This is a list of characters from the police drama The Bill ordered alphabetically by character surname. For a full list of characters ordered by rank, see list of The Bill characters. The characters are all police officers or civilian staff at the fictional Sun Hill police station in London.
Sergeant John Maitland arrived at Sun Hill under a bit of a cloud. At his previous North London station this young sergeant had shopped two traffic cops for drinking on duty. No one could argue that he didn't do the right thing by the book, but the incident left a nasty taste. Sun Hill looked at him more kindly when Ted Roach was attacked by a gang of thugs. Maitland waded in to help, and from then on was respected as a sergeant who led from the front. He was also seen as a career officer with ambition. John was good at dealing with the public, but not always a diplomat when telling older and more experienced officers what to do. Despite being a solid, dependable officer, however, he never topped any popularity charts, being humourless and insistent on doing everything by the book. He left Sun Hill to take up a teaching post at Hendon.
Chief.Supt Mannion originally introduced as the officer in charge of Sun Hills neighbouring station Barton Street. He later went on to become the Borough Commander and played an instrumental part in the removal of Chief.Supt Brownlow following the Don Beech Scandal.
After serving as Acting Detective Inspector for eighteen months, DS Nixon is devastated when she is informed that she is to be demoted to Detective Sergeant and that a new Detective Inspector is to be appointed.
Neil is married to a lawyer Phillipa and the pair has a five year old son called Jake. The pair agrees to give their marriage another go after Phillipa confronts Neil about his extramarital affair, but when Neil's investigation into a paedophile ring leads to the death of her father, Phillipa lashes out at Neil before leaving him and moves with her mother to Spain. Jake remains in Phillipa's custody in Spain, and it is currently unclear whether Neil will see Jake again.
He later returns the favour when Meadows is also at the centre of controversy.
Cathy Marshall
She arrived at Sun Hill to work as the Collator (in what's now called the LIO), looking after all the files and records. She thought it was time for a more peaceful life, with only her brain getting tired by the end of the shift. After all, she'd been pounding the pavements for several years and she'd seen her share of excitement. She came with a brand-new commendation for single-handedly arresting an armed robber, and her colleagues knew that she was more than a filing clerk.
Tragically, Cathy drowned in mysterious circumstances whilst chasing a suspect.
Viv Martella joined Sun Hill as a uniformed officer, an attractive dark-haired, dark-eyed girl with an Italian grandfather, a sharp cockney mouth and a determination not to get swamped in a male-dominated world. She never did. She shrugged off the chauvinism she found round every corner, and resisted all prying male attempts to find out about her love-life. She found a way of turning down the chat-ups with a smile and a witty word that didn't leave the up-chatters feeling too knocked-back. ('Not while there's a phone-book!' she told Roach when he suggested a date.) There were plenty of chatters. Burnside had a go, so did staid Sergeant Penny, so did Reg Hollis if you'll believe it, and so did Lennie Powell, a villain-turned grass Viv had to guard in a safe house one night. Viv always had a civvy boyfriend on the go - nothing too heavy - but she was determined that she wouldn't get involved with anyone in the Job. The only time she came close was when charming DS Hooper arrived at Sun Hill. Viv fancied him and was stunned when he turned out to be a divorced wife-beater, once married to another woman officer. What did happen was that DC Tosh Lines became a close friend. She felt she could talk to Tosh unofficially, and more than once he cried on her shoulder - or came as close as Tosh could ever get to crying.