Yahoo News Why Silent Witness is still compelling TV after 200 episodes
“The concept of the ‘silent witness’ somehow speaking is a really powerful and massively flexible concept,” – Richard Lintern, aka Thomas Chamberlain in Silent Witness.
Silent Witness kicks off its 22nd series tonight on BBC One, and later this month will celebrate its 200th episode. Proving just how flexible its format is, watch the very first episode now and it feels in some ways like a completely different show – perhaps unsurprisingly there’s no cast member who’s stayed the course.
What hasn’t changed though is the crusading zeal for the truth from the dedicated team of forensic pathologists at the Lyell Centre – and the likelihood of at least one shot per episode that’s going to have audiences peering through their fingers.
Related: Silent Witness star Emilia Fox explains why the series is still as gripping as ever after 22 years
Across its long, long life, Silent Witness has addressed present-day concerns, and always feels to the audience as if it’s dealing with matters drawn from the headlines. It started as gruellingly as it meant to go on – the very first case featured the body of a six-year-old girl who’d been abused with cigarette ends, while the third centred around the death of a gay man in police custody.
The second story in the 2019 season explores the effects of drugs and drug dealing on school children, families and communities. “When the series comes out, you’ll think ‘Oh my goodness, there was a case like this in the news last year!’," says Liz Carr, who plays technician Clarissa Mullery. "But often these stories are written months before these real stories are headlines. We have almost an uncanny crystal ball-like ability to tell stories that are very topical and relatable.”
That topicality has even meant sometimes making viewers feel uncomfortable. While it hasn’t reached Luther-like levels of violence (and attendant complaints), Silent Witness has pushed the envelope, notably with the 2012 episode 'Redhill', set in a jail where a child molester has been found dead.
(Though the violence displayed by one of the detectives to his former lover “was not an attempt to gratuitously shock the audience”, according to the official BBC response to complaints.)
Nigel McCrery devised the series concept in the mid-1990s, based on his own experiences as a police officer, and while it was originally a star vehicle for Amanda Burton, it evolved into an ensemble piece with Burton’s departure and the arrival of Emilia Fox as new forensic pathologist Nikki Alexander.
But no matter whose name is first in the credits, the victim – the 'silent witness' of the title – is always the focal point of the episode. "Finding the clues through the body is really the heart of the series, allowing the Lyell team to piece together the last moments of someone’s life and being able to give answers to loved ones," Fox explains.
That’s not to say the interactions of the team investigating aren’t important to the drama as well. "We have a historical fan base who support the show," Carr notes. “I think they stay with us because they are invested in the characters – we have great characters who are very different and keep evolving. We don’t stay the same. It’s a dynamic show in that sense."
That evolution has been apparent throughout the show’s history. By the time pre-production was under way on the eighth series, Burton had decided to go. “I always know when it is time to move on and this is it,” she told Radio Times. “I am returning for the first two episodes in the new series so that loyal viewers can see Sam get a really good send-off.”
Series eight was something of a transition, with Fox’s replacement arriving three episodes after Burton went, amid declarations from the producers that the show would be very different going forward. William Gaminara’s boss Leo Dalton was a mainstay from seasons 6 to 16, leaving in a very dramatic explosion at the end of his final series.
Nikki Alexander had an intriguing relationship with Tom Ward’s Harry Cunningham, who departed a year earlier, and is now involved with the American ambassador to the UK (Michael Landes) following transatlantic investigations over the past couple of years.
David Caves’ forensic pathologist Jack Hodgson and Liz Carr’s technician Clarissa Mullery have since become core to the show, with Richard Lintern’s Thomas Chamberlain now head of the Lyell Centre. This allowed the producers to give the show an overhaul (particularly with regard to the team dynamics) while still retaining the core elements that have kept it on prime-time television for over two decades – its topical storylines, compelling characters and refusal to pull its punches.
Paul L Kirk, the American forensic chemist who unwittingly gave the series its name, once said, “Wherever a criminal steps, whatever he touches, whatever he leaves, even unconsciously will serve as a silent witness against him." Long may Nikki Alexander and her team be there to listen to that witness’s testimony.
Silent Witness returns to BBC One tonight at 9pm.
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