The missing years of The Bill

UK TV channel Drama had recently started showing repeats of long running cop drama The Bill from it's start in 1984. However the channel has announced that it will be skipping a 10 year period of episodes from 1988 to 1998, this covers a period when the show was a twice weekly half hour show. It's fans will argue that this was when the show at it's most popular. Drama have put forward 2 reasons, the first being cost of paying repeat fees to cast and crew and the other being low ratings. The one thing is clear, fans of The Bill are not happy.