Silent Witness
DramaCrime1996Rated 7.6
Sam Ryan, a forensic pathologist, returns to Cambridge to teach and advise the police. Her first case is a young girl's body found in a river, and she wants an earlier child's death reopened.
Starring Emilia Fox, David Caves, William Gaminara
Next season
Season 30announced, no date yet
Weekly, last aired Mon, 2 Mar 2026
Is it for me?
Crime viewers who trust lab results over hunches, and want the dead treated with gravity, will settle in. Cases often dig up old deaths and buried history, and the pathologists carry their private lives into the room. In one early case, Sam tells a police surgeon off for walking onto a scene without protective clothing, and Amanda Burton plays her brisk and exacting with everyone.
Before you start
Cases run as two-part stories and the cast changes completely, so many viewers skip the early years for the later Lyell Centre team.
29 seasons, 268 episodes, 60 min each, about 267 hours so far
This show
Sam Ryan, a forensic pathologist, returns to Cambridge to teach and advise the police. Her first case is a young girl's body found in a river, and she wants an earlier child's death reopened.
Starring Emilia Fox, David Caves, William Gaminara
Is it for me?
Crime viewers who trust lab results over hunches, and want the dead treated with gravity, will settle in. Cases often dig up old deaths and buried history, and the pathologists carry their private lives into the room. In one early case, Sam tells a police surgeon off for walking onto a scene without protective clothing, and Amanda Burton plays her brisk and exacting with everyone.
Before you start
Cases run as two-part stories and the cast changes completely, so many viewers skip the early years for the later Lyell Centre team.
29 seasons, 268 episodes, 60 min each, about 267 hours so far
Season 30: nothing to list until it's dated
- E01Buried Lies, Part OneAired Wed 21 Feb
- E02Buried Lies, Part TwoAired Thu 22 Feb
- E03Long Days, Short Nights, Part OneAired Wed 28 Feb
- E04Long Days, Short Nights, Part TwoAired Thu 29 Feb
- E05Darkness Visible, Part OneAired Wed 13 Mar
- E06Darkness Visible, Part TwoAired Thu 14 Mar
- E07Sins of the Fathers, Part OneAired Wed 27 Mar
- E08Sins of the Fathers, Part TwoAired Thu 28 Mar
- S01E01Buried Lies, Part One21 Feb 1996
- S01E02Buried Lies, Part Two22 Feb 1996
- S01E03Long Days, Short Nights, Part One28 Feb 1996
- S01E04Long Days, Short Nights, Part Two29 Feb 1996
- S01E05Darkness Visible, Part One13 Mar 1996
- S01E06Darkness Visible, Part Two14 Mar 1996
- S01E07Sins of the Fathers, Part One27 Mar 1996
- S01E08Sins of the Fathers, Part Two28 Mar 1996