BBC reveal what lays ahead in Silent Witness
The 26th series will air on BBC One next year
Two new recruits joining Dr Nikki Alexander (Emilia Fox) and Jack Hodgson (David Caves) for five contemporary stories, told over ten episodes.
Emilia Fox:
“Because we had a slight change of format for series 25 and a great celebration with the return of Sam Ryan (Amanda Burton), we wanted to open the new series with an epic story. The writers of episode one Dudi Appleton and Jim Keeble, who have written standout stories before, including “Awakening” set in Mexico and “Shadows,” about a school shooting, and many, many others, wanted to write about the Ndrangheta. It’s great taking the Lyell into that criminal underworld of the mafia.
“Luckily Silent Witness can explore epic stories or slightly more chamber pieces or new topical news stories.”
The prime time crime drama Silent Witness returns in January as Aki Omoshaybi (The Pursuit Of Love, Queens Of Mystery, Real) plays Gabriel Folukoya, an academic, neurologist and pathologist who has spent much of his career in innovative research, primarily in the field of data analysis.
Amanda Burton returned as Professor Sam Ryan in the 25th anniversary series
The new series sees Jack’s niece Cara Connelly (Rhiannon May) return as a more regular character; arriving unexpectedly from Belfast to announce she is starting a university course in Criminology.
Silent Witness’ 25th-anniversary series launched in May 2022 and is one of the top five BBC scripted titles of the year so far, with episode one consolidating to 8.3 million viewers across its first 30 days while the show is currently enjoyed in 235 territories worldwide including – Australia – ABC and BBC First, US- BritBox, Germany- ZDF, Sweden SVT. Past series of Silent Witness are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
David Caves:
“We kick off with a mafia story. It’s great to start off with something big and cinematic like that. The faceless aspect of this enemy is fun. They’re this threat in the background, but you never see who they are or who’s in charge. That’s very timely, isn’t it? In these kinds of areas, you don’t know who’s the puppet master in the background. With these big corporations, you’re never clear where the money’s coming from, what it’s doing and what hands it’s passing through. I thought that was an excellent way to open the series.”
