SILENT NIGHTS

Emilia Fox and her trusty team move to a dark and dangerous new city...

- MICHAEL DARLING

It's 30 years since Silent Witness made its debut on BBC1, and to mark the anniversary, it's all change for forensic pathologist Dr Nikki Alexander (Emilia Fox) and her team when the new series relocates to Birmingham.

At the end of the previous season, Nikki was summoned to the Home Office and asked to set up a forensic centre of excellence based out of Birmingham General Hospital – but only if Harriet Maven (Maggie Steed) remained in charge.

Now, as the new run of five stories told over 10 episodes begins, we find Nikki and her colleagues – which also include her pathologist husband Jack Hodgson (David Caves) and crime analyst Kit Brooks (Francesca Mills) – solving more complex murder cases from a new base, the Sir William Bowman Centre of Excellence in Birmingham.