"The Bill" The Short Straw (TV Episode 1993) Poster

(TV Series)

(1993)

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10/10
Noooooooooo not Viv!
Sleepin_Dragon16 July 2021
Vic breaks down, and misses a briefing, taken off the case she pursues other duties, along with Stamp, and wishes she'd done something else instead.

This is an absolute humdinger of an episode, it's a fantastic twenty five minutes of drama, and gives the show an opportunity to send one of its finest out on a real high. Conwell was a fantastic member of the team, a great character, and a lovely actress, she was someone that was incredibly well known, appearing in two massive shows, this and Only Fools, she just seemed to vanish after this, a real shame, adored Viv and Maureen.

The writing had clearly been on the wall for some time, her appearances had diminished by this point, and we had seen the arrival of both Jo and Suzi.

It's a heartbreaker of a story, so many characters like Alec just vanished without a trace, Viv however, gets to sign off on a real high.

It's the only episode I can remember watching where I had a tear in my eye.

It's a truly brilliant episode. If only she'd gotten her clutch fixed earlier in the week.

Superb, 10/10.
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10/10
Nostalgia in the Modern Era
lmurry-8546419 September 2022
This episode is a total throwback of what we miss in the modern era. It came at a time when advanced spoilers were rare if not non-existent, so plot twists like Viv's farewell were so shocking to the millions watching at home. It wasn't a typical soap style plot twist and there was virtually no hint of it happening. It gave an iconic original cast member an exit worthy of her iconic status even if we were all sad to see Nula Colwell bow out for good. A bonus for this episode was another "Sierra classic" police chase as arguably the most synonymous area car took centre stage again in a dramatic car chase bettered only by 1994 episode Instant Response. The aftermath of the episode's events felt so much more real than it did under future producers.
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