Life of crime

Emilia Fox on 20 years of playing Silent Witness' Dr Nikki Alexander

- IAN MACEWAN, RICHARD MCCLURE

Silent Witness Monday & Tuesday, 9pm, BBC1

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Emilia Fox's first appearance as forensic pathologist Dr Nikki Alexander in the long-running BBC crime drama Silent Witness.

The longest-serving cast member, Fox reunites with David Caves, who has played Nikki's partner and colleague Jack Hodgson since 2013, and relative Lyell Centre newbies Velvy Schur (Alastair Michael) and Professor Gabriel Folukoya (Aki Omoshaybi), for a 27th series of the evergreen show, which starts this week.

We caught up with the 49-yearold actor to pick over the bones of her ongoing love affair with Silent Witness...

What's the first two-part investigation in the new series about?