User Reviews

This show is a favourite of mine. I'm rarely bored watching it, but anyone thinking it's realistic must be high as a kite.

It has good pace and throws enough red herrings in the mix to keep me (usually) unsure as to who did what and how it will all pan out.

However, you do have to swallow the idea of a forensic team that could easily be confused with a posse of rogue policemen. These people don't just do forensic science and make occasional court appearances. They barge past detectives to interrogate witnesses (the detectives never seem to mind this) and chase and tackle suspects. They have guns held to their heads every so often. They get out there and meet all the players, sometimes even date them. Some of them do it all tottering around in high heels. It's utterly ridiculous but the success of the show testifies to its dependable entertainment value. Enjoy with a large grain of salt.

This series continues to grow in interest, quality and plot lines.

Whenever people rave about CSi, (which I consider it, and it's even lamer derivatives to be THE worst drama on TV), I always point them to Silent Witness. It follows accurate pathology, police routine and technology, and doesn't talk down, or dumb down. If you want to see pathologists at work, then you are going to see cadavers opened up. (That's what they do.) If you don't like that sort of thing, stop complaining that it's sick and go back to washed-out, inaccurate American cop shows that wouldn't know a dead body if it jumped up and bit them. (Or just lay there looking pretty with a cloth laid over their naughty bits.)

I always enjoy this show for the following reasons: It gives a wonderful insight, if simplified, into the world of forensic pathology, an area in which I would love to work.

Each new case is original, well constructed and thoughtfully presented. They remain topical, without the feeling of an after-school special relating to current affairs.

Unlike shoddy American drama, the focus is on the storyline and character development. The reason that dialogue is not snappy and constant is because it would turn the characters into one of the "Friends" brigade - where cheap laughs are more important than the integrity of the character.

The show is challenging - plots and subplots intertwine cleverly, meaning it's not a "background" show, but one which is completely consuming for the viewer.

The honest make-up/autopsy scenes. These just fit, without being sensationalist, and add to the realistic feeling of the show.

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!

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.

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.

The stories and characters are well developed. The theme music reminds me of something you would hear at a seance. I have to fast forward through it.

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.

I have literally grown up with Silent Witness, it's got some incredible staying power. Hard to believe it started back in 1996 and is still going strong twenty years later. Many thought that Series 8 would mark the end of the show with Amanda Burton's departure. I remember at the time being totally gutted she'd decided to leave, but cleverly Emilia Fox was brought in and the show was reborn.

At times it's a tough watch, some of the stories are quite dark and harrowing, Redhill is a good example. Sometimes they are a little too graphic, though in recent times they seem to have toned down some of the nasties, A Guilty Mind is very graphic. The series has never shied away from being controversial.

It's great that viewing figures are stronger now then ever before, showing audiences still love it and want more. We've been treated to some incredible stories over the years, some highlights include Shadows, Falling Angels and The Prodigal. My favourite story being Bloodlines, which is an incredible piece of television, it has it all, excitement, suspense, drama, an emotional connection perhaps not previously achieved in the series.

I understand it faces criticism for being inaccurate, I don't think it strives to be, and I doubt Pathologists solve as many crimes, neither of these points matter one bit, it's a show designed purely for entertainment....

Long may Silent Witness continue. 10/10

The writing for this show got bad very early in the shows history. By the time Amanda Burton left it was just all downhill. You have to turn off your brain to watch this show. If you want to watch a show about superhero forensic pathologists this show is for you. It reminds me of Scooby-Doo. It gets a 5 rating only because the first two years of this show were quite good.

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!

How could I've missed this Brit Drama for 21 seasons! Hell, that's just a little under my age, cough, cough. In all seriousness, I've been fixated on British and Aussie crime dramas lately as American acting has been abysmal lately you see. The big thing I like about the Brits is their clever repartee and mannerisms. Remember the Connery eye brow move? You see! Well, I'm off to the first season, and first episode...so see ya in 21 years! Cheers! Murf

Silent Witness was ground-breaking television at launch way back in 1996 with an intriguing and novel concept that now seems commonplace. Through the twenty-five seasons of its existence, it has successfully reinvented and rejuvenated itself with new casting and direction like a modern-day ship of Theseus.

In general it has been exciting, entertaining and enjoyable, and even educational at times. There have been some ups and downs of course, with season twenty-four being an extreme nadir following several questionable casting choices, some weak stories and it felt like the thing had simply run-out-of-steam over such a long time.

Season twenty-five, however, reintroduces the talented Amanda Burton and a stronger and more interesting storyline which shows promise. Perhaps life can be infused into the corpse of 24!

We found this series on BritBox and decided to give it a try. The first few seasons seemed to us to be an assortment of characters (actors) in search of a storyline, instead of the other way round. It's as if the writers and producers were given the go-ahead to make the show and were unprepared -- and it took them a long time to "catch up" and make the stories even halfway plausible.

However (and I have to mention this), the theme music is horrid. The British must like this stuff, as there have been other British TV shows with execrable music ("Unforgotten", anyone?). Every time we start or end an episode, it's like fingernails on a blackboard to our ears. Thank God for fast forward.

At any rate, we are up to Series 7, so hopefully the show will get better.

This show makes the British cops look so inept the pathologists have to solve all the crimes. So if you can suspend realty and all you know to be true this show is actually pretty good. I enjoyed most of the 22 seasons.

Historically, I never watched this because I couldn't stand the main character played by Amanda Burton. I started watching the latest series (27) having forgotten about that, and got quite drawn into it. Then I backtracked to an earlier series (25) featuring the new set up along with the return of the Amanda Burton character (now a very successful business woman - well, she would be, wouldn't she?) and remembered why I didn't watch it before. She is still playing the repellant, hard faced, egocentric prima donna that I remember from series one. The rest of the cast I thought were OK. It's probably quite a long way off-mark about how forensics actually work, but as drama it works quite well.

Watching from the beginning on Britbox, I am now in Series or Season Four. I didn't mind the first three seasons, it was something to watch while eating dinner, but it was pretty much a soap opera, with some detective work thrown in. I've now seen four episodes, two two-part stories, in Season 4, and what a difference a season makes! It's as though the show has found its way. No soap, just good, hard story-telling. To fellow Americans who may not have come across it, I recommend it. Just stick with it through the first three seasons.

Under Amanda Burton, it was must see TV. Emilia Fox was an initially interesting replacement but after 18 series, both she and her character have long become stale. Unless the show finds a new lead character, its days are numbered.

It needs an urgent revamp. And fast.

I have always loved 'Silent Witness, but what has gone wrong with season twenty-six? Only Nicky and Jack remain from the previous series, and none of the new additions actually add anything.

I thought the first story 'The Penitent' was pretty bad, but the plotline for the second story 'Familiar Faces' was ridiculously convoluted. Coupled with some dodgy casting, hammy acting, and the dreadful, overwhelming and portentous music they made the last two episodes very nearly unwatchable. For the first time, I am considering abandoning the series altogether. Can we have our old 'Silent Witness' back, please?