NEW SUPERINTENDENT FOR SUN HILL (4/7/02)

This article is taken from today's Daily Mail newspaper:

THE Bill has picked a black actor to play the new boss of Sun Hill nick, as part of its drive to bring ITV's cop show up to date with the nation's multi-ethnic society.

Cyril Nri will replace Steven Hartley, who plays Supt Tom Chandler (who will shoot himself dead after his lover, Debbie McAllister, tells him she is pregnant with his baby).

"Cyril starts filming any day now," I am told. "He feels privileged to have got the part."

Nri's CV shows he is an accomplished stage actor whose West End performances have been described by the critics as "solid" and "strong" - and his thespian skills were undoubtedly stretched to the limit two years ago, when he appeared in Channel 5's soap, Family Affairs.

For what it's worth, a spokeswoman at the Police Superintendents' Association tells me there are "around 20" black superintendents in England and Wales, out of a total of 1,300.