A reboot of classic police procedural The Bill is said to be in development for UKTV.

The drama was an integral part of the ITV schedules for 27 years from 1983 to 2010, at its peak regularly drawing over 10 million viewers.

Last year it emerged that three of the original cast - Graham Cole (PC Tony Stamp), Trudie Goodwin (Sergeant June Ackland) and Mark Wingett (DC Jim Carver) - had been holding talks about a revival, potentially for Channel 5, although news of the project later went cold.

A report in The Sun today said that a reboot is now back on the cards at broadcaster UKTV, which already runs repeats of The Bill on its Drama channel.

The network subsequently denied the report, however industry magazine Broadcast says that "very formative" plans are afoot at production company Euston Films which could see the show make a comeback in some form.

UKTV has been steadily growing its original content in recent years, enjoying ratings success with crime programming such as Annika, Ragdoll and Traces.