Burnside

I agree, this series was a disappointment. Chris should stick at what we know him best for.

An attempt to capitalize on Burnside without Burnside... I mean who could have thought of that, an undoubtedly popular character that if returning today (13 years later) would be much like Hilda returning to Corry.

Burnside needs to get back into "The Bill", after all, he MADE the show.

After he left it sadly went downhill, not surprising given the strength of his character and charisma (can't believe I said that).

Was it really 1993?

Burnside is a great action-drama with punch, and "The Bills" Christopher (Chris) Ellison puts into a brilliant performance as Frank Burnside.

This man is looking for revenge against an infamous media personality who killed his partner and great friend years earlier, and like a desperado he would do anything to achieve his objective!

This series is a classic, and should be enjoyed and looked upon as one of the great modern-day series from Britain for many years to come!

Burnside is an old style CID copper made famous in hit crime series such as The Bill. Life on Mars come to mind but this is realism. Now working for the crime investigation squad, Burnside investigates when a gang of drug dealers start gun running. He also investigates a serial killer, again copied in new crime programs. The Russian Mafia also feature, all copied by lesser coppers! When a trial ends in disaster, Burnside and his team find themselves investigating a Gangland murder. When a group of women are killed one by one, Burnside and his team race against the clock to find the killer before he strikes again.

Watch out for Ronnie "The Razor" Buchan, a former London gangster and Burnside's nemesis.

Wonderful acting by Ellison as Burnside and good stories.

Highly recommended good old fashioned crime stories.

Tough anti hero .

I can't believe it's taken me over 20 years to watch this shortlived series, seeing that I was a huge fan of The Bill, and hardly missed an episode between 1985 and 2002!

As with many fans of The Bill, I loved the antihero character of Frank Burnside - the old-school detective who gets his results by not always using the most orthodox methods.

When I heard there was going to be a Burnside spinoff show, I wasn't sure it was a good idea, and maybe it would stretch the character too much by taking him out of his usual setting, with completely new characters.

But, after seeing this excellent series, I'm now very glad to be proved wrong. What amazed me is how fresh and modern the show looks - as if it were made in 2020, not 2000!

Burnside has now in charge of a unit in the National Crime Squad, and works with two sidekicks, Sam and Dave.

Sam is an attractive young Scottish woman, and Dave a mixed-race gay man - which all sounds very 'woke' by today's standards, but these are no 'token' characters... they both have fully fleshed-out personalities and have real and meaningful input into the stories, and the whole set-up feels authentic and in tune with today's special forces.

There are three stories, each a two-parter, and all very different - although, as the shoe progresses, it's clear Burnsife has a score to settle with smarmy and ageing gangster Ronnie 'the razor' Buchan, played by Paul Nicholas.

The standard is very high, and the stories are violent, action-packed and suspenseful. If you've never seen this show, then I'd urge you to give it a try and see for yourself.

I've no idea why it was cancelled after only 6 episodes - this is a series that should have been around for years.

The best type of television cop is the fascist but fair cop . Jack Regan from THE SWEENEY and Frank Burnside from THE BILL are the personification of the fascist but fair cops as seen on British television , yes they beat confessions out of guilty men and occasionally blow away a bad guy but the bad guys were guilty in the first place so that makes it all right.

THE BILL started to lose its impact after Burnside left the series and the show suffered from much lower ratings because of it , hell Burnside was THE BILL so the producers kept bringing him back every now and again . And being a sometimes avid watcher of THE BILL I was looking forward to seeing this " gritty " spin off show but felt it was a complete waste of time afterwards

This series is called BURNSIDE but is a complete misnomer . It consists of six episodes of three 2 part stories but if you`re expecting them to revolve around Fascist Frank you will be in for a major disappointment since only the first story centres around him , the other two centre around his colleagues the very attractive Sam Philips who is far too pretty to be a convincing policewoman and Dave Summers who is a gay black policeman . Yup a gay black policeman and never once does Burnside come out with the obvious line " Don``t stand behind me you iron " . Not only that but for both of the latter two stories Burnside is off screen for much of the time , compare this with the amount of BILL episodes where he`s the focus of the story . And despite the post watershed screening time and the very occasional use of the " F " word by the villains there`s nothing memorable about the episodes and could have easily been written for any British television detective show

Any chance we`ll be seeing Frank back in THE BILL after this debacle ?