One strange accolade we got after the episodes broadcast was that Prime Minister David Cameron listed Shadows as his favourite piece of television of the year. We were also interested in how the police command structures would cope in a school multiple shooting scenario and were fortunate enough to interview the man who ran Gold Command in London on 7/7. We watched films like Gus Van Sant’s Elephant and the Cassavetes classic Two Minute Warning for influences. Our leads are pushed into using their superpowers to survive, save others and finally bring down the shooters. Whilst intricate procedure and tight forensics have their joys, we wanted to see if we could push the show into a seat-of-the-pants real-time thriller in which all the usual systems crashed at first contact with the enemy. With Shadows we wanted to write a totally immersive film that forced the characters out of their comfort zones.
#SILENT WITNESS SEASON 23 SERIES#
Series 13, Episodes 7 & 8 (first broadcast 28th & 29th January 2010) – by Jim Keeble and Dudi Appleton
Of all the fifteen (soon to be sixteen) episodes of Silent Witness I’ve written, this is the one I’m most proud of. The brilliant Douglas Mackinnon directed a wonderful cast including Emma Cunniffe, Danny Webb, Amita Dhiri, Shaun Parkes, Stephen Boxer and Eddie Marsan. The opening of the episode is, in my opinion, the best (and possibly most expensive) opening of Silent Witness ever. A dynamic and format that has endured to the present day. Up until now, Sam Ryan led the way but now we had a very different three-way dynamic. It was also an opportunity to establish how this series was going to work going forwards.
#SILENT WITNESS SEASON 23 FULL#
This was to be Nikki Alexander’s first full episode and it was really exciting to establish not only who she was and how her character would fit in with Leo and Harry. How do you die in the middle of rush hour London, and no-one know who you are? This mystery intrigued me as did the various survivors groups from a number of crashes and disasters that seemed to dominate the headlines at that time.Īdded to these true stories was the introduction of a new character. We’d been talking about my interest in The Kings Cross Fire where a man had been found but had remained unnamed and was known as Body 115 (his morgue number). I’d been told by the producer Nick Pitt that they had a bit of extra money to do something special. Series 8, Episodes 7 & 8 (first broadcast 25th & 26th September 2004) - by Michael Crompton Many of the writers involved have written an introduction to their own episode. The BBC Writersroom have made the scripts for these ten episodes available in their online script library. Nothing better illustrates the variety of the storytelling over the last quarter of a century than this list of 10 of Silent Witness’ most Memorable Episodes. Is it the perennial appeal of crime drama? Maybe because the forensic landscape from which it draws its stories keeps evolving too? Characters, perhaps? The steely strength of Sam Ryan? The bond deeper than friendship between Nikki and Jack? Clarissa’s wicked sense of humour?
After so many years, there are more than 200 episodes and they all seem remarkably – deliberately - different.
Possibly daunted by that extraordinary achievement, my answer keeps changing. Let me tell you, I’ve been asked this question a lot since joining the series in 2019, and even more so in the runup to the show’s 25th Anniversary. “Why do you think Silent Witness has been so successful?”
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