BBC1 - Silent Witness

Yes it's back!! And with a bang!! Wednesday night saw the return of the long running series which started way back in the year of 1996. Back then it was the well known Amanda Burton playing the lead of Sam Ryan. She was then joined further down the line in 2002 with William Gaminara as Leo Dalton and Tom Ward as Harry Cunningham. Sam finally left in series 8 and that was when we met up with new character Nikki Alexander played be Emilia Fox. Although at first she was a palaeontologist and only enlisted to help analyse bones. It's been just over a year since the drama has been on our telly ... more

Silent Witness has now become a relatively long running BBC crime series. The show stars Amanda Burton as Dr Sam Ryan, a criminal pathologist who usually plays the key role in solving a featured crime – in most episodes a murder. The storylines involved in most episodes tend to be nothing more unusual than any other crime series. As the stories develop, there are the usual token twists and convolutions that you would expect from any classic “whodunnit”. Of course, where the series differs is that much of the investigative work is actually completed by Dr Ryan. So is the ... more

BACKGROUND This BBC1 series started in about 1997 and it originally centred around Professor Sam Ryan (Amanda Burton). She worked as a pathologist ie did post mortems on dead bodies. Usually, there was a crime involved and she found out what happened to the victim or victims, often ignoring the instructions of higher (usually male) members of staff. As Dead Ringers put it "My name is Professor Sam Ryan and I'm always right". Since Amanda Burton left last year, "Silence Witness" has become a much more ensemble piece and I feel it benefits from this. The people seem more human without their ... more

The SILENT WITNESS series from the BBC is based around the central character of Dr Sam Ryan (Amanda Burton), a top forensic pathologist who inevitably plays a central role in solving the many cases that come her way. The series is adapted from the novels of Nigel Mcrery. Dr Ryan, originally a home office pathologist working in Cambridge (coincidentally where she graduated from - not just anybody is our Sam) to progress to become a high ranking professor and lecturer at London University in the most recent programmes. But she still finds time to solve those muders with a damn site more speed ... more

A detective show with a twist.I started watching the show last season and nearly died when i heard it was returning to BBC1! The only issue with the show is the constant two-part episodes... yes this builds tension and the complicated plots often require the 2 hours, however I am the least patient person to walk the earth and can't take the suspense!An interesting slant in my opinion, is the involvement with the police/pathologists lives. i feel other programmes of this genre become to focused on the murderer and victims, but I like knowing who Harry and Leo have kissed, that Nicky's dad died ... more