'The Bill' axed

'The Bill' has been axed by ITV after 27 years.

The long-running police drama series will be dropped in the autumn after ratings almost halved in the past eight years - despite last year's revamp and 9pm time slot.

ITV's director of television, channels and online Peter Fincham said: "'The Bill' has been a fixture on our screens for more than 25 years and has been the home of some of the UK's best serial drama storylines, and a great showcase for terrific scriptwriting and fine acting talent.

"But times change, and so do the tastes of our audience. Whilst 'The Bill' will come to an end in 2010, we will continue to invest more in drama programming than any other commercial broadcaster in the UK and viewers can look forward to a wide range of high quality drama on ITV1."

Viewers of 'The Bill' - which stars Alex Walkinshaw as Inspector Dale 'Smithy' Smith, Andrew Lancel as DI Neil Manson and Simon Rouse as Superintendant Jack Meadows - have dropped from a 2002 high of seven million, down to about 3.5 million per episode.

The decision to drop the programme will make way for a collection of new, shorter running, drama shows.

Previous stars of the show include Gary Lucy, Louisa Lytton, Ali Bastian and Scott Maslen.