The Bill

Name: Sign of Our Times
Duration: 30 min

Series 8 Episode 4
Sign of Our Times
Duration: 30 minutes
Subtitles available

An armed robber admits to DC Lines that redundancy and the repossession of his house made him take to crime to solve his problems.

Contains Flashing Images and Mature Themes

S8 E1 · Up Behind
CID are trailing a known criminal believed to be responsible for a series of burglaries.
S8 E2 · Appearances
Following an argument with a drunken pub customer, a young barman is hit by a car outside.
S8 E3 · Principled Negotiation
DI Burnside and DS Roach look favourably on an ex-villian with a loan-shark problem.
S8 E4 · Sign of Our Times
S8 E5 · Priorities
PCs Stringer and Loxton attend to the theft at an old people's home.
S8 E6 · Users
DI Burnside suspects that a drug dealer is using teenage girls as couriers.
S8 E7 · Man of the People
PC Stringer wins the election for Federation Rep, beating the incumbent PC Hollis.
S8 E8 · Runaway
DS Roach investigates the beating of a teenage girl.
S8 E9 · Exposures
A young model claims that she was sexually assaulted during a photographic session.
S8 E10 · Better the Devil
PC Stringer gets involved with a household and discovers a case of parental cruelty.
S8 E11 · Prisoners
Sgt. Boyden has anything but a quiet night on duty in the custody suite.
S8 E12 · World to Rights
WPC Marshall, on attachment to the Domestic Violence Unit, is attacked.
S8 E13 · Do the Right Thing
PC Stringer is mugged by a gang and determines to get his own back.
S8 E14 · Hiding to Nothing
PC Stamp is ambushed by a gang of youths on a local estate.
S8 E15 · Punching Judy
A woman lies critically injured in hospital, beaten up by her husband.
S8 E16 · Vicious Circles
PC Hollis arrests a woman for being drunk in charge of a baby.
S8 E17 · Up All Night
P.C. Garfield is assaulted while in pursuit of a suspect, but where was Sgt. Boyden?
S8 E18 · Part of the Furniture
DC Dashwood is to be transferred to the Arts and Antiques Squad.
S8 E19 · Snake and Ladders
It's PC Garfield's first day back at Sun Hill after the attack.
S8 E20 · Street Cleaning
Sgt Cryer gets the relief to put the Garfield-Boyden conflict behind them and get to work.
S8 E21 · Hands Up
Chief Inspector Conway decides he needs to get back on the beat.
S8 E22 · A Scandalous Act
PC Garfield brings in a teenage girl arrested at a drugs party, and she accuses him of sexually assaulting her. Det Supt Kim Reid comes back to question him.
S8 E23 · Raiders
A ram-raid ends in tragedy when a boy is killed. But what was his part in the affair?
S8 E24 · Talk Out
A middle-aged couple arrive at the front desk and report their neighbour missing.
S8 E25 · True Confessions
DS Roach is put under pressure when a suspect retracts a confession.
S8 E26 · Private Enterprise
A bumbling minicab driver claims to know nothing about the blood stains in his boot.
S8 E27 · Getting Through
The night shift is saddled with a feud between two men.
S8 E28 · Last Night of Freedom
Someone is stabbed on a stag night, but the likely suspect can't remember anything.
S8 E29 · Cutting Loose
A prisoner is brought down from Manchester for an identity parade.
S8 E30 · Soft Target
PC Smollett discovers that a local villain is driving people out of their flats.
S8 E31 · I've Never Been to Harrogate
An elderly lady is found unconscious after apparently having been burgled.
S8 E32 · Human Resources
Two con men are preying on women through the small ads in the local paper.
S8 E33 · Exit
A loan shark is attacked. DS Greig has a vital witness who then disappears.
S8 E34 · Loyalties
Burnside mounts a raid on crack-houses, however details of the raid are leaked.
S8 E35 · Snapshot
A complaint over loud music quickly escalates into an armed siege.
S8 E36 · Letting Go
PC Hollis is looking for a place to live as he is moving out of the section house.
S8 E37 · Travelling Light
WDC Viv Martella helps WPC Donna Harris dress up for a reconstruction of a murder case.
S8 E38 · Radio Waves
Inspector Monroe talks to Chief Inspector Conway about a problem with a car chase.
S8 E39 · A Blind Eye
WDC Martella brings in an elderly mugging victim who helps makes an identikit picture.
S8 E40 · Sympathy for the Devil
Burnside sets a trap for an armed robber and is surprised to find he is in his sixties.
S8 E41 · Force is Part of the Service
Brownlow and Conway have a meeting with councillors about the change in the police force.
S8 E42 · On the Record, Off the Record
CID investigates a break-in at a warehouse which resulted in the theft of CD players.
S8 E43 · Stoning the Glasshouse
Sgt Cryer visits a friend who is the head of a neighbourhood watch.
S8 E44 · Tip-Off
A burglar gives Tosh information that there might be a bank robbery.
S8 E45 · Open to Offers
P.C. Quinnan is in trouble when a prisoner recognises him.
S8 E46 · Playing God
A burglary suspect of DS Roach may have been be released as he is at court.
S8 E47 · Crack of Doom
A former boxer is mistakenly arrested for possession of drugs.
S8 E48 · Spit and Polish
Quinnan is nearly run down by a speeding Mercedes, but Loxton has a score to settle.
S8 E49 · Overdue
Burnside has a promotion board, leaving Meadows to deal with an informant's tip-off.
S8 E50 · We Should Be Talking
PC Garfield is following a silver car that might have been involved in a ramraid.
S8 E51 · Reasonable Grounds
Datta sees a man about a missing child and Stringer has to tell a man his brother is dead.
S8 E52 · Discipline
A man arrested outside a club but turns out to be a suspended detective.
S8 E53 · Minefield
Sgt Maitland finds himself in the wrong when he discovers a serious procedural error.
S8 E54 · Gamers
DC Lines Investigates a fire bombing of an Asian shop.
S8 E55 · Occupational Hazard
When sex appeal doesn't get him what he wants, Harry Osborne turns vicious.
S8 E56 · Just Send Some Flowers
WDC Martella investigates a burglary that occurred during a funeral.
S8 E57 · Waifs and Strays
An old lady brings in a blood-stained book belonging to a missing girl in to the station.
S8 E58 · Happy Families
DI Burnside wonders what's a smart girl like Sharon doing with a villian like Daniel Batt.
S8 E59 · Well Out of Order
Meadows and Burnside want to go to the Tankeray estate to root out the criminal element.
S8 E60 · Into the Mire
CID receive information that leads to the arrest of a prolific handler of stolen goods.
S8 E61 · Master of the House
The body of a respectable family man is found on a notorious patch of wasteland.
S8 E62 · Fireworks
Stamp uses old-fashioned policing methods to tackle kids playing with railway detonators.
S8 E63 · Cold Shoulder
A local youth is stabbed in the centre of a densely populated housing development.
S8 E64 · Safety First
Burnside investigates when a pawnbroker is shot in the leg with a legally-acquired gun.
S8 E65 · Counting the Cost
Ackland intervenes when a family is being subjected to harassment from a scrap dealer.
S8 E66 · Compassion
A probation officer seems eager to assist DI Burnside over the murder of a prostitute.
S8 E67 · Finders Keepers
DC Carver finds a buried treasure, but DC Dashwood takes the case away.
S8 E68 · Return Match
Mike Dashwood returns to Sun Hill looking for stolen antique dolls.
S8 E69 · High Places
D.I. Burnside investigates the death of a former high-wire artist and cat burglar.
S8 E70 · When Push Comes to Shove
Sun Hill officers are drinking after shift when some troublemakers arrive at the pub.
S8 E71 · A Dying Breed
D.I. Burnside investigates an armed robbery where D.C. Carver is shot at.
S8 E72 · Fact of Life
Greig and Quinnan trap a burglar with the assistance of schoolboy on work experience.
S8 E73 · All Through the Night
Stamp escorts a noise control officer on her duties.
S8 E74 · New Tune, Old Fiddle
Changes are afoot at Sun Hill, and not everyone sees things the same way.
S8 E75 · Delinquent
A persistent young offender is arrested for burgling his parents' house.
S8 E76 · Bringing Up Baby
A new-born baby is missing, and the mother's account of what happened is rather confused.
S8 E77 · Rainy Days and Mondays
The police are called when a residents at a women's hostel claims to have been assaulted.
S8 E78 · Supply and Demand
"Operation Bumblebee" takes off at Sun Hill.
S8 E79 · On the Cards
Martella is less than enthusiastic when taken off a murder hunt to work on another case.
S8 E80 · Shock to the System
Brownlow is horrified to discover that Conway has been given a new role.
S8 E81 · Living it Down
The search for a missing victim of abuse uncovers a child pornography ring.
S8 E82 · Heat of the Moment
Martella is unhappy with the way Meadows treats a woman suspected of killing her husband.
S8 E83 · Shake, Rattle 'n' Roll
PC Mike Jarvis has an unusual first day as Brownlow loses his temper with Monroe.
S8 E84 · No Thanks to You
PC Garfield finds an unconscious teenage glue-sniffer who later dies in hospital.
S8 E85 · A Better Life
DS Greig deals with a burglary suspect, but the victim doesn't believe he is responsible.
S8 E86 · Echo
A girl goes missing, and DCs Carver and Woods suspect a known villian of murdering her.
S8 E87 · Fagins
DI Burnside let's Sun Hill's burglars know he and Operation Bumblebee mean business.
S8 E88 · Cried Too Late
An arrested women shoplifter refuses to talk to the police.
S8 E89 · Gone for a Soldier
Ackland is teamed up with a military policeman who has come to Sun Hill to find a soldier.
S8 E90 · Persuasion
A female drug-dealer is attacked by another dealer to get off his patch.
S8 E91 · Hard Man
A drunk flees before he can be arrested, only to end up being stabbed nearby.
S8 E92 · Missionary Work
Conway is settling into the job of Community Liaison Officer.
S8 E93 · Hypocritical Oath
DC Carver and DC Woods deal with a fatal drug overdose. Is the victim's doctor involved?
S8 E94 · Trivial Pursuits
PC Loxton finds himself staring down the barrel of a gun.
S8 E95 · School of Hard Knocks
DI Burnside investigates the abduction of a villian's son.
S8 E96 · Keeping in Touch
An employee of a security firm is identified by the elderly blind woman he assaulted.
S8 E97 · If it Isn't Hurting
Trainee investigator Suzi Croft learns some old-style policing methods from DI Burnside.
S8 E98 · Keeping Out of Trouble
A woman claims to have inside information about a series of raids on petrol stations.
S8 E99 · Out of the Mouths
Hollis takes the Bumblebee message into a local school, asking for help to fight burglary.

Series Selector for The Bill

All episodes for series 8 of The Bill

S8 E4 · Sign of Our Times

Series Selector for The Bill

All episodes for series 8 of The Bill

S8 E4 · Sign of Our Times