The Bill TV programme

Most of The Bill was actually filmed in south London, after the studios moved to Merton in 1990. (The Cambridge estate in Norbiton was used for location filming on the infamous "Jasmine Allen"). But in 1985 the studios were in Wapping, and most filming was done in that area. (The move was forced by the News International industrial dispute in 1986, and in particular altercations when strikers mistook actors in police uniform for the real thing).

The OHLE makes it evident this is north of the River. I think it is indeed the Limehouse viaduct. Early on there is a station in shot with a two-word name - Stepney East? At one point a street sign for --emming Street is also seen. There is a Hemming Street nearby.

Construction of the DLR did not start until 1985, after the Parliamentary Bills received the Royal Assent that year. That episode was first broadcast in the first week of 1986, and could well have been filmed before any work started on the Limehouse viaduct.

NF -- when you say the Limehouse viaduct, presumably you mean the Limehouse curve? The reason I went off that idea is that it was much more constrained by houses close up to the viaduct than the Bill shots seem to illustrate. I walked that viaduct when it was in use for storing derelict wagons, entered only from the south: and it just didn't seen right. Another thought might be the viaduct leading to the MR goods depot (by Pinchin St) but have no idea of its state in 1985, if not actually demolished. There were LCC blocks of flats (1930s)off Ellen St that might be the backdrop.
Hemming St -- thanks NF, I missed that -- is actually very near the Selby St coal drops; could the 2-word name be Bethnal Green?

I thought not, but I was looking too close to Bethnal Green station. Given a suitably long telephoto shot Bethnal Green could appear in the background of a shot of what is left of the viaduct leading to the Selby Street depot.
maps.nls.uk/view/102345861 for a pre-war view - the area will have changed a lot by 1985.

This is what it looks like now
www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.5220781,-0.0637984,132a,35y,20.33h,45t/data=!3m1!1e3 - note that it is still a car-breakers' yard, although the viaduct is much shorter now than in the film. (The houses on Granary Road look new enough to have been built in the last 30 years)

The junction of Hemming Street and Selby Street, (street sign seen in one in-car shot) is almost directly over the East London Line tunnel between Whitechapel and Shoreditch.

NF, thank you---I think we are there. Yes, the Granary Rd houses and flats are archetypal late 80s-early 90s. Next door is Pellew House, 1930s LCC flats. As far as I can see, there were two curved viaducts in close proximity, a very wide - 6 track - one leading off the south side of the GEML to wagon storage sidings, where the J67 0-6-0T goods station pilot could usually be seen in its own little shed in the 50s, and a 2-track one leading north from the sidings and the ELR to the coal drops. I guess it was this viaduct the detective constable is shown atop. The chute down which various actors jump into a mound of tyres may be one of the actual coal drops. The houses in Hemming St/Vallance Rd had been badly bombed, which explains the wide area of desolation depicted
Altogether, a nice memorial of the railway archaeology of Bethnal Green.
The OS 25" plan 1950-63 on www.old-maps.co.uk and best accessed by searching Bethnal Green, is a good guide

A good way of checking this is from the Birdseye feature in Maps Bing. The stub of the wide viaduct leaving the GEML can be seen clearly crossing Vallance Rd and Hemming St, when viewed from the south. Its width can be judged by viewing from the east.The narrower viaduct, on which Dashwood is seen, and the site of the coal drops, was between Surma Close and Hemming St; it has been totally demolished. The image on the Britain from Above website (Whitechapel High St and environs 1937) is too small to get any detail, unless a forum member has access to the zoom facility

Jimini, the accepted story is that actors were set on by protestors (who thought they were echt police) at the News International plant adjacent, but the unofficial one is that the owners of the site of Sun Hill nick (commercial premises leased out) gave Thames notice as they'd had a better offer!

Another good site to see how things have changed is this,
maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17&lat=51.5236&lon=-0.0625&layers=173&b=1

The select a map option gives the 'OS 25 inch 1890-1920' OR the 'TQ ... 1947 - 1964'.

The other advantage is the 'Change transparency of overlay:' so you can see the Bing satellite image underneath!

I will apologise in advance for all the time you can waste using this feature!

Holborncentral, think they moved locations about series 3 or 4, and again in the 90s. That was the Merton location. Sun Hill became much less East-end!

I never knew it was filmed there. I've only ever known it being filmed in Merton and I've often seen the depot where the props are stored. I only wish I'd had a camera along the night I saw the programme being filmed. If I saw something like that now I would get my phone out and take photos or even a quick video, but in 2003 we didn't have that luxury. Smartphones are a useful thing to have   I could also have done with it on a school trip to Dublin in 2007. I saw a peacock out the window of our bus and when I told my parents they just laughed. They didn't believe me. Oh if only I had a photo

Filming "on location" took place all over London, depending on what was needed to suit the plot. Locations near the studios would be preferred (hence in the later series scenes involving railway lines tended to be in third rail territory despite the supposed East End setting) but I've spotted scenes filmed some distance from Merton, such as in Kingston town centre, on Holborn Viaduct, and on the Victoria Embankment.

(Similarly, I was watching a drama recently that was supposedly set in Manchester, but in one scene a London bus was clearly seen)

I remember witnessing one location filming,in Loughborough Road Brixton. They "dressed" the scene with a burnt out car, and other detritis. Apparently the locals weren't to happy.

The classic 'off patch' has got to be 'The Good Life' which supposedly was in Surbiton was actually filmed in Northwood!

Do you think they'd get away with using Blackpool to film something set in Paris?

The Bletchley Circle, set circa 1950, had Routemasters too. And one plotline referred to the "Goblin" - despite the fact that that name only became relevent in the 1980s when the western terminus moved from Kentish Town to Gospel Oak.

Quite possibly! Especially if they had an accordian player on a bike wearing a hooped jersey and a beret with a string of onions around his neck

Your mention of 'Paris' wasn't the latest Maigret starring the human gargoyle filmed in Budapest?