Sergeant Bob Cryer    played by Eric Richard

First appearance   Funny Ol’ Business – Cops and Robbers (16/10/84)     

Tough but fair, Sergeant Bob Cryer was a reliable, dedicated old-school policeman who could see trouble coming. Like Dixon of Dock Green before him, he'd been around for a lifetime - Cryer, an ex-squaddie, was at Sun Hill for 17 years. Bob was happily married to wife Shirley with whom he had two children (his son Patrick was once charged with causing a girl's death by dangerous driving). Although he was on equal footing with the other two Sergeants on the Relief, Cryer was tacitly accepted as the father figure of the station. He was respected by all as tough, good-humoured, with a wealth of experience of life and an unshakeable moral code.

The PCs looked up to him and would go to him with their problems. Being in the Army for a while as a young man made him a strong believer in discipline tempered by pragmatism. However, Cryer was not free from self-doubt. Although he never had ambitions to rise above Sergeant, he couldn't escape an occasional feeling that he was stuck in a rut; and as time went by he found he had less patience with inept young constables.

Ever since shooting dead an armed robber (whose gun turned out not to be loaded), Bob was uneasy about firearms and they returned to haunt him when he was accidentally shot in the side by PC Dale Smith after being taken hostage at a school. Ironically it was Cryer who had pushed Smith to join SO19 in the first place. Chandler seized the opportunity to invalid him out of the force and Bob left Sun Hill. He later returned for the memorial service of the officers who died in the station fire, and then to help his niece Roberta solve a crime.