Silent Witness is a long-running British television thriller series made by the BBC's in-house Drama Serials production department, and screened on the BBC One channel. First broadcast in 1996, it is still running as of 2006 with a tenth series that started broadcasting on 16 July 2006. The drama itself gets very good viewing figures, as on the tenth series (2006), it normally attracted around six million viewers in the UK (from MediaGuardian.co.uk's overnight report). BARB later revealed the final figures, proving the drama's higher successes as they received around seven million viewers each episode. In the United States, the show airs during "Mystery Monday" on BBC America. Image File history File links Bbcsw. ... The police procedural is a sub-genre of the mystery story which tries to demonstrate accurately the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. ... Parkinson, Burton and Grant in 2001 This article is about the actress. ... Emilia Rose Elizabeth Fox (born July 31, 1974 in London, England) is a British actress possibly best known for her role as pathologist Nikki Alexander in television series Silent Witness, having joined the cast on the departure of Amanda Burton. ... William Gaminara is a British actor and screenwriter, best known for playing pathologist Dr Leo Dalton in the BBCs Silent Witness (2002 to date). ... Centuries: 1st century BCE - 1st century - 2nd century Decades: 10s 20s 30s 40s 50s - 60s - 70s 80s 90s 100s 110s Years: 63 64 65 66 67 - 68 - 69 70 71 72 73 Events June 9 - Roman Emperor Nero commits suicide. ... BBC One is the primary television channel of the BBC, and the first in the United Kingdom. ... is the 52nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, which is usually known as the BBC, is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion. ... BBC One is the primary television channel of the BBC, and the first in the United Kingdom. ... Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 197th day of the year (198th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays full 2006 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... BARB, the Broadcasters Audience Research Board, is the organisation that compiles television ratings in the UK. It was created to replace a previous system, where the BBC and ITV companies compiled their own ratings. ... BBC America is an American television network, owned and operated by BBC Worldwide, which was launched on March 29, 1998, available on both cable and satellite. ...

The programme originally followed the activities of a female pathologist, Dr Sam Ryan (who was promoted to professor part way through the series), played by Amanda Burton. However, Ryan's character departed early in the eighth series in 2004. There had been a succession of regular supporting characters, changing almost every series, but Dr Leo Dalton (William Gaminara) and Dr Harry Cunningham (Tom Ward), who were introduced in the sixth series in 2002, remained in the series and continued as lead characters following Ryan's departure, with Dalton replacing her as professor. A new character, Dr Nikki Alexander (Emilia Fox), was introduced to the team in the eighth series in 2004. She began as a palaeontologist, not a pathologist, and was originally enlisted by the team to help analyse bones. Alexander was later represented as having the necessary qualifications to fill the vacancy for a pathologist left by Professor Ryan, although she was initially stated to have a PhD in anthropology and not a medical qualification. She has, however, since been represented as medically-qualified. This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... The meaning of the word professor (Latin: one who claims publicly to be an expert) varies. ... Parkinson, Burton and Grant in 2001 This article is about the actress. ... William Gaminara is a British actor and screenwriter, best known for playing pathologist Dr Leo Dalton in the BBCs Silent Witness (2002 to date). ... Tom Ward (born 1971) is a British actor. ... Emilia Rose Elizabeth Fox (born July 31, 1974 in London, England) is a British actress possibly best known for her role as pathologist Nikki Alexander in television series Silent Witness, having joined the cast on the departure of Amanda Burton. ... A paleontologist carefully chips rock from a column of dinosaur vertebrae. ... PhD usually refers to the academic title Doctor of Philosophy PhD can also refer to the manga Phantasy Degree This is a disambiguation page — a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ...

Some early series were set in Cambridge, but it relocated to London after Dr Ryan had a serious brush with the authorities. Geography Status City (1951) Region East of England Admin. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...

The programme is typically made up of a series of two-part stories, usually with six to eight episodes per series. 2006 saw five two-part stories, making ten episodes in total.

The series is often criticised for apparently showing the pathologist actively investigating the crime. This characteristic of pathologist as urban hero follows on earlier similar series such as Quincy, M.E. on US TV (itself based on an earlier Canadian TV series Wojeck) and is also shared by the continuing CBS series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Quincy, M.E. (or simply Quincy) is the name of a United States television series that aired from October 3, 1976, to May 11, 1983, on NBC (and can be seen in the UK on ITV3 and intermittently on the ITV Network, as well as in syndication on MeTV in... Wojeck was a Canadian dramatic television series, which aired on the CBC from 1966 to 1968. ... CBS Broadcasting, Inc. ... CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is a popular Alliance Atlantis/CBS police procedural television series, running since October 2000, about a team of forensic scientists. ...

The theme music for Silent Witness is a song called "Silencium" by John Harle, and is available from Amazon. In 1998, writer John Milne received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for the Series 2 episode "Blood, Sweat, and Tears". The Edgar Allan Poe Awards (popularly called the Edgars), named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America. ... Mystery Writers of America is an organization for mystery writers, based in New York. ...

Parodies

The approach of the show, portraying pathologist as having an active role in the crime investigation as parodied by British comedic duo French and Saunders as "Witless Silence". French & Saunders is a British sketch comedy television show starring and written by comedy team Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, and is also the name by which they are known on the rare occasions when they appear elsewhere as a double act. ...

Dead Ringers also parodied Silent Witness, with Sam Ryan as an overconfident pathologist who makes incredibly specific guesses about the body; for example, "Just by looking I can tell that this was a man, aged 35-37, called John, having an affair with his secretary", only to be proved wrong by one of her assistants ("no, that's an onion bagel I got for your lunch"). She then refuses to accept her mistake claiming, "Wrong? Oh, I'm never wrong. I'm forensics professor Sam Ryan, Ph.D.". Dead Ringers is a UK radio and television comedy impressions show broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Two. ...

Episodes

Series six to eight Cast: Gaminara and Ward with Amanda Burton

• Note: All episodes in series 1, 2 and 6 to present series are two parts (60 x 2 parts = 120 minutes in total for each episode). Series 3, 4 and 5 are all 120 minutes episodes each (ie. two parts joined as one for each episode).

Series 1: Image File history File links Leo_sam_harry. ... Image File history File links Leo_sam_harry. ...

• Buried Lies (premiere episode, Amanda Burton's first appearance, her associate(s) were normally guest stars)
• Long Days, Short Nights
• Darkness Visible
• Sins of the Father

Series 2:

• Blood, Sweat and Tears
• Cease upon the Midnight
• Only the Lonely
• Friends Like These

Series 3:

• An Academic Exercise
• Fallen Idol
• Divided Loyalties
• Brothers in Arms

Series 4:

• Gone Tomorrow
• A Kind of Justice
• A Good Body

Series 5:

• The World Cruise
• Two Below Zero
• Faith

Series 6:

• The Fall Out (William Gaminara and Tom Ward's first appearance, ensemble cast established)
• Kith and Kill
• Tell No Tales
• Closed Ranks

Series 7:

• Answering Fire
• Fatal Error
• Running on Empty
• Beyond Guilt

Series 8: Silent Witness ( 7 - 23 ) Answering Fire In this episode The First cut is the deepest is sung twice by Lily White alias Barry Helkins (played by the actor Dave Lynn). ...

• A Time to Heal (Amanda Burton's final appearance)
• Death by Water (Duo ensemble — Gaminara and Ward)
• Nowhere Fast (Emilia Fox's first appearance)
• Body 21

Series 9:

• Ghosts
• Choices
• The Meaning of Death
• Mind and Body

Series 10:

• Cargo
• Terminus
• Body of Work
• Supernova
• Schism

Series 11: Begins the week 25th - 31st August 2007

• Peripheral Vision: Part 1
• Peripheral Vision: Part 2

External links

• Silent Witness at bbc.co.uk
• Silent Witness at the Internet Movie Database
• Schism shooting script at BBC Writers Room