01/01/1998

Overview

The series began with the appointment of new executive producer Richard Handford, who replaced Michael Chapman after his 9-year reign came to an end in the previous series. The appointment preceded discussions with broadcaster ITV about returning to the format of hour-long episodes, which the show last used on a regular basis in 1987. The request was approved, and hour-long episodes began to air twice weekly beginning in August, a format the series retained until moving to a later time-slot in 2009. Due to the rapid transition, several of the first hour-long episodes were originally written for the half-hour time-slot, and thus, some episodes contain two completely different stories, written by different writers, which jump from one to another.