Editor Reports: Could Richard Desmond’s Acquisition of Five offer new hope for The Bill?

ATV Today’s editor, Doug Lambert, ponders on whether Richard Desmond’s purchase of Channel Five offers new hope of The Bill, the ITV Police Drama, being saved from cancellation in this edition of ATV Reports.

The Bill has, of course, been axed by ITV and filming has now finished on the police drama – which is the major obstacle to any possible revival. With filming completed the cast and crew are no longer under contract and will be seeking new work. It’s also possible, but we don’t know if this is the case, that the sets that formed the series have been tore down. Is it possible that Sun Hill Police Station has been demolished already?

When ITV announced that it was cancelling The Bill there was a massive outcry from fans, experts within the drama industry and a campaign launched on Facebook to save the series. ATV News contacted the BBC, Sky and Five all of whom stated quite firmly that they were not looking to pick up the drama from ITV. That was then though and the situation as Five, or Channel Five as the new owner would like to revert to, has changed.

Richard Desmond, owner of The Daily Express, The Daily Star and their respective Sunday titles, now owns the struggling channel. Desmond is keen to boost the channels ratings share and feels part of this can be achieved by using existing brands from other broadcasters; Big Brother from Channel Four and possibly Top of the Pops from the BBC. But these are both entertainment shows and drama is a different beast instead. However, The Bill is an established brand with a loyal audience and while its ratings over the past year haven’t been up to scratch for ITV it’s different for Five – 2/3 million viewers per episode is a excellent figure for Five.

Desmond has pledged to keep Five’s public service commitments and reportedly is keen to expand its current affairs output. One key area though where Five lacks is British, home-grown drama. Quite simply at the moment it doesn’t have any. Recent attempts at establishing new dramas have failed; Minder flopped as did Tripping Over. Channel Five is too relient on American imports which maybe cheap but don’t get it brownie points with critics. The broadcaster doesn’t even have its own soap anymore having dropped Family Affairs in 2005.

So if Desmond wanted to see Channel Five produce more British drama but wanted to use an established brand name, which has been attracting what would be decent figures for Five, then The Bill would seem like an ideal candidate. We know that Desmond is keen to pump some money into Five in order to produce more programmes and take on ITV – taking on The Bill would be a big investment but one that could easily pay-off.

However, ultimately it’s unlikely to happen because The Bill has finished filming, the cast and crew are out of contract, production on the series is expensive in terms of Five’s budget and American police imports are cheaper and produce similar ratings. However, we shouldn’t be surprised if a drama brand is revived by Desmond while Minder failed for the channel previously other broadcasters are increasingly looking to past dramas to mine (BBC – Survivors, Doctor Who and Upstairs, Downstairs are all prime examples).

Let’s just hope that Channel Five does make a commitment to British drama under Richard Desmond and gives ITV, whose drama output is limited to say the least in terms of genre, a run for its money.