Episode | Credits | Transcript |
Episode No. | Series | |
16 | 1985x008 |
Hostage is the 16th episode of The Bill. The annual outing for Sun Hill's fisherman has a catch in it that nobody wants to deal with...
Plot[]
Sgt. Cryer is taking half the relief out on Sun Hill's annual fishing trip. P.C. Smith and D.C. Dashwood go to serve a warrant on Russell Archer over a non-appearance in court on a poaching charge. Archer manages to escape from Dashwood and Smith, and is later seen menacing a milkman with a sawn-off shotgun. He later holds up a bookies and a greengrocer, until he is spotted by P.C. Carver and P.C. Frank, who give chase. Frank is shot and wounded during the chase, and Archer ends up taking an elderly woman hostage in a retirement village. With the fishing trip cancelled, D.S. Roach takes charge of the siege operation until D.I. Galloway and Ch. Supt. Brownlow arrive. Attempts to contact the increasingly unstable Archer fail, until he asks to speak to Sgt. Cryer whom he saw in the betting shop. Cryer enters the flat, and attempts to talk Archer into giving himself up. With W.P.C. Ackland posing as a Meals-on-Wheels driver, Galloway, Roach and PT17 officers storm the flat and shoot Archer dead just as he is about to surrender.
Credits[]
(Episode Cast: in credits order)
- Colin Blumenau as P.C. Edwards
- Nula Conwell as W.P.C. Martella
- Larry Dann as Sgt. Peters
- Peter Ellis as Chief Supt. Brownlow
- Trudie Goodwin as W.P.C. Ackland
- Ashley Gunstock as P.C. Frank
- Robert Hudson as P.C. Smith
- Jon Iles as Det. Con. Dashwood
- Roger Leach as Sgt. Penny
- Eric Richard as Sgt. Cryer
- John Salthouse as Det. Insp. Galloway
- Tony Scannell as Det. Sgt. Roach
- Jeff Stewart as P.C. Hollis
- Chris Walker as P.C. Shaw
- Mark Wingett as P.C. Carver
- Ken Drury as Det. Insp. Andrews
- Peter Czajkowski as P.C. Wright
- Ralph Watson as S.O.C.O
- Jamie Foreman as Barrowboy
- Adrian McLoughlin as Postman
- Ian Jentle as Russell Archer
- John Mulcahy as Milkman
- Mike Felix as 'Hooky' Hoskins
- Rachel Staney as Stella
- Cheryl Hall as Sadie
- Peggy Shields as Mrs. O'Hara
- Gregory Cox as Ambulance Man
- Frank Lee as Greengrocer
- John Moore as Ernest Milner
- Gabrielle Blunt as Cissie Knowles
- Francesca Foxley and Sarah Beckley as Children
- David J. Grahame as Elderley Man
- Winnie Holman as Elderley Woman
- Alec Wallis as Mr. Hickman
- Honora Burke as Mrs. Baker
- Pauline Lewis as Canteen Lady
- Janie Booth as Meals on Wheels Driver
- Haydn Wood as T.V. Reporter
- Lindsey Brook, Sally Cranfield, Steven Law, Joan Dainty, Allison Purcell and Ronald Nunnery as Onlookers
Continuity[]
Sgt. Cryer has his first in a long line of bad experiences with guns in this episode. Subsequent incidents include Cryer shooting dead an armed robber in Blue Murder, and when he was himself shot by P.C. Dale Smith in Return of the Hunter, leading to his enforced retirement.
External links[]
- "Hostage" at the Internet Movie Database