Bike Squad coming to ITV
April 11, 2007
Media Guardian reports that ITV has commissioned Drop the Dead Donkey writer Guy Jenkin to script a show about cycling policemen.
The ITV director of entertainment and comedy, Paul Jackson, has given the green light for Bike Squad, which follows a troupe of biking coppers and is expected to air as a 90-minute pilot early next year. A full series could follow.
The casting has not been confirmed but it is thought that actor Mark Addy, the star of recent ITV1 comedy drama Bonkers, will play the lead in the comedy, which is being made by independent producer Tiger Aspect.
“It is about policemen who are shunted off to this squad because basically they are not very good as policemen,” said Jenkin, whose credits include Drop the Dead Donkey and the satirical BBC1 film Jeffrey Archer: The Truth, and who is an enthusiastic cyclist himself.
Surely bike cops aren’t all failed regular police officers.
[UPDATE]
Bike Squad won its slot last Friday night with a 20% average audience share. 4.6 million people watched the 90-minute pilot according to unofficial overnights quoted here by the Guardian.
April 11, 2007 at 10:37 pm
It’ll probably be very funny, but I’m not too sure about this – stereotyping cyclists as ‘failures’.
A few months back, I read one of the ‘day in the life of’ articles in the back of the Sunday Times about a policeman with the highest arrest / clear-up rate in the country. He’d come from South Africa, where he’d been in a police bomb disposal during the apartheid troubles, and got a job on a rough estate as a local policeman. He turned down the ‘company car’ in favour of a bike, because he could go where ever the criminals went . . . AND outrun them. There was simply no escape from this RoboCop on two wheels.
How about portraying how dumb it is to break the law doing stoopid things like burglary, mugging, and graffiti when there’s someone like this guy about. THAT would be funny.
May 5, 2007 at 3:11 am
It sounds a tad like Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman?
January 4, 2008 at 11:41 pm
I found bike squad very entertaining can’t wait for the next episode
January 4, 2008 at 11:50 pm
jUSTED WATCHED BIKER SQUAD THOUGHT IT WAS BRILLIANT WILL THERE BE ANOTHER ONE SOON
January 5, 2008 at 12:31 am
having watched the first episode, thought it was entertaining but let down by the usage of “spassies” in one conversation. my son has cerebral palsy and i don’t find this derogatory language helpful in mainstream television, i’m not a killjoy, just a realist.
January 8, 2008 at 9:04 am
What a brilliant program. Funny, witty and generally amusing. Please, please show another episode just so we can see the girl on the horse again. It make a change to have good looking women on TV.
January 8, 2008 at 10:03 am
Really enjoyed this show – laughed out loud for a lot of it – not often you can say that. I was disappointed when I checked the listings for this week and saw it wasn’t on. I now know it’s a pilot – hope to see it back very soon.
January 12, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Cant wait for this programme to come back on again. I really enjoyed it and especially enjoyed looking at the tall dumb guy. He was hot… even if he did kiss a horse.
Does anyone know if Bike Squad can be downloaded from anywhere?
March 13, 2008 at 3:55 pm
I was wondering if any one knows for definate if Bike Squad is giong to be a series. I thought there were lots of leads which could lead to really interesting stories. The relationship between the dodgy daughter (who is very beautiful and a great actress Cloudia Swann) and her father(Mark Addy) who I think is in a league of his own. The new Sarge who looked ridiculous in his shorts but just so so funny. I loved it.
November 18, 2008 at 3:59 pm
that was the best show ever is it gonna come bak hopfully