"I'm what you might call thick-skinned. Makes no difference to me whether people like me or not. All I'm interested in is getting the job done and, whatever you think of me as an individual, I do get the job done. I'm good, 'in' I?"

Burnside has described himself as a 'ducker and diver, jabber and weaver' but, really, if he could choose his own epitaph, I think he would take Carver's summary in 'Cast No Shadow',

"He wasn't just a good guv'nor - he was the best."

Chris Ellison says Burnside is quintessentially a man of mystery and Burnside himself has been known to growl,

"I don't have to explain myself - or my past - to no bastard."

Despite that, we do know quite a few facts about him. A year younger than Ellison, Francis Burnside was born in 1947 and, at 36, when we first meet him, is a DS in the Met. The period of his life before that is not well documented but one of his earlier postings was to a predominantly black part of London where his friends knew him as Frankie B and as a rookie DC he had an embarrassing encounter with a tom called Victoria. Undercover operations have always formed a large part of his police life and he was an intrinsic part of Operation Countryman, a Met initiative in the 70s to flush out bent coppers, which left many people with the impression that Burnside himself was corrupt.

When Burnside appeared in the first episode of The Bill - Funny Ol' Business - Cops and Robbers (16 October, 1984) - it is immediately apparent that he and Bob Cryer go back some way, and that Bob is one of those who believes him to be corrupt. When you watch Burnside's face fall when Bob returns his greeting of "Long time no see" with "So why spoil it?" it is also apparent that Bob's opinion matters to him. There is a theory that they may go far enough back together for Bob to be Burnside's first sergeant or maybe his puppy walker. Certainly Bob takes his supposed corruption very personally. One oddity about this first meeting is that Burnside is using the name 'Tommy' - a nickname, perhaps?

Burnside also knew Christine Frazer, later to become A-relief's inspector, during these earlier years of his career. Burnside knew her back when he was still married and had some sort of relationship with her. This may have been a contributing factor in ending his marriage but he didn't get divorced during the time when he knew her. It would appear that Burnside must have known Chrissie, as he calls her, around the time of Countryman, as she is one of the few people to know the truth about Burnside's involvement in that operation.

If we are to take Burnside the series as canon then we can add that around 1972 Burnside was working with Barry Foxton and under Jim Summers - and held Barry Foxton in his arms as he died after Ronnie Buchan shot him. Foxton's wife believes that Burnside fancied her - and makes vague reference to a long ago and drunken Christmas party. Interestingly, Foxton's son is called Tommy - as was our Frank in his first appearance on The Bill. It would seem likely that Burnside must have been married at this time as he was married when Frazier knew him - and she knew him around Operation Countryman which was in the 70s. It does seem feasible that the death of his friend and possibly the breakdown of his marriage might have been what provided him with the impetus to take on a difficult and controversial undercover like Countryman. Alternatively, Countryman may have finished off a staggering marriage.

Burnside appeared three times in The Bill before becoming a regular character. In each case he was seen as a thorn in our side, at the very least. Roy Galloway usually had stronger words for what he was - "Bent bastard", for example. In Funny Ol' Business Carver had just made his first arrest when Burnside arrives to demand his snout back. In Ringer (6 January, 1986) Burnside was undercover on our patch investigating a car-ringing racket. Needless to say, discovering he had a semi-legitimate reason to be there didn't improve Galloway's mood any. It is at this time that we discovered that Burnside had a longboat on the river Lea and, also, that he thought June Ackland was well tasty. It is this that drew him back for his third guest appearance in The Chief Super's Party (10 February, 1986). Galloway, of course, thought that he was up to no good but Burnside was there because he thought he might be on a promise. If he was, he got nowhere - thanks to Dave Litten's intervention - and had to settle for giving a very drunk Viv Martella a lift home.

We don't see Burnside again for more than two years, during which time he had received his promotion to Detective Inspector. According to Burnside this had been slowed down by a complaint of assault against him (a little matter of someone's head and a toilet bowl). When he returned in Just Call Me Guv'nor (4 August, 1988) he had just spent a month in deep cover as part of a covert operation to infiltrate a gang of vicious football thugs. It is at the conclusion of Operation Red Card that Burnside became Sun Hill's DI. In doing so he displaced Acting (and very hopeful) DI Ted Roach. It wasn't a propitious beginning but by the end of the episode Frazer has marked a few cards about Burnside's actual involvement in Countryman while Roach has had his groats saved for the first, but definitely not the last, time and has taken the big step and called Burnside 'guv'. This was the beginning of an often stormy relationship between Burnside and his Irish Detective Sergeant. Ultimately, though, it was to develop into a solid partnership based on mutual respect, shared experiences, an understanding of weaknesses and a fondness for scotch. As with all his officers Burnside did Roach down at times – took credit that wasn't due, leaned on him over a slow result, over-rode his judgement – but he also supported and protected him. No matter how far up his nose Roach might be, he was one of his after all and the truth was that Roach was as close as he had got to a mate on his team.

In those days, of course, DI was the senior CID rank at Sun Hill, something which didn't change until the arrival of Gordon Wray in Corkscrew (26 April, 1990). It would be safe to say that, while Ellison may have welcomed the idea of a DCI - seeing the dramatic potential in having a new opponent, Burnside was well gutted. Nonetheless he adapted and survived in the same way he has adapted to PACE, taped interviews, a new breed of villains, female detectives, crack, and every new initiative, which comes floating down from on-high. Burnside has been called a dinosaur more than once - but if the dinosaurs died out because they couldn't adapt to a new world then he just doesn't qualify.

After Wray did his legs over Ackland (what does she dab behind her ears?) Sun Hill was shaken to its foundations by the arrival of a fast-tracked, well-connected, female DCI. Smart money was on Burnside being unwilling or unable to work under a woman. Certainly there were problems and conflicts but were they down to Kim Reid's genes or her career path? She was the new breed of copper, the sort who in Burnside's opinion hadn't earned their stripes, hadn't got their hands dirty and didn't deserve his respect or obedience. There were times when they worked very well together, most notably when Reid came back as CIB, to investigate Garfield. Significantly, of course, she was no longer his direct superior officer.

Reid was followed by Jack Meadows, broken down from Superintendent and transferred from Area. Burnside knew him, had resented him, sure, when he had come in and taken over Sun Hill cases but he wasn't a seagull flying through on accelerated promotion on the back of some poxy degree. In time Meadows earned Burnside's respect and while Meadows never took his eye off his slippery DI he also rated Burnside's strengths. Watching Meadows reassure Burnside then wave him off in a taxi on the way to his promotions board it is apparent that there is a degree of affection and respect going both ways. Of course they do both like a good single malt - and Burnside has been known to say that he judges a man by what he drinks.

When Burnside went for promotion (Overdue, 20 October, 1992) he was unsuccessful. Perhaps, as Alan Woods suggested, he wasn't the flavour of the moment or maybe Burnside was right in thinking that Kim Reid had put a spoke in his wheel. On the other hand, there is also a certain amount of logic in Burnside's other theory – that when you've been around for as long as he has and have acquired a certain reputation people will believe all sorts of things about you. As he said, some people even believed he had put a prisoner's head down a carsey – and it wasn't a prisoner.

On a brisk autumn day, five years after he arrived, Burnside left Sun Hill; in what could best be described as suspicious circumstances. In But Not Forgotten (7 September, 1993) Burnside simply didn't come to work. When Tosh went around to check his flat it had been emptied of all personal effects. After a day of increasingly lurid speculation his officers were told that he'd been placed on Special Duties.  In Jack Meadows' words,

"Look, he was here – and now he's not."

In fact, he would spend the next five years in deep cover, infiltrating a gang involved in organised crime in Manchester, and as he would later remark,

"Things happen to you during five years undercover."

What did happen? Well, there we are left largely to speculate. We know Burnside worked his way up to being the right hand man of Phil Ryan. We know he fell in love with the wife of another villain. We know, because he told us so, that there were times when he started to wonder which side he was on. Precisely what he may have had to do to maintain his cover we don't know and perhaps it is best that way. These were people who played very hardball indeed and the risks he took trying to infiltrate this organisation must have been enormous. Living a lifestyle he could never emulate on a copper's wages and feeding off the adrenaline this sort of risk taking brings it is a wonder Burnside, a man his supervising officer and friend once described as liking to "...take a walk on the wild side", didn’t go native. Think about it – five years without family or friends, five years of living a lie with everyone, even your lover, five years of knowing your enemies could pull the trigger any day - and your supposed friends will do the same if they even suspect the truth.

It was 1998 when Burnside returned to Sun Hill - handcuffed and escorted by DS Boulton and DC Carver, having been arrested in Manchester by the National Crime Squad. A lot of things had changed. To the newer members of the nick he is "the stuff of legends" only whilst among those who knew him before there is discomfort, but surprisingly little disbelief, at the sight of him locked in a cell. Inevitably, of course we discover, as Burnside himself said,

"Things are not what they seem."

During his time undercover Burnside had been promoted in the field so it is actually Detective Chief Inspector Burnside whom Carver and Boulton blew out, and almost got killed. The two episodes in which Burnside returns (Cast No Shadow 27 October and Betrayal 29 October, 1998) are interesting for the way in which both Carver and Boulton are compared and contrasted to Burnside. Jimmy is, as ever, the loyal disciple, the one who is always on Burnside's side. In fact Jimmy could be said to be the son that Burnside never had – but is the cynical Boulton, of whom Burnside says, "That's what we used to call an attitude problem," who reminds Burnside of himself. For both Burnside and Boulton "...winning isn't everything, it's the only thing."

With his work in Manchester finished and his girlfriend dead, Burnside put his hand up for the Crime OCU job and got it, thus ensuring he would be popping in and out of Sun Hill for some time to come. Maybe he was ready to come home – and home meant more than just London or the Met. Burnside was very much the cat who walked by himself, even before this stint undercover, but now he's known what it is like to be truly alone it isn't surprising if he sees Sun Hill nick as home and the CID there as family.

However, five years undercover does change you and less than two years after he came out of deep cover Burnside headed back closer to the action. In July 2000 he transferred to the National Crime Squad, which has been described as the British answer to America's FBI. This move is documented in our Burnside episode reviews.

Over the years Burnside has proved consistently unlucky in love. Oh, certainly there have been women - and with those eyes and that smile who can wonder at that? - but a settled relationship has always evaded him (or did he evade it?). There was a childless marriage earlier in his career but it didn't last. As mentioned, he did think June was rather tasty but she - foolish girl - gave him the big E. When he arrives as DI it is obvious that Burnside still has feelings for Christine Frazer but, divorced or not, for her not enough has changed. Then there was the slag's wife about whom Ted Roach turns out to be all too right - she isn't going to live on a DI’s salary. There is also a succession of rough-edged blondes with a soft spot for 'Frankie'; barmaids, informers, and other people who live on the grey edge of criminality. If there is no one who matters, there are plenty that are worth a second look - or more.

When Burnside meets Kim Hyde while he's undercover in Manchester it is probably as close as he's ever been to happiness, even though she is also the wife of a criminal he is investigating. Whether he would have had to choose between her and the Job is debatable, and which he would have chosen even more so. As it is Kim meets a tragic end, leaving Burnside with nothing but a feeling of guilt and a sense of protectiveness towards her little sister.

In general Burnside isn't prejudiced - if you're scum you're scum and if you're one of his you're one of his - but he does admit to a problem with the Scottish. Burnside claims to have never forgiven them for Bannockburn. Oddly enough, this prejudice only seems to afflict him when confronted by Meadows wishing Duncan Lennox on him to try and keep him on the straight and narrow, or when dealing with his antithesis, Alistair. Alan Woods for example, rarely seemed to be a problem. Alistair, of course, is everything that Burnside isn't - highly educated, cultured, the new face of policing, not much of a drinker or a ladies man, a true child of PACE, a SNAG and a wearer of woolly vests. In fact, Alistair pretty much came with a 'please bully me' sign and Burnside was willing to oblige.

Like a lot of bullies, though, Burnside respects those who stand up to him; which is why Viv Martella could usually get away with more than anyone else could. From her first day in CID, when Burnside patted her on the bottom and she threatened to break his nose if he did it again, there was always respect between those two. It wasn't a smooth relationship – both were fiery, self-willed, opinionated and stubborn – but if anyone really was a 'baby Burnside' I think it was Martella. Martella was shot and killed while doing a routine query on a van after Burnside had thrown her off a raid because she was late for the briefing (The Short Straw 26 March, 1993). Burnside responded in typical Burnside fashion – refusing to say the right things or conform to the accepted norms of mourning. Famously, he said of Martella,

"We've already lost one silly bitch today."

Meadows said he had a singular view of human nature and Burnside responded that maybe he was just more honest than other people. He didn't go over for drinks, just as years later he didn't attend his girlfriend's funeral, but the image of Burnside, in a deserted and shadowed CID office, packing up Martella's personal possessions still stands in my mind as a definition of desolation.

For a final word on Burnside let's go back to Chris Ellison,

"I love Burnside because he's such an unmitigated bastard. Single-minded and although there's always talk about him being corrupt, on the take, I find Frank a very moral character. He believes in justice for all - everybody gets it in the neck from him, he doesn't care whether they're black, white, yellow, rich, poor, male or female."

Want to know where I got my 'facts' from? Want to disagree with my version of the truth? Have some more information to add? E-mail me!

Researched and written by Avon, © September 2000

Back to top