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When The Bill started there were just 13 regular cast members, of whom two were uniformed women. Unsurprisingly, this was actually a slightly higher proportion of women to men than in the real Met - which, in 1984, had 25,372 male officers and 2,631 female officers - although to start with on the programme we had no women at all in CID. My fellow actress was Nula Conwell, playing WPC Viv Martella, a gorgeous brunette. I remember being severely told off for changing my hair-colour to a then fashionable henna-red in the months between the original play and the series. Our executive producer was insistent there had to be a blonde and a brunette. I've been keeping the bottle- blonde industry in business ever since. The Bill's equivalent was Frank Burnside, played by Chris Ellison, who appeared in the first episode of the series as a very dodgy detective sergeant. He later returned, by popular demand, as a DI in 1988. Of course, it would be untrue to say that all CID officers were like him, but I met an awful lot who were. He wasn't wholly bad but he constantly bent the rules, usually by shoving some "nasty little scrote's head down the khazi". Ah, those were the days. They certainly were in terms of TV audiences. The Bill regularly pulled in 16 million-plus viewers. Everybody, especially male coppers, loved Burnside. I was told countless times: "We've got one in our station just like him." Inside the Queen's last days at Balmoral: How late monarch refused to let Charles take over to make Liz Truss PM, telling aides 'it's MY job' - and family members each got to spend a private moment alone with her after she slipped away Omid Scobie accusesPrince Edward and Sophie of 'a royal screw up' - and claims their remarks in the wake of Harry and Meghan's Oprah interview made them seem 'casually bigoted' Queen Margrethe of Denmark will spend Christmas with her sons and their families - after spending last December 25 apart following title row

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Strictly's Bobby Brazier reveals his heartbreaking two-word tribute to his late mother Jade Goody after leaving viewers in tears with dance