It's a Fair Cop, Mr Flathead 
Sunday Express, 9th July 2000

by Lucy Sweet

You remember DI Burnside from The Bill. Looked like Ronnie Barker after being hit on the head with a spade. Said "You're nicked, you slaaag!" all the time. In the first scene of Burnside (Thursday, ITV), he walked right into an armed robbery. "You're nicked!" he said. "Burnside!" the audience gasped. "He's that bloke out of The Bill with the flat head! I remember him! He was rubbish!" 

Well, he's back and he means business. Luckily for us, his business is slightly more exciting than standing next to the coffee machine at Sunhill [sic] nick. He's now joined forces with the NSC, a British version of the FBI, where employees are required to wear leather jackets and look like the Avengers. Among his colleagues are DC Sam Phillips (Zoe Eeles), a Scottish vixen, and DS Dave Summers (Justin Pierre) a foxy black man. 

Flathead (Christopher Ellison) is investigating a gun-running case, which is complete tosh - if you'll pardon the Bill-related pun - but hugely enjoyable and slick. No ingredient is left out: conflicts of interests with the boss, shoot-outs, doors being kicked in. And like most detectives, Burnside has a juicy grudge which keeps him awake at night. The bee in his bonnet is Ronnie "The Razor" Buchan, a gangster who shot Burnside's mate. You'd think Ronnie the Razor would be a force to be reckoned with, but he's actually played by toothsome Leo Sayer lookalike, Paul Nicholas. 

"I tell ya," breathed Flathead. "I'm not taking up knittin' until I wipe that grin off his face." I think you've got the support of the nation on that, Burnsie.

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