Silent Witness can be a bit hit & miss, especially if the team's personal issues get too much to the fore, or if they run off to do something particularly daft they ought to be leaving to the police.
However, I enjoyed everything about this episode, despite the series-typical gruesome plot points of course. But as I think another reviewer says, there's actually quite a lot of humour woven deftly in to the whole story (2 episodes, usually shown as one long feature these days in repeats), mostly in dialogue.
I especially liked the close protection officer assigned to Harry (Frank? It was hard to catch his name). He wasn't, as I half expected, a villain but in fact a knowledgeable, effective & loyal character I would happily have watched a great deal more of. And the pen thing was genius (& very funny).
Holly, the student/intern, was verging on weird, with her apparently boundless wide eyed enjoyment of the pathology dept. I wasn't expecting to find her getting killed, but more that she would turn out to be a killer. She seemed so enthusiastic about death, it felt as though she would make the step over the line herself! But then it started to seem that limelight would suit her even better. In the end though, it transpires that while perhaps she does want fame, it would be for journalism which is why she's easy for the policeman to manipulate into leaking false info.
It was nice to see the baddies get picked up at the end, though I felt getting a conviction might not be in the cards. The "ghost" of Holly lingering around was a nice touch & it's always nice to hear The Beatles' A Day in the Life, with the 4000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire line.
Possibly one of my favourite SW episodes.
However, I enjoyed everything about this episode, despite the series-typical gruesome plot points of course. But as I think another reviewer says, there's actually quite a lot of humour woven deftly in to the whole story (2 episodes, usually shown as one long feature these days in repeats), mostly in dialogue.
I especially liked the close protection officer assigned to Harry (Frank? It was hard to catch his name). He wasn't, as I half expected, a villain but in fact a knowledgeable, effective & loyal character I would happily have watched a great deal more of. And the pen thing was genius (& very funny).
Holly, the student/intern, was verging on weird, with her apparently boundless wide eyed enjoyment of the pathology dept. I wasn't expecting to find her getting killed, but more that she would turn out to be a killer. She seemed so enthusiastic about death, it felt as though she would make the step over the line herself! But then it started to seem that limelight would suit her even better. In the end though, it transpires that while perhaps she does want fame, it would be for journalism which is why she's easy for the policeman to manipulate into leaking false info.
It was nice to see the baddies get picked up at the end, though I felt getting a conviction might not be in the cards. The "ghost" of Holly lingering around was a nice touch & it's always nice to hear The Beatles' A Day in the Life, with the 4000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire line.
Possibly one of my favourite SW episodes.