[align=justify]Talking of 'Bill like scene,' some years ago I ran a building project in Rotherhithe near the river where the contractors went into liquidation, the foundations only laid, and the site was locked up pending fresh negotiations with a new builder. One Monday morning I received several agitated calls from the neighbours about an ' incident' that happened over the weekend involving dozens of police, helicopters and river police in speedboats apparently chasing a man across the site. I made several enquiries with local police who said they knew nothing about a chase. The hoarding to the site had however been broken into and damaged and cost us a lot of money to repair. It was all a mystery and I concluded that the police just weren't being forthcoming. Some months later I was watching the Bill when I recognised the scene where a chase was taking place. It was our site! A few more calls revealed that the crew had found an 'abandoned building site' when driving around looking for locations ( as if) and forced their way in to shoot a few scenes. There were signs everywhere with our name on it yet they could not manage to call us to get permission. Eventually the production company coughed up a decent charitable donation in lieu of being sued for trespass and damage.

I have heard from other people that the Bill often film on estates around Lewisham and Lambeth - if you can't find out more about this incident then suspect a film/TV crew! However a similar real incident took place in Ewelme Road two years ago one afternoon where armed police surrounded a white van with pointed rifles so sadly, it is becoming a more frequent occurrence.