OLD NEWS
News that is no longer required, but is still important, goes here.
3 March 2008
Marquess struck down as "controversial" by British Press
This article, in the Sunday Mail, quotes
"He spent four years on The Bill as PC Sam Harker but was unceremoniously axed when controversial producer Paul Marquess arrived and promptly killed off six regular characters in an explosion in 2002."
Why is Marquess "controversial" according to the mail? Is this the tip of the iceberg from The Bills' ill-done-by cast? Former The Bill star Matthew Crompton sounds tentatively "bitter" about his departure.
He could be forgiven for being bitter about his departure from Sun Hill but he received the news on a day which changed the modern world for ever and put his own problem in stark perspective.
He said: "I was told I was being written out on September 11, 2001. I was on location and had been sat in a Winnebago watching the planes fly into the twin towers with my mouth hanging open.
"Then I got a call that Paul Marquess wanted to see me. It could only have meant one thing really.
"When you get a new executive coming in you accept they will want to stamp their mark on the show but it was quite traumatic when it happened.
For a full PDF download of the article once it's taken off the Daily Mail website, Right-click and "Save Target As" here.
11 February
LIQUID CITY!
A summarised form including all the best bits
28 January 2008
Start again
With Tom and Kate's death almost 6 years ago now, you'd think it was a long time ago.
That Tibballs was busy writing books on plumbing or Miner Birds or Egyptian frogs.
Look.
This gem was just flying off the shelves at Dymocks so well that they'd reduced it to $16.99 (£7.55), originally $89.95.
.
Some copiously libelious quotes;
"But although he appeared to me Mr Smooth, beneath the surface he was paddling crazily just to stay affloat"
Could have fooled me. He seemed fine BEFORE Handford left.
"Riddled with paranoia, he mistrusted the old guard, notibly Jack Meadows, and chose to surround himself with yes-men like DI Alex Cullen."
He distrusted the old guard because they were clearly INCOMPITENT, allowing Beech to go on a corrupt rampage. Uncoincidentally enough, there's no casestudy on Beech. Perhaps resolving how much the "new broom" did to resolve Beech's mess is in the "too hard basket" for ol' Marquess.
On "Yes Man" see here at 2I .
"Chandler left Meadows in Bob Cryer in no doubt that he wanted them out but when he succeeded in getting rid of Cryer (with a lettle help from a bullet), Meadows proved a tougher nut to crack."
I wonder what the legal definition of 'doubt' is... you can't be doubtless without concrete proof, and Handford's Chandler was too clever for that. Sure, he told Meadows he'd see him go, but he didn't say he'd make him go. And he never told Cryer "I have the full intention of ensuring you no longer work at Sun Hill". Or maybe that was another 'lost fiction' by Marquess?
"Chandler soon set about enjoying the perks of the position, the perk he had in mind being DC Spears"
Now that's TOTALLY wrong. If I were a guy, then waiting ten months to approach a girl i'm interested in, that's not "soon". I'm controlling myself consideribly. And how do you go about 'enjoying' a girl? I'll take that one to mean 'screwing' and another Marquess reference from 001 onward. Because he definetly put her first by refusing to take advantage of her physically when there were other personal reasons in the way of a relationship.
"Even though she was having an on-and-off relationship with Mickey Webb, the ambitious Spears was only too happy to be the superintendenet's love interest, particually if it resulted in her reciving preferential treatment and more plumb jobs than her abilities merrited.
Spears was far from incompitent. Chandler never favoured Spears. See here. There was no on-and-off with Mickey Webb- there was a kiss, an on, and then an off until 001.
"Cullen warned Chandler of the dangers of an in-house affair, reminding him that the fallout could damage his future promotion prospects, and when Chandler realised that Webb was onto them, he dumped Spears before she became a liability"
All reflections on 001 onwards.
"As [Debbie] saw it, Spears' death created a vacancy in Chandler's bed."
If Chandler's bed was a hotel, then he'd be bankrupt during the year that he wasn't fully involved with Spears. Clearly he was comfortable with not being with the first thing that threw themselves into his lap.
"Before [Debbie] falling for Tom Chandler..."
Debbie went through no visible grief when Chandler died and was soon back working, thus there's no way she could have loved him.
"Since Cullen was privy to all his darkest secrets, Chandler had no choice but to push the transfer though as quickly as possible"
From Tibballs' Books: The 'eyes wide shut' guides
"There is no record of how long DI Alex Cullen knew
"Clearly disturbed, she revealed how Louise Marsden had committed suicide after claiming to have been raped at a party. One of the men accused of raping her was Chandler, who had been Anne's boyfriend before Louise had stolen him from her."
What an awful turn of phrase...how goes the phrase 'if you can't explain it you can't understand it'. Regardless, Chandler said
"At ah, at the party...Louise was visiting. Obvious I met her before school holidays, that kinda thing; y'know she was very pretty but she was a kid I, I didn't pay her any attention. Then you brought her up to Hendon, it was different. Grown up. Filled out. From the minute she arrived she was all over me- flirting, laughing, little looks, little touches. I remember Gordon saying I was 'in'. Then, ah, he had the party on the Saturday night and everybody got drunk he made punch that blew everyone's balls off. You were there with whatsaname, thingy...Dippie Maria. You had some kinda row, Maria left, you went after her. And ah I was going out with Anne. She got all moody because of me an' your sister. I mean it was obvious there was an attraction, the chemistry...so Anne gave me an ultimatum and I told her to stuff it so she left. Not that I could've cared less, stupid cow.So I started drinking with Louise, dancing with her. Gordon was right. I was "in". So I kissed her. And she liked it. She liked it a lot. And she kissed me back. Then I pulled her towards me, I tried to touch her. And when I tried to touch her she pulled away. Said it wasn't what she wanted. Well if it wasn't what she wanted, what was the whole evening about? I mean what was it some kind of stupid game? I mean everybody had seen it the way she looked at me the way that she touched me how much she wanted me and she did! She did want me!"
Even the most conservative person in the world ceades that one date is NOT a relationship, and the inferring of to 'steal' after three hours seems compleately false. This is backed up by James' statement
Peter Marsden was a friend of Tom's. It was summer, 1982. There was a party for the graduates, at Hendon. Peter's sister Louise came to the party. She was very pretty. Tom, was going out with Anne Merrick at the time. I was 17 at the time, I was doing my A levels. I just came to see my big brother in uniform. I can see Anne now, she was really angry with Tom, he was flirting with Louse, they had a row, Anne left he party early. Everybody's having a good time. I can remember Tom and Gordon and Dave all dancing with Louise; and then she isn't there anymore. None of them. Peter's asking everyone, "where, where's my sister?"...I got to the halls of residence to try to find him. I'm pretty drunk by now, there are noises coming from the room on the corridor; I hear music, voices, lots of laughter and I head towards the room. I try to open the door, its not locked, but someone's leaning against it. I get angry, they're not letting me into the party. I rush at the door, finally it gives way. I look around for Tom. Then I see Louise, she's been held down on the bed, by two men, someone has their hand over her mouth, and my brother Tom is on top of her. I will never forget the look on her face, she's looking directly at me.
"Still hoping to evade justice, Chandler married McAllister but on their wedding night he bruitally forced her to have sex despite previously agreeing to wait unitl the baby was born."
I remember no such agreement offhand, but this objection is pending evidence.
"Meadows charged at him a the cornered Chandler turned the gun on himself and blew his brains out"
There is no solid evidence that Chandler shot himself in the head. The gun would have been at quite a distance for the camera to achieve the view of the barrel that it did. The amount of blood on the scene would indicate that another body part, the torso, was more likely shot. The amount of blood on the scene was confirmed by Cass Rickman, through a depiction of Hot Chip dipping in tomato (HP) sauce.
Look again.
A scene from On The Hook pt2, where Chandler admits his interest in Spears. Support the uploader by voting for this clip and leaving comments!
Attack of the Spammers
22 November 2006
The guestbook has been disabled as spammers are using it to send spam.
Back on track
13 October 2006
The site is (clearly) back up. The mail functions I don't believe work. The last server this was on fell over, I'm 99% sure this one won't screw the site around the same way. The site could well be slower though.
Apart from trying to find a way to convert episodes to DVD without quality loss (what am I saying, VHS doesn't have much quality to lose), nothing much has happened. This site reached and passed its 1st birthday months ago, and that's pretty much been the news. Steven did his annual funrun for those Britans who were lucky enough to see him. Except...
Tania's brothers
Tania has starred in an acclaimed arthouse film, Brothers of the Head. It includes her as the 'slightly skanky girlfriend who gets blamed for twisting their thoughts'. There's some nudity of her in it too (or a body double, I wasn't sure). I found it a great film, although I went in there with only the expectation to see her.
Tom and Kat(i)e...funny...
I realised when I re-read some of my prior headlines it reminded me of Tom and Katie Holmes, another famous couple.
Bang Bang, he hit the ground...
30 January 2006
Marquess is gone from the Bill. (this news portion of news was sucked away when the old site went down)
Regardless, Paul Marquess has moved over to Entermol, gameshow manufacturer tradtionally, to develop "drama".
The new Executive Producer is allegedly not a soap producer, meaning good news for the remaining cast.
It is very unlikely that Chandler or Spears would take up their positions again; Okaro is particually popular and it's very likely the new Executive Producer has no inclination to put in the hard yards to write them ratings-worth stories.
Revelations: Tibballs writes in his sleep
29 January 2006
Well, not really. But he certainally hasn't penned all the books in entireity that he has put his name to.
Tibballs writes for a variety of subjects over a long period of time. This is known and estabished already in the report. Topics include from Titanic to TV shows.
However, Tibballs has penned well 20 books in 10 years (the figures I had have gone awray but whatever the figure was it was not humanly possible to pen researched 180 page books in this time).
With the subtile errors in the book, "DCC" instead of "DAC", it is plausible that Tibballs mearly edits most of his books down from the chunks of information provided by the source.
In that case, the conclusion would be that Marquess provided dubious information, and Tibballs failed to check it.
The thing Tibballs is really guity of in this case isn't slander and bias, but laziness in checking the sources. The last publicised event of a publisher found guilty of this occured in the US, and it has been a rather costly and humilating exercise for them.
Tom and Kate...who?
As the months tick by and no updates, one could conclude this site was dead. It's not. It's just that there's not much new information on characters 'killed off' years ago.
My time isn't as scarcer resource as it once was and I hope to give more of it to Chandler and Spears.
17 January 2005 Update
2005 is going to be a long and nasty year but this site is not abandoned, and certainaly not the Chandler & Spears cause.
Although clearly Marquess personally has a lot of questions to answer, he will not answer them unless he is pressed to do so. Britian, or so he sees it, loves The Bill, and he feels he does not have to answer to his critics.
Honestly, after spending so much time working and contemplating who really this man is, unity and a strong team effort with a two-way communication approach is the only way to change. Meaning, if this group wants to get things done, they must make it in his best interests to answer them.
Marquess is a one-man PR machine, or as he'd be tagged as a politican, "media whore". Take the Paedophile cops plot, the Incest plot, the intra-police rape plot. All of these are deliberate attempts to spark media attention and "rock the boat", making people watch the show. Fair enough, it is a British soap and they will go to those kind of lengths, but the fact that Marquess thinks he can do it with the MET is what differs him from other British classics like Emmerdale and Corination Street.
If you've got one person selling animal videos, and other holding up signs protesting how the animals in the videos were treated poorly and signs of the animal, who are the buyers going to sympathise with more?
Maybe an American once said "There's no such thing as bad publicity" but really, there is.
Is Incest really something to toy with as an issue within the Police Force? How about the insinuation that cops are rapists? Believe it or not, people take back impressions of groups and reality from what they see on TV.
For example,
crimerates may be at their lowest ever, but many people feel unsafe. Why would that be?
Is there really someone who cares enough out there to band together a group with focus on these (or similar) objectives?
I would really like to say yes.
Perhaps there are different views on how to tackle these issues- if there is one, send it in via "contact".
Suspect
Tibballs' second letter doesn't get there: Carlton Books & Royal Mail take four months "Return to Sender", but first letter never comes back
New book slips"official" into title
The Tibballs' Report (with an altered title) has been mailed twice to Geoff Tibballs, author of The Bill: The Complete low-down to 20 years at Sun Hill, and twice he has failed to answer the critisims in the report.
This is probably due to the fact that Carlton Books have "returned to sender" the second letter, taking four months for it to come back.
The letter came back via Pearson Books' request- because there is a "return to sender" written on it. The other letter has not come back.
"Axing of Mark Wingett From ITV" Petition
Mark Widget, for those who aren't completely familar with Actors on The Bill, plays "PC Jim Calver".
Mark has been on The Bill since Woodentop, its first episode.
Thus, his firing at ITV is a travesty. Only Mark and Trudy Goodwin, AKA June Ackland, are original cast members.
Please consider signing this petition. This is another further attempt to commercialise The Bill- this kind of move very akin to the unsavory plots of incest occuring within the police force (June Ackland starring in this, by the way).
"Axe Paul Marquess and Bring Back The Old Bill" Petition
For all those who want to voice their opposition to the Marquess' Bill, here's a good opportunity.
Although the petition states that pre-Handford Executive Producers should be brought back, it is a very efficent way to get an opinion across to ITV, along with (hopefully) a lot of other like-minded people. (As a sidenote, in my signature I've given support to the return of Handford)
More details on what the petitioners plan to do with it coming shortly.
Other petitions you may consider signing:
Preliminary Tom Chandler Lie Ratio Figures in
Lies Per Scene |
Lies Per Episode |
Episodes Surveyed |
|
| Handford | 0.76 |
4.55 |
53 |
| Parr | 1.13 |
5.25 |
8 |
| Marquess | 1.79 |
12 |
45 (47) |
Missing Marquess Episodes: 018, 030, 032, 033, 035, 038
Italics denote incomplete (running) figures
Final Parr and Handford Figures
Although Night Games and Aftershock were part Executive Produced by Handford, there is fairly clear evidence that Parr had an undue influence over characters, particually Chandler, during these two episodes and hence the episodes have been included in the Parr total.
Note though, the "lie" totals for those two episodes are situated within the four lowest totals on the graph- it is in the interest of the Parr Chandler to include these episodes in this catergory, as without them, the figures are 1.32 Lies per Scene and 6.17 Lies Per Episode!
The Lie Ratio figures have been compiled over 46 randomly-selected Executive Produced Handford and all presently avaliable 37 Marquess episodes containing Tom Chandler. Episodes were watched and all "lies" and "scenes" were recorded.
"Lie" was defined as any truth-bending, unsubstanciated clearly unfactual but influential in police work opinion or other misleading utterance.
"Scene" is every individual shot after moving back to Chandler in a scene from another situation. (this is because of Marquess's swapping between two situations made it difficult to distingush actual scenes)
All obtainable Marquess Episodes are on tapes- unsorted ones however, and finding particular titled (numbered without any distinction at he beginning) episodes isnt' an easy job. But it's progressing well at this stage.
Notice
THEM. openly dislikes present executive producer of The Bill (as of typing this,
Paul Marquess) however care has been taken in the unbiased presentation of evidence
in all THEM.Investigation(s). "Alt"/"Alternative" tags may contain comment, but are not
counted as part of evidence as they would not show up in printed copies of THEM.Investigations.
THEM. encourages viewers/readers to draw their own opinions on evidence, and
indeed, draw their own conclusions and views on all television shows; drama,
soaps or otherwise.
Last Update: Saturday, March 13, 2010
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