Silent Witness

But, this show is gripping and engaging. The science fascinates me. I admit the first few seasons focusing on Sam Ryan were ok for the most part but I was glad of the switch to character driven storytelling when Dr. Ryan decided that her story ended when she found what happened to her family. When the storyline started to evolve into more interesting and diverse characters, then is where my interest started to catch fire. There is a mountain of backstory in each and every script, and if you want to catch it all you must pay very close attention. I love Britbox, it's pretty cool. Here's hoping for season 27. Wow. That's a lot of seasons.

The last two series have let it down, unfortunately! Writing has gone awry and some of the actors cannot act. Lucky there are still two stalwarts left acting!

Not only a good program - except for some things like the pathologists questioning witnesses and such - but also a great history lesson if one is able to binge from the beginning. Suddenly mobile phones start showing up, computers appear, the screens of said computers go from huge monsters to slimmer ones, and so on. Well spent time if you are interested in such! Sadly the later years has seen a more American touch, but still way better than what is released over there.

Silent Witness is a good British crime drama. The acting is decent, the scripts are okay(but sometimes verge on dodgy), and it keeps you interested in the story. As in all good crime dramas it's often quite difficult to accurately guess 'whodunnit'.

However I'm stunned to read some of the other reviewers who describe it as realistic. Realistic?!? I don't think so ...

I'm sure Forensics and pathology is a hugely interesting and rewarding career, exciting in it's own way. I'm also equally sure that they don't assume control of police investigations, interrogate suspects and get so embroiled in the culprits or victims private lives that they often find themselves staring down the barrel of a gun or two.

In this respect it's hugely unrealistic - almost as unrealistic as the thought that anyone as whiny, interfering and annoying as Dr Nikki Alexander (played by Emilia Fox) wouldn't have been locked in a laboratory cupboard and forgotten about just to give everyone some respite.

Amanda Burton's Professor Sam Ryan is a clever, highly-intelligent and sometimes intimidating coroner and professor at London University. Her professional qualifications set her apart from other coroners in the area, and so she is regularly called upon to assist the police at homocide crime scenes and in subsequent autopsies. In the style of a murder-cop show starring someone besides a cop, Professor Ryan manages to solve all of the cases herself, only occasionally calling on the aid of one of the actual police officers. This series is very often intense and graphic during some of the autopsy scenes, but it is consistently well-written and well-acted. Very little of Sam Ryan's private life leaks into the series, and the series' primary focus on the murder in question is somewhat unusual to this genre. When a glimpse of Professor Ryan's personal life is revealed to the audience, it leaves them curious for more. Silent Witness is a very well-written show and I highly recommend it when it next appears in reruns!