Silent Witness viewers left raging at BBC drama and fume ‘the budget must be under a tenner’ after baffling decision
SILENT Witness viewers have been left raging at the drama after picking up on a baffling decision by show bosses.
The long-running drama, starring actress Emilia Fox, returned for its 28th series at the turn of the New Year with Dr. Nikki Alexander leading the investigations into even more grisly deaths.
The action was no different in the latest episode as Dr Nikki got to work investigating the gory murder of a property letting agent.
He was discovered bludgeoned to death by a hammer inside his newly built property.
However, fans were quick to call out a huge flaw in both the show’s storyline and its production.
Baffled BBC watchers could not understand why the investigating team did not switch on any lights in the house to aide their discoveries and instead opted to use torches.
As a result of this confusing decision, it meant that all the scenes were extremely dark and dimly lit which left fans at home struggling to see any of the all-important action.
It led them to come to the conclusion that the Beeb’s budget did not stretch to sensible lighting for the series as one fuming fan said: “The lighting budget for this series must be under a tenner.”
Comments continued to flood in as another wrote: “Why don’t they put the lights on?”
A third shared: “Why don’t they put the lights on instead of using the torches?”
Before a fourth pointed out: “So the new build has its water connected but not it’s electric?”
The programme’s return kicked off with a bang last week as viewers were left “traumatised” thanks to terrifying scenes in which two characters were killed off.
Elsewhere, other scenes saw Dr Nikki and Jack getting seriously steamy as they romped in the office just moments into the first episode.
In positive news for fans, the long running BBC crime drama has already been granted a series 29, before this series had even aired.
New episodes of Silent Witness are on BBC One on Monday and Tuesday nights at 9pm.
Previous episodes are available to watch on BBC iPlayer.
Silent Witness cast past and present
Silent Witness has been on our screens for 28 years and now with the next two series guaranteed, we look back on the characters past and present.
By Donna Richardson
PAST
Amanda Burton
Amanda who was in Brookside and Peak Practice before becoming Sam Ryan in Silent Witness, was in the very first episode until series eight episode two. She went on to become Clare Blake in ITV’s The Commander
Tom Ward
Tom was Dr Harry Cunningham from 2002 to 2012, joining in the sixth season of the crime drama. Prior to this he played the role of George Osborne in Vanity Fair and had a role in Anna Karenina.
William Gaminara
William played Leo Dalton in the 11th series of the show. He exited the show in 2013 to pursue other roles.
Liz Carr
Liz played the role of Clarissa Mullery from 2013 to 2020. She went on to star in the OA as Dr Marlow Rhodes and in 2021 joined the cast of the Witcher and then Good Omens in the same year. She was also Judge Gamble in Loki.
PRESENT
Emilia Fox
Emilia has played the role of Nikki Alexander for 19 years. Before that she was in Pride and Prejudice and Rebecca and other drama adaptations. She has also been in starring film roles in The Pianist amongst others.
David Caves
David Caves is Jack Hodgson and has been in the show since 2012, appearing in the first episode of series 16 called Change.
Rhiannon May
Rhiannon first appeared in Silent Witness Series 24. She is Jack’s neice Cara Connelly for three seasons
Aki Omoshaybi
Aki is Professor Gabriel Folukoya in the show, a neurologist and pathologist. He arrived in the first episode of Silent Witness series 26. Elsewhere he appeared in Star Wars Episode VIII.