Former BBC star Ali Bastian has said she would "love" to see The Bill return to television, calling the police drama "such an institution."
Speaking to Online Bingo, the 44-year-old reflected on the series, in which she played PC Sally Armstrong from 2007 to 2009. She said: "I would love that. Every time there's been a mention of that, I think it'd be so good. It was such an institution. I'd love to see it really go back to its roots. I'm probably biased because I played uniform, but it became, towards the end, more based in CID and less about less uniform stories."
She added: "It would need to go back to like Bobby's on the beat and be anchored in that again. I'd be delighted if that came back again."
Loss of long-running drama
Bastian also spoke about the cancellation of other long-running series. Holby City aired its final episode in 2022 after 23 years, while Doctors was axed in 2023 after 24 years due to rising production costs.
She argued that such shows offered important entry points for people breaking into the industry, saying: "Shows like Holby City too, that's gone now. They would both give actors their first break - Doctors as well. The fact that those three jobs have gone now, that would give somebody their first opportunity to work on a TV set, it's devastating actually. It's really bad. I hope other things will fill those shoes."
Bastian, who played Becca Dean in Hollyoaks from 2001 to 2007 and Becky Clarke in Doctors, stressed that the loss also affects crew and production staff. She said: "It’s not just actors that get their break on these sorts of shows. Any crew and writers and production staff training come from the ground up."
She added: "I worked with people that were running on Hollyoaks that were then producing Doctors when I went onto that. Over the years, people fly up the ranks, but how are people going to get the experience? It’s not good."
Health update
In September 2024, Bastian announced she had been diagnosed with stage two breast cancer after finding a lump while breastfeeding. She underwent a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and in March 2025 said she was cancer-free.
