26 Mar 10

ITV drops The Bill after 27 years

The Bill, one of the UK's longest-running TV dramas, is to be dropped by ITV in the autumn after 27 years.

ITV has taken the decision to axe the police drama after last year's revamp and switch to a new 9pm slot failed to halt a long-term ratings decline. The Bill was moved last year from being aired twice a week at 8pm on ITV1 to a single slot on Thursdays at 9pm. The show's storylines were tweaked to take account of the new post-watershed slot. However, ratings for the show have failed to pick up. In 2002 the show averaged around 7m viewers, while more recently audiences have been about 3.5 million. ITV said that the decision to drop the series was made as part of a creative rethink of its drama schedule, which has seen the development of popular short run shows such as Collision and Above Suspicion, and not on cost-cutting grounds. ITV intends to use the multimillion-pound saving from axing The Bill to create shorter run drama series for the 9pm slot with projects in the works including a new medical series with writer Peter Bowker and a new series from Collision and Foyle's War writer Anthony Horowitz.