game

    Season 4 Episode 44

    Aired 12/15/1988

    Neighbours report an elderly man hasn't been seen for a couple of days, and P.C. Ramsey breaks into the house to find the man dead on the floor. A doctor confirms he died of natural causes. As W.P.C. Ackland checks the house, she is suspiscious of the pictures on the wall and some woman's belongings in a shoe box. It appears the man had a fetish for restraining women against their will, and a CRO check reveals that he had form for such crimes dating back for decades. The belongings found in the house are quite recent, so D.S. Roach suspects that he had captured another victim before he died. Roach, Dashwood and Carver investigate every possibility and finally find another flat owned by him, but no victim. They realise that the neighbour who reported him missing was his intended target, but Roach decides not to tell her about how close she came to danger.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

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  • Digging Up the Past
    7.7/10(55)
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    #2 - Digging Up the Past

    Season 4 Episode 47

    Aired 12/27/1988

    An excavator on a building site has uncovered some human remains, and Sgt. Cryer calls in C.I.D. Cryer is avoiding returning to the station, as his son Patrick is being charged with causing death by dangerous driving. Ch. Insp. Conway, Burnside and Roach have a word with Cryer, who is avoiding his family. On the building site, D.C. Dashwood and the S.O.C.O. wind up the site manager by saying it may have been a murder, although the bones are very old. A riot ensues as the men want to return to work. Burnside arrives and nicks the whole lot of them. The bones turn out to be from the Great Plague in 1665. P.C. Edwards is angry after being sold forger theatre tickets by Ramsey. Ramsey claims innocence, and the pair manage to locate the forgers. Unable to interest C.I.D. in the case, they investigate on their own and blow a joint Fraud Squad/U.S. Treasury operation to catch counterfeiters printing fake American dollars.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

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  • The Trap
    7.6/10(52)
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    #3 - The Trap

    Season 4 Episode 18

    Aired 9/15/1988

    D.I. Burnside sets up a trap on a residential street: an open vanload of video recorders. He, Carver, Roach and Dashwood sit in wait for some villains to take the bait. Eventually, a man pulls up in a BMW and takes one of the videos into his house. Roach and Dashwood arrest him, and back at the station he turns out to be Julian Pembridge, a slimy solicitor well known to Burnside. Pembridge claims he was merely exposing a police entrapment campaign, and manages to escape with a fine. With Sgt. Peters on leave, Sgt. Cryer and Insp. Frazer are concerned about Sgt. Penny's state of mind. Ch. Insp. Conway has a word with him and asks him to take some leave. Penny insists he's fine and refuses, but when the air conditioning breaks down in the CAD room, Penny's temper rises with the temperature. He spills a coffee on his keyboard, and tries to attack the electrician - taking leave is no longer optional.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

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  • Just Call Me Guvnor
    7.5/10(51)
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    #4 - Just Call Me Guvnor

    Season 4 Episode 6

    Aired 8/4/1988

    Ch. Insp. Conway briefs the relief on a massive raid about to take place on Frontline, a gang of football thugs. Two police officers are undercover in the gang, and the relief are warned not to show them any signs of recognition, however Acting D.I. Roach and D.C. Carver are stunned when they see D.I. Frank Burnside in handcuffs, blowing his cover. Roach headbutts a suspect who spat at him. The suspect gives his name in custody as ""Get Stuffed"", and Burnside, who has arrived to take over Sun Hill CID, gives him a slap for his insolence. With no love lost between Sgt. Cryer and Burnside, Cryer threatens to report Burnside if he raises Roach's assault of the same prisoner, but Burnside shocks them all when he reveals that the unfortunate prisoner is the other undercover officer in the gang. Burnside catches up with his old flame, Insp. Frazer who later has a word with Cryer for spreading rumours that Burnside is corrupt. A chastised Cryer swallows his pride and apologises.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: Geoff McQueen

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  • Running Late
    7.5/10(47)
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    #5 - Running Late

    Season 4 Episode 22

    Aired 9/29/1988

    W.P.C. Brind is late for parade, and misses a warning to the uniform relief to stay away from the Dock Industrial Estate, where C.I.D. and a P.T.17 team are awaiting a security van robbery. While on foot patrol, Brind chases a young girl onto the estate and into the middle of the operation. Burnside stops a suspiscious van, but it turns out to be full of fish. Brind is yelled at by Burnside and Sgt. Cryer, but she has her suspiscions about the girl, Jane, and her family. Meanwhile, Burnside realises the security van visits the estate twice, and he races back with all the armed officers he can muster, just in time to catch the robbers. Brind returns to Jane's flat where she discovers a bedroom full of nicked goods. She arrests Jane's mother, who turns out to be one of Burnside's snouts.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

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  • They Say We're Rough
    7.5/10(46)
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    #6 - They Say We're Rough

    Season 4 Episode 23

    Aired 10/4/1988

    Viv and Ken go to an army surplus store that seems to be being supplied off the back of a lorry. Van used to deliver the gear was nicked from Yorkshire. 2 redcaps (who don't think much of police) turn up to collect squaddies. Cryer doesn't think they are kosher. Cryer wants someone for a p.a. job at local school and asks Ken to buy a flying jacket. An ice-cream van and a car cause a traffic snarl-up near the station. Roach sends a traffic warden to sort it out. Hollis is also sent out to deal with it. After walking around the block, Hollis comes back to find part of a funeral has now joined the bigger traffic jam.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: Douglas Watkinson

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  • Evacuation
    7.5/10(58)
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    #7 - Evacuation

    Season 4 Episode 32

    Aired 11/2/1988

    It's a busy day on the station front desk, and P.C. Smith fails to notice that someone has left a hold-all next to the desk. When it is discovered, Insp. Frazer orders the station evacuated as a safety measure while the bomb squad is called in. Sgt. Cryer and W.P.C. Martella have trouble getting a violent female prisoner into and out of her cell. D.C. Dashwood winds Smith up about not noticing the bag, and he conducts an interview with a suspect in a car. P.C. Edwards is acting oddly, arguing with W.P.C. Ackland and he keeps returning to the station looking for something. SO13 find an incendiary device in the bag, but it explodes, blinding an SO13 officer.

    Director: Terry Green

    Writer: N/A

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  • Old Habits
    7.5/10(44)
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    #8 - Old Habits

    Season 4 Episode 39

    Aired 11/29/1988

    W.P.C. Brind is called to the house of an elderly lady, Mrs Lomax, who has just been robbed. The old lady is in such a state of shock, she attacks Brind and then suffers a heart attack and dies. It appears there's been a spate of burglaries against several old people from the Salisbury Day Centre, and Brind attends with Insp. Frazer to give a talk on crime prevention. D.C. Dashwood talks to the previous victims and comes up with a possible suspect: Terry Newton, a young lad doing community service at the centre. Terry's probation officer is obstructive to the investigation, and Dashwood is convinced they have their man. Terry admits to Brind that he thinks he knows who it was: Danny Harvey, the junkie newphew of one of the day centre members. D.S. Roach and Dashwood go to Maurice Harvey's flat - he's an old villain from the time of the Krays - and find that Danny has overdosed in the next room, but his uncle doesn't care.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

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  • Good Will Visit
    7.4/10(62)
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    #9 - Good Will Visit

    Season 4 Episode 3

    Aired 7/26/1988

    P.C. Pete Ramsey arrives as Sun Hill, nearly running P.C. Taffy Edwards over with his Porsche and parking in the Chief Super's spot. He has been transferred from Barton Street CID for cheating at cards, and has been put back into uniform. Ramsey cops a warning from Ch. Insp. Conway to keep his nose clean, but he is clearly still up to his old tricks: taking a bribe from a street hawker and generally winding up his fellow officers. Sgt. Alec Peters and P.C. Malcolm Haynes go to the Royal Navy to arrest a group of sailors who trashed a nightclub, but are told they can't charge the sailors as they are due on an important naval exercise. D.C. Carver and D.C. Dashwood watch and arrest two Chinese men with a van full of an unidentifiable substance which they suspect may be drugs. Ramsey identifies it as the rare spice saffron, stolen from a warehouse the previous month. Ramsey takes his car to be repaired at a garage owned by a friend of Sgt. Cryer's, but takes it back without paying after f

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

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  • Stop and Search
    7.4/10(47)
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    #10 - Stop and Search

    Season 4 Episode 30

    Aired 10/27/1988

    Sgt. Cryer introduces two special constables who will be joining the relief: Mary Kilnair and Brian Defoe. While on patrol with P.C. Edwards, Kilnair is pricked by a junkie's needle, there is grave concern she may have been infected. A man arrives at the station to confess to the murder of his wife - thirty years previously. D.C. Carver, and new D.C. Tosh Lines, investigate. A lawyer meets with the station top brass (Brownlow, Conway and Frazer) to discuss her client's claim of being stopped and searched thirteen times in two weeks. Lines recognises the M.O. from his last nick - several black men giving the same name and address whenever they are stopped by police. D.S. Roach asks Insp. Frazer out on a date, but Burnside finds out and makes fun of him.

    Director: Terry Marcel

    Writer: Geoff McQueen

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  • Outmoded
    7.4/10(45)
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    #11 - Outmoded

    Season 4 Episode 46

    Aired 12/22/1988

    Sun Hill police are being called out to a series of bogus shouts which the Yard pins down to a computer hacker breaking into the police computer network. Sgt. Cryer investigates, and finds a former university student who has a acquired an ex-MOD computer which still had access codes to government and police networks on the hard drive. W.P.C. Ackland checks in with a woman who is too scared to leave her flat as she has been repeatedly mugged. Ackland convinces her to go out to get some cigarettes, but when they return, her flat has been trashed. June arranges for her to be moved off the estate. Roach, Dashwood and Carver watch as a car is pulled out of the river with the body of a young woman inside. They question the car owner who had reported it stolen, but he is clearly hiding something. D.S. Roach must inform Sgt. Cryer that it was his son, Patrick, who was driving the car when it went into the river, and that he'd left the scene.

    Director: Terry Green

    Writer: N/A

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  • Light Duties
    7.3/10(42)
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    #12 - Light Duties

    Season 4 Episode 1

    Aired 7/19/1988

    Recently promoted to CID, D.C. Carver is feeling seasick while he and D.S. Roach work on a case on the police launch. The River Police fish the body of a murdered informant out of the Thames, but Roach is furious when the case is taken over by two detectives from Scotland Yard. P.C. Taffy Edwards and Stamp attend an incident with an unconcious elderly man who has a very protective dog. A woman offers to help, but Stamp tells her to move along. Stamp is horrified when the woman arrives at Sun Hill as the new uniformed Inspector, Christine Frazer. P.C. Hollis is running a sweep on who D.I. Galloway's replacement will be - there are rumours it will be D.I. Burnside. At the hospital, a solid gold krugerand is found on the old man, and W.P.C. Ackland and D.C. Carver realise the body in the river is the old man's nephew, who was grassing on his accomplices in a krugerand robbery. Sgt. Penny is back at work on light duties, but he is clearly still deeply affected by his recent shooting.

    Director: Derek Lister

    Writer: Geoff McQueen

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  • The Three Wise Monkeys
    7.3/10(54)
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    #13 - The Three Wise Monkeys

    Season 4 Episode 2

    Aired 7/21/1988

    D.S. Ted Roach and D.C. Mike Dashwood are on the trail of armed robbers who have taken a women hostage. Sgt. Penny is starting to stress out because of the guns involved, and his collegues are concerned about his reaction. Two D.C.s from Somerset arrive to take a prisoner back. P.C. Yorkie Smith and W.P.C. June Ackland chase the robbers with three members of T.S.G. in the back. After being shot at by the robber and nearly shot by one of the T.S.G. officers, Yorkie punches the officer on the nose.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: Geoff McQueen

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  • Requiem
    7.3/10(51)
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    #14 - Requiem

    Season 4 Episode 14

    Aired 9/1/1988

    P.C. Ramsey and P.C. Haynes attend a flat where the occupants have discovered a decayed skeleton in the wall where they were going to build a fireplace. Sgt. Cryer, D.S. Roach and D.C. Dashwood are called in, and a forensic expert soon arrives to examine the body. What looks like a baby's body is also found, but it turns out to be a doll. While CID search for former occupants and interview the Trants' obnoxious neighbours, a note is found in the wall from a merchant sailor who couldn't afford a funeral, so he put his dead wife's body in the wall.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

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  • The Quick and the Dead
    7.3/10(47)
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    #15 - The Quick and the Dead

    Season 4 Episode 27

    Aired 10/18/1988

    Sgt. Peters attends a physical fitness evaluation, but does not do too well. P.C. Ramsey and P.C. Frank gives chase when they witness a robbery. The robbers escape, but they manage to nick the driver, who insists his car was hijacked. Ramsey interrogates the boy, but Ch. Insp. Conway intevenes when Ramsey's heavy-handed approach becomes apparent. Conway releases the boy when he admits he was on his way to a job interview - as a male stripper. W.P.C. Ackland investigates the theft of a cat's gravestone, and finds it in the elderly cat-owner's rest home. A corpse goes missing when an undertaker's van is stolen by yobs, but P.C. Melvin tracks it down. Ramsey is giving everyone else a hard time about their fitness tests as he think's he's the fittest guy at the station, but when it comes to his test, he cannot sit it due to high blood pressure.

    Director: Philip Casson

    Writer: N/A

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  • Duplicates
    7.3/10(56)
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    #16 - Duplicates

    Season 4 Episode 37

    Aired 11/22/1988

    Due to her slight resemblance to a missing woman, W.P.C. Brind reluctantly agrees to perform a reconstruction of her disappearance for television. D.S. Roach and D.C. Carver go to serve an arrest warrant for video piracy, but instead find the aftermath of a bare-knuckle boxing match and a critically injured fighter. The organiser tries to bribe Roach. Carver and Roach manage to locate their video pirate, but Dashwood shows up late to the raid as he is speaking to camera for the reconstruction. The missing girl's parents thank Brind for her help.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

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  • The Silent Gun
    7.3/10(44)
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    #17 - The Silent Gun

    Season 4 Episode 40

    Aired 12/1/1988

    P.C. Haynes arrives at a house to investigate what seems like a routine disturbance. Instead he finds a bailiff who has been shot in the hand while trying to evict the lodger in the upstairs room. Ch. Supt. Brownlow cancels his weekend away and takes charge of the siege, Ch. Insp. Conway and several armed police from Sun Hill and the TSG move in to try and negotiate the gunman's surrender with no response. A Polish interpreter is brought in when it is realised that the man is Polish, not Irish as reported by the landlady. There is still no response, and a local shopkeeper tells P.C. Smith that the man, Lublin, is also deaf. With no chance of him hearing them approach, armed police and a police dog storm the room and arrest the man. The local residents are getting antsy about being denied access to their homes. P.C. Edwards is sent to turn a woman's oven off, but he breaks into the wrong house.

    Director: Terry Marcel

    Writer: N/A

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  • Getting Stressed
    7.3/10(56)
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    #18 - Getting Stressed

    Season 4 Episode 42

    Aired 12/8/1988

    Frazer is driving to work when she sees an accident. On informing the man she has rescued she is a police officer he hits her. Ramsey deals with a lady who was raped. An old lady helps Dashwood with info about motorbike muggers. After June brings in a lady drunk in charge of a baby, she goes to help CID as a decoy. After a chase Dashwood lets them get away. Ted is told to stop the relationship he has with Frazer.

    Director: Philip Casson

    Writer: N/A

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  • Taken Into Consideration
    7.3/10(48)
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    #19 - Taken Into Consideration

    Season 4 Episode 48

    Aired 12/29/1988

    D.C. Dashwood and D.C. Carver are on an obbo in a street where a spate of burglaries has taken place. They see a young man, Kevin Boswell, climbing over a wall with a bag full of 50p pieces, and they arrest him for theft. They also take Kevin's girlfriend, Daphne, into the station as there is what looks like stolen goods in her house. Dashwood is positive Boswell is their man, and W.P.C. Ackland makes a complaint against him when he applies too much pressure to Boswell during interview. Boswell is either really smart and devious or not too bright and living an elaborate fantasy about being a criminal. Dashwood and Carver return to Boswell's flat and find out which...

    Director: Christopher Hodson

    Writer: N/A

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  • Homes and Gardens
    7.2/10(51)
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    #20 - Homes and Gardens

    Season 4 Episode 8

    Aired 8/11/1988

    P.C. Yorkie Smith assists P.C. Taffy Edwards dealing with a traffic snarl-up caused by a young man, Mickey Cozens. Mickey's father is called to the station, and he tells the officers that Mickey has a mental age of 7. Smith drives them home, but when Mickey's dad tells his son off, Mickey lashes out and knocks Smith unconscious. His desperate father bundle's Smith into the panda car and drives away. A witness reports that a police officer has been kidnapped, and massive chase takes place until the car is stopped and Yorkie found alive but concussed. A couple come home from holiday to find their entire garden has been removed - trees, lawn and greenhouse. Turns out to be poetic justice as the husband is rumoured to have nicked the plants from the council in the first place.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

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  • Hold Fire
    7.2/10(50)
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    #21 - Hold Fire

    Season 4 Episode 12

    Aired 8/25/1988

    P.C. Smith and P.C. Melvin are first on the scene of a traffic accident. The cars are on fire, and both officers risk their lives to rescue the occupants. One of the cars explodes, killing a passenger, knocking Smith unconscious and burning Melvin's hands. One of the men they rescued is a big-time villain, and the F.I.O. (Fire Investigations Officer) reckons he had explosives in the boot. D.C. Carver and W.P.C. Martella stake out a pub, but get distracted playing video games. They eventually follow and arrest a man who is ripping off his employer. D.S. Roach attends the Met's firearms training for renewal of his firearms authorisation. He fails spectacularly and his licence is revoked, but it's clear he failed deliberately. At the hospital, Martella arrives to help Melvin keep an eye on their suspect, but they are distracted when a man high on drugs runs through the ward, and their villain disappears.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

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  • Chasing the Dragon
    7.2/10(53)
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    #22 - Chasing the Dragon

    Season 4 Episode 25

    Aired 10/11/1988

    D.S. Roach spots a drug deal taking place on the Rochester Estate, but he, Carver and Dashwood fail to catch the dealers. P.C. Haynes and P.C. Ramsey spot the escaping car in their panda and give chase, but the dealers' car hits a little girl before crashing into a skip. Haynes loses one of the suspects when obstructed by some punks, but the driver of the car, Mickey Squire, is arrested. With Burnside on leave, Ch. Insp. Conway allows Ramsey and Haynes to continue with the case. Ramsey is pleased as he thinks it may get him back into C.I.D. He and Haynes play good-cop/bad-cop to get a confession, and Haynes goes undercover at a party to find the escaped passenger and the main drug supplier. C.I.D. raid the supplier's luxurious apartment and discover a huge amount of drugs and stolen goods in his garage. P.C. Melvin and W.P.C. Brind attend a fracas at a laundrette. Melvin slips on some soap, leaving Brind to take charge.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

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  • Conflict
    7.2/10(57)
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    #23 - Conflict

    Season 4 Episode 36

    Aired 11/17/1988

    Lines and Carver are doing an obbo on a man who might lead them to an arms dump. June and Ramsey arrest him because he beat his girlfriend who didn't want him to go out. The doctor at the hospital is going to make a complaint against Ramsey because of the way he interogates the girlfriend.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

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  • An Old-Fashioned Term
    7.2/10(29)
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    #24 - An Old-Fashioned Term

    Season 4 Episode 41

    Aired 12/6/1988

    P.C. Edwards and W.P.C. Morgan find the naked body of a young woman who appears to have gassed herself to death, but they notice the neighbour who reported the death wiping something from the dead girl's mouth. D.C. Carver can't believe D.C. Lines has been a D.C. for twelve years. Lines isn't convinced the girl's death was a suicide, and impresses Carver with his detective skills when he solves the case - the neighbour, Kelly, has knocked her out with chloroform, raped her, and then turned on the gas. Kelly finally admits it, but Tosh is upset when he won't admit why. D.C. Dashwood is furious when D.S. Roach stands him up on an obbo to have dinner with Insp. Christine Frazer.

    Director: Philip Casson

    Writer: Geoff McQueen

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  • The Assassins
    7.2/10(47)
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    #25 - The Assassins

    Season 4 Episode 45

    Aired 12/20/1988

    Burnside and Tosh are in a cafe waiting to catch a group of people who take apart restaurants. They turn out to be upper class twits. One of them winds the magistrate up so much he is sentenced to 28 days in jail and the diplomat father of another waives his immunity. Yorkie and Haynes investigate a removal van. The elderly driver doesn't think the company is to be trusted and he is proven right after visiting the station three times. Tosh's wife turns up looking for housekeeping money from him, and she mentions it is their 15th wedding anniversary.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: Douglas Watkinson

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Season 4 Ratings Summary

"Guessing Game" is the best rated episode of "The Bill" season 4. It scored 8.1/10 based on 59 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 12/15/1988. This episode is rated 0.4 points higher than the second-best, "Digging Up the Past".