BBC One’s popular drama Silent Witness returns in January to celebrate its 20th anniversary with five thrilling new contemporary stories that start among the familiar landscapes of London and end up in the dusty scrubland of Mexico.
To reach twenty series of anything is an incredible feat and to celebrate, the cast (Emilia Fox, David Caves, Richard Lintern and Liz Carr) have come together for a celebratory image.
Once the new series airs, Emilia Fox would have starred in 126 episodes following her first appearance as Nikki Alexander in series 8, in the episode Nowhere Fast, before becoming a permanent fixture at the Lyell Centre and taking over from Amanda Burton who played Sam Ryan.
Guest stars throughout its 20-year history have included Idris Elba, Benedict Cumberbatch, Daisy Ridley, Nicholas Hoult, Jack Dee, Tamsin Egerton, Jason Watkins, Andrew Sachs and Emily Mortimer and since its beginning in 1996, there have been 370 episodes of Silent Witness, 380 episodes once series 20 airs.
In the shows twenty year history it has been sold into 235 territories, with strong audiences in Germany and Norway, and here’s a first look at the new series including that celebratory image...
In the first episode, Nikki is brought face-to-face with the dilemma of how to practically help those that are here illegally. She forms a bond with a young Syrian refugee in a story that takes us from the City of London to the refugee camps in Northern France.