The Bill debuted on TV 40 years ago, hooking viewers on the thrills and spills of life at Sun Hill police station.
While its original cast are instantly recognisable in their police uniforms, the drama series also launched the careers of some big-name stars who were far from A-list at the time.
As the popular show celebrates a milestone anniversary at UKTV with all episodes streaming on its free platform U, we look back at some of the actors you might not have known had popped up in the series.
Read more: How The Bill transformed UK TV
10 actors who got their big break on The Bill
Sean Bean
He might be a huge star now with career highlights including Game of Thrones, the Sharpe series and the Lord of the Rings films, but Bean actually had his first credited TV role in a 1984 episode of The Bill.
It seems Bean was pigeon-holed as a strong, not-to-be-messed-with character from the start, as he played an armed robber called Horace Clark during the first year of the crime drama.
Keira Knightley
If the earliest role of Knightley’s you can remember is Bend It Like Beckham, then give some classic episodes of The Bill a rewatch and see if you can spot the Hollywood star at 10 years old.
She was worlds away from her posh background in the 1995 episode, where she featured as a scrappy young thief the Sun Hill officers were trying to reprimand.
David Tennant
Rivals, Doctor Who and Good Omens were all a distant dream for a young David Tennant, who also got a 1995 credit as one of the criminals in The Bill.
Tennant played a creepy child abductor called Steve Clemens as his career was just taking off in a disturbing storyline for the series.
Andy Serkis
Serkis has some of Hollywood’s biggest film titles on his CV, with credits for The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Planet of the Apes, Star Wars and The Batman.
But who would have thought that his earliest jobs included bit parts in 1990 and 1993 episodes of The Bill? His 1990 character was a motorist who gave Viv Martella a lift chasing a blue Cortina around Sun Hill.
Jack O’Connell
With recent roles in TV series SAS: Rogue Heroes and as Blake Fielder-Civil in Back to Black, as well as the forthcoming 28 Years Later, former BAFTA Rising Star O’Connell’s career is on the up.
It all began at Sun Hill, where his second ever credited role was a four-episode arc as a teenager accused of assault in 2005.
James McAvoy
X-Men star McAvoy has carved out an incredibly successful Hollywood career, having also starred in Atonement, Filth, The Last King of Scotland and The Chronicles of Narnia.
Leading him to TV stardom in shows like Shameless, State of Play and His Dark Materials was his earliest small screen credit, in a 1997 episode of The Bill where he played a troubled youth while still studying at drama school.
Robert Carlyle
While his film career took off in the latter part of the 90s with movies including Trainspotting and The Full Monty, Carlyle caught his TV big break earlier in the decade on The Bill.
His 1991 episode was his second listed acting job and saw him play a smug journalist covering a Sun Hill case.
Idris Elba
Film and TV star Elba has countless credits to his name, with two of his most famous roles also in crime dramas – as Detective John Luther in the creepy series Luther, and as Stringer Bell in The Wire.
But you might not know that Mandela star Elba’s career started out with two episodes of The Bill amongst his earliest jobs, where he played a criminal involved in a drugs case and later a delivery driver accused of theft.
Lashana Lynch
She’s been Bob Marley’s wife in One Love, an MI6 agent in No Time To Die, Miss Honey in Matilda the Musical and Maria Rambeau in Captain Marvel, but Lynch landed her first acting job at The Bill.
Lynch appeared in 2007 as a gang member’s girlfriend who was held hostage, going on to star in her first film, Fast Girls, five years later.
Nicholas Hoult
Before Hoult became the child star of About A Boy and the teen lead of TV series Skins, he gained valuable experience at The Bill as an 11-year-old caught up in a botched bank raid in a 2000 episode.
He’s since gone on to star in X-Men: Apocalypse, The Favourite and True History of the Kelly Gang, as well as TV series The Great.
The Bill streams on U and airs weekly on U&Drama.
