Silent witness

[lastqueenofscotland]

It’s back! Anyone else love this show?

I have enjoyed it up to this season but really not feeling the love at all now.

I wonder if it's been commissioned beyond the current one - it feels as if it's on its last legs.

I don't understand the hands being missing either - they weren't expecting the body to be found at all. He was reported missing and the insurance paid out as missing, presumed dead (used to be after 7 years - don't know if that's still the case).

The wife tried to cut the hands off before Concrete Man came round and hid the body. I don't know what the wife's original plans were before this though as body with its hands cut off would be a tricky one to explain. I can only assume she wasn't thinking straight (unsurprisingly!)

Last weeks episode had holes (would a woman who is clever enough to kill two people leaving zero forensic evidence whilst successfully framing two others really just lose her shit and stab a judge in a public place in broad daylight? Seems unlikely!) but this weeks was ridiculous!

Why did she steal a baby when she was already pregnant? If for the brother why was she looking after her? Was the sister's husband alive at the time or did she have fertility treatment after he died? If he was alive was he in on it? Otherwise how did they explain the baby? Why did they chop off the dad's hands? Seemed to add precisely zero to the storyline. Honestly, it's like the writers just can't be bothered! It wouldn't take a huge amount of thought to deal with these things!

So this weeks was a bit of a mixed bag wasn't it.

I think the premise of the storyline was great, I don't think many dramas have included cryogenics before so it was a twist I wasn't expecting! I think it all slotted in far too easily though and you can guess quickly in an episode if someone famous and recognisable is there at the start they're either the murderer or have a major part to play in it. 25 minutes into the second episode it was all but solved.

The negative was the Clarissa and her Mum. I understand to some extent we have to have some backdrop and depth to the main cast but this one was too much. We've already had Nikki earlier in the series and Jack and Thomas previously. I'd rather have more of the actual forensics and storyline and less of the characters personal life.

I started watching series 6 (all series from 6 onwards are on iPlayer) and remembered it from the first time round (2002)

A Fox & a Redgrave together-2 acting "dynasties"!

Gemma Redgrave was in the first ep of Lewis, wasn't she & Anastasia Hille who played Anne Carson was also in one?

I knew I recognised Anastasia Hille from something - she was Baptiste's long-suffering wife!!!

I knew who the perpetrator was almost as soon as I started watching but interesting twists though.

Well that was shit!
Ridiculous plot that I'm still not clear about but don't care. And the subplot theme mirroring the main story theme was a step too far. We had it last time with Nikki and her flashbacks and this week with Clarissa not wanting her mum to die.

I didn't find it touching, just over the top sentimental clap trap. The flashes of clarity her mum had at significant moments was irritating, but the penny for a toffee and the final words about her father were just ludicrous.

I thought the plot quite interesting in a not very deeply engaging way.

And its too clunky when they highlight one of the main cast's personal storyline. I suppose its not convenient to have a host of relatives hanging round the studio to make a one line appearance each episode, saying things like "had a nice day?" "did you buy milk on the way home". Although I am sure in the earlier (or mid episodes they did show how doing the work impacted on personal life. At that time poor Harry only had his mum to talk things over with!)

But for me the best part of was Jemma Redgrave. I like her character but felt it (she) had been in an earlier episodes. Presumably there are only so many senior detectives in London they can work with!

Have checked and I was wrong about Jemma Redgrave having been in Silent Witness before. But saw some promo pics and I think I got a bit carried aware by her suit with the very nice waistcost with some very interesting buttons.

She does seem to have been in about every tv dective series there has every been, and is currently the remote mother of the new vicar in Granchester.

And until someone on here mentioned it hadn't realised it was Louise Jameson playing Sue.

I get a bit distracted when I'm watching something and I'm trying to work out what I've seen an actor in before!
I knew that twins mum was a nanny in Brookside but what was the character's name?
And when there was a storyline about abuse in a children's home wasn't Clarissa having flashbacks about her being in one, yet it now seems that her mum had brought her up as a single parent.
Has anyone got a favourite episode? Mine is Fallen Angels, the really creepy one where the girl was murdering everyone involved in the decision to remove her baby into care/adoption. I've watched it 3 times and the ending always makes me

I knew that twins mum was a nanny in Brookside but what was the character's name?

She was involved in the first lesbian kiss with Anna Friel. She was Margaret (Anna Friel was Beth)

I googled her after the episode to work out where I knew her from.

Margaret! Thanks

I love Jemma Redgrave. Been a fan ever since that 90s drama where she was a female doctor in Victorian England.

So that was an episode packed with known actors (the carpark owner has also been in something 'big' recently, hasn't he?)

The car park owner has been in Casualty as Duffy's love interest.

That's where I knew him from!! Thank you, @LittleCandle.

I seem to permanently have IMDb open when watching half these tv programmes

I've found my people! I wasn't 100% focused on it this week, so I'm still a bit confused about how it all went down, so it's been really useful to read your thoughts, thanks guys!

One bit I'm still unsure about though.. wasn't the concrete builder man lending money to the guy who committed suicide? So his wife used the insurance money to pay builder man back. But how did she manage to persuade him to hide her husband's body? Just seemed ridiculously implausible.

I can usually never guess what is going to happen after the first episode (as a side point didn't they used to do a 'next time' preview at the end of the first ep - wonder why they did away with that?) but as soon as I saw the sister and wife stare each other out at the police station despite apparently not having seen each other for years, I knew the sister had to be involved.

Did he lend money or was that an excuse to cover the 10,000 that the wife/widow gave him for disposing of the body?

He leant money to Dead Man which he couldn't pay back.

He hid the body so that the insurance would pay out so that he would get paid back.

I think.

Oh yes, that makes much more sense!

Anyone else have the sister pegged straight away?

I did but for no real reason.