Silent Witness: Season 24 (DVD), BBC Archives, Drama

The opening episode of the new series sees Nikki and Jack visiting a high-security prison. As the pair look into the suspicious death of an inmate, Nikki finds herself dealing with disturbing memories. It's revealed that the victim's cellmate is a student who was responsible for the mass shooting she witnessed a decade before. Nikki is convinced the same student is the killer this time as well. But is she right?

SEASON 24 - Episode 1

The first episode of Silent Witness Season 24 saw Dr Nikki Alexander (Emilia Fox) facing an old threat, as she was led to believe that school shooter Scott Weston (Elliott Tittensor) was behind the death of an inmate called Jay at a local prison. This is a difficult case for Dr Alexander, as Scott was the gunman responsible for a horrific shooting spree at a university that took place in Season 13. The first in a two-part story, Nikki is determined to get to the bottom of this case while also navigating complications posed by Scott's girlfriend Paisley (played by Harry Potter's Evanna Lynch), who's determined to get his case reviewed while Scott's own mother believes that her son should serve his full prison sentence.

There's also tension between Dr Alexander and her partner Jack Hodgson (David Caves), who's worried that she's not following the evidence and she's simply looking to blame Scott following a turbulent past case that put him behind bars. But is Scott really the perpetrator in this crime, or is there another reason for the inmate's suspicious death? We'll have to wait until episode 2 to find out!

SEASON 24 - Episode 2

Episode 2 was the conclusion to the inmate case, where it was revealed that Scott actually had nothing to do with Jay's death at all. After presenting a few theories, Nikki and Jack concluded that he'd actually had an allergic reaction to something, resulting in his death and clearing Scott's name.

The exact allergic turned out to be bee venom, which was an active ingredient in his cream which was given to him by his mother Dionne (Cecilia Noble). She had intentionally caused this allergic reaction, hoping he would leave prison and go to hospital for treatment so she could visit him. But it backfired and caused his death instead, something she hadn't intended to happen. So with that story concluded, it's time to see what's in store for Episode 3...

SEASON 24 - Episode 3

The episode begins with a mysterious hooded figure filming a female swimming instructor at a swimming pool on his phone.

Later, she is then murdered in her own home, seemingly by the same hooded assailant. The team, Dr Nikki Alexander (Emilia Fox) and Jack Hodgson (David Caves), are joined by newcomer pathologist Dr Alex Yuen (Jason Wong) and DI Meredith Hughes (Caroline Sheen) in solving the horrific case.

The victim’s name is revealed to be Laura Jennings and shocking evidence is soon discovered as the team finds out that she was pregnant when she was killed and had previously been abused. Although, her abuser was never convicted.

Meanwhile, Jack has an unexpected visitor and her sudden appearance uncovers some surprising family secrets.

The horrifying mystery soon begins to unravel as two suspects are identified, including Laura’s ex-boyfriend, who was also an ex-detective, and a man who Laura went to school with and apparently recently dated.

The case then takes a dark turn as the team unearths a terrifying secret...

SEASON 24 - Episode 4

Laura Jenning’s (Lolly Jones) killer is finally uncovered in this second part of this two part story. CONTAINS SPOILERS!

With two bodies discovered underneath the decking of suspect Tim Garrick’s abandoned home (the last location where Laura had been), Nikki and co believe that they're the bodies of Joanna and Tim Garrick.

However, they discover the bodies aren’t who they thought they were. We find out that nursing home worker Simon wasn’t following Laura, but that he was following a man, who turned out to be Tim and he was the one he was filming at the swimming pool.

Since Laura went to school with Tim, she recognised him at the pool where she was a swimming instructor and became suspicious of his identity.

It turned out that Simon was trying to find Molly’s (Ann Mitchell) family, an elderly lady who he became close with at the nursing home, who claimed that her son Michael and his wife Sally had moved to Australia.

Simon found Molly’s grandchildren, Dylan and Toby, at the swimming pool with the mystery man, Tim Garrick and things soon took a dark turn.

Soon, the team discovered that the Trasks knew the Garricks through an adoption course. But the Garrick’s got rejected, due to Joanna still grieving after her last failed attempt at IVF and their concerns about her medical history. Tim was also rejected due to coercive control.

More shocking evidence was found as the money from the sale of the Garricks’ house was transferred to an account in the name of Michael Trask, which unveiled a sinister revelation - the Garricks had stolen the identities of the Trask’s after they murdered them and then stole their children!

This led to Laura’s death, as she knew who Tim really was and he killed her for it.

SEASON 24 - Episode 5

In the first of a two-part episode, Reputations, part one saw the team investigating the suspicious death of Dr Arnie Rahul (Sagar Arya) who was found murdered right before he was due to perform surgery on a patient named Wilfred Okoye. Dr Nikki Alexander, Jack Hodgson and newcomer Dr Adam Yeun were on the case, trying to get to the bottom of who would have wanted Dr Rahul dead.

Throughout the episode, Adam was behaving strangely and even met with the hospital director at her home to discuss Dr Rahul, which was a clear conflict of interest. He even agreed to perform a postmortem on one of his patients, unbeknownst to his team. Later on, he told Dr Alexander he'd like to perform the postmortem and she agreed, despite initially saying she'd do it herself.

Nikki and Jack attended the christening of Adam's daughter and were shocked to find out that the hospital director was her godmother, information that Adam had withheld from the team. But despite this suspicious activity, when Adam did perform the postmortem he told the truth that it was a surgical error that killed the patient, angering the hospital director who threatened him.

Meanwhile, the episode ended on a bombshell as Jack revealed DNA evidence pointed to Wilfred Okoye, who was due to be operated on by Dr Rahul. But that couldn't be possible as he was under general anesthetic... leaving the team baffled. Following that, Adam threatened to resign, walking out of the room and revealing the hospital director had tried to use incorrect information on his CV in order to blackmail him. But will he be coming back?

SEASON 24 - Episode 6

In the second part of Reputations, Adam came clean to Nikki about why he lied on his CV, revealing that he'd covered up a gap in his employment by saying he'd had a scholarship to cover for the fact he'd actually been in therapy for accidentally killing someone.

He'd tried to perform an emergency procedure on someone injured in a traffic collision and had been unsuccessful, admitting it took him months to recover from his mistake. Following his emotional confession, Adam went off to try and get to the bottom of what happened to Dr Rahul. All signs pointed to Professor Alan Cowley (Nicholas Farrell), a man working in stem-cell research, and it seemed Adam had single-handedly figured out the truth.

At first it seemed like Braithwaite was responsible for poisoning Rahul's patient Wilfred Okoye, and that she had later died of a heart attack due to stress, but Adam was unconvinced and set off to do some more digging into Professor Cowley.

It was soon revealed that Cowley had been framing Braithwaite and later murdered her in her own home. Unfortunately, this revelation would be deadly for Adam as after he confronted the professor about his findings and informed Jack and Nikki, he was struck down by Cowley in his car who wanted to ensure Adam would not live to tell the tale.

SEASON 24 - Episode 7

Brother's Keeper: Part 1 opens with a dramatic start, as boxer Kieran Johnson's body crashes down onto a stolen car which is being driven by an unknown couple. However it wasn't the fall that killed him, as Dr. Nikki Alexander and Jack Hodgson conclude that he has injuries that would have occurred before the fall, including a missing fingernail. During this episode, mysterious newcomer Dr. Simone Tyler is brought on to assist with the case.

After speaking with boxing pioneer Michelle Lafferty, Jack discovers that Kieran had a rather troublesome past, and suspicions only grow further when Kieran's brother Noah seems unbothered by his brother's death. It's later revealed that Kieran's wife Teresa was having an affair with Noah, and £20,000 had been transferred from Kieran’s account to Teresa's just after his death. But Kieran's wife and brother aren't the only ones who look suspicious.

A memory stick found in one of Kieran’s daughter’s teddy bears reveals that fellow boxer Ben’s brother had been in contact with a boxing promoter named Glen Scowcroft. The same promoter was regularly paying Kieran £5,000 in cash and it appears that he was being blackmailed over it. However Glen denies this, claiming the video on Kieran’s USB was fabricated and that he had actually dropped Kieran as a client. This places both Lee and Ben Coogan as suspects in Kieran's death.

During the end of the episode, we get a glimpse of the shady boxing underground that Ben and Lee are involved with. Lee owes some of the big shots some money, and he is later found beaten up after one of Ben's legitimate boxing matches outside of the underground world. Time is soon up for Ben too, as he is crushed against a wall by a car after fleeing in a panicked state. Signs definitely point to the underground ring as being responsible for Kieran's death – but why?

There was also some development for Jack Hodgson throughout the series, as his brother Ryan has been released from prison on probation. Despite trying to steer him down the right path, Ryan has no interest in following the rules and has been sneaking out, refusing to follow probation terms, and even has a gun stashed in Jack's house where he's been staying. Later on, Ryan beats up his father Connor and runs away with his cash and cards.

SEASON 24 - Episode 8

In the second part of Brother's Keeper, the team continued their search for the people responsible for Kieran's death. It was already clear that the underground boxing ring was responsible, but more evidence was definitely needed. Dr. Simone Tyler was able to find some evidence which led Jack and investigating officer DI Lisa Brodie to a tattoo parlour, leading them to a man named Samuel Covitch where they revealed he was placed at the scene where Lee and Ben Coogan were attacked, and was involved with the underground boxing ring. What's more, he'd been the one to dispose of Kieran's body.

Meanwhile, Michelle Lafferty was behaving very suspiciously and when confronted about Ben and Kieran, she revealed that "Ben was fast but Kieran was stronger". She admitted to telling Kieran to throw the fight, but he refused. Eventually, Michelle confessed to killing Kieran after he had threatened to reveal the truth about her drugging him and setting Ben up by putting plaster in his wraps. Apparently riddled with guilt, she set fire to herself in the boxing ring after apologising for what she'd done.

Jack had his own personal drama to deal with too, after tracking down his brother Ryan who had attacked their father and ran off with his money. There's also a chance that Cara could be Jack's daughter and not Ryan's, creating even more tension between the duo. Things seem to be escalating between Nikki and Jack too, as Simone has noticed the chemistry between them. So could Silent Witness fans finally be seeing romance between the two colleagues?

SEASON 24 - Episode 9

In the first of the two-part finale Matters of Life and Death, plenty of drama went down on both a professional and personal level! The episode opened with the death of care home resident that was initially put down to natural causes, until some of Nikki's students discovered something wasn't right with the body. But getting to the bottom of what happened was only the start of their problems, as a storm raged on outside, causing a serious flood risk for the care home staff and residents, as well as Jack and newcomer Simone who are on site.

Tensions run even higher when Simone receives a text from the murderer claiming they think they’re going to kill again and there's nothing they can reasonably do while stuck inside the building. Meanwhile, Jack's father is in trouble after suffering a nasty fall at home, while his house is slowly filling up with water from the bath. Will he be okay?

Meanwhile, apparent sparks between Jack and Nikki still haven't gone anywhere and fans are disappointed that Jack went off on a blind date and woke up with her the next morning. They were even more disappointed to find out that Nikki had slept with one of her students! Is this the end for the Jack and Nikki romance saga?

SEASON 24 - Episode 10

In the final part of the series finale, the drama continued as the storm raged on causing chaos and flooding, while the elderly residents, along with Jack and Simone, were stuck inside the care home. CONTAINS SPOILERS!

As Nikki tries to contact Jack, she phones DS Galloway who asks her if she knew of someone called Janice Pitram, who was a care home worker in Scotland and was convicted of aiding and abetting her boyfriend in killing his elderly parents. Once out of prison, she had changed her name to Amrita Naidu, who now works at the current care home, where Robbo was murdered.

Meanwhile, elderly resident Derek begins to experience severe pain, while his wife Beattie struggles to breathe as her oxygen tank runs low on battery. Jack journeys out into the storm to retrieve some spare batteries and Derek’s medication from the lodge, but he has no luck.

Amrita disappears and a frantic Derek asks Jack to euthanize him with morphine to save him from his excruciating pain, but Jack refuses.

Simone helps care home manager Mary look for Amrita, while Jack goes outside to search for her, where he sees her caravan get swept away in the flood. The next morning, amidst the search for Amrita, romantic sparks fly between Jack and Nikki as they kiss for the first time, but a voicemail from Nikki ruins the moment.

A gutted Jack returned home only to discover more bad news as he found out that his father, Connor (Richard Durden), was visited by the ambulance during the storm after falling over and hitting his head, which we saw him get treated for while he phoned Nikki to try and get in contact with Jack. Connor glossed over the incident to Jack, but Jack sobbed as he hugged his father, apologising for not being there.

Things take a turn for the worse as they discover Derek dead in the same way as Robbo was murdered and they soon find Amrita’s body in a flooded field. However, when they investigate how she died, they unearth that she didn’t die from drowning, but from carbon monoxide poisoning and that her body must have been planted there.

Soon, Jack became a suspect in the murder of Derek as he was alone with him shortly before his death and was seen handling the green box filled with morphine injections.

But, before Jack could be taken off the case, he was busy solving the mystery on his own and soon discovered that it was Beattie (Sian Phillips) who killed both Robbo and Derek so she could stop their suffering. They soon discover the fate of Amrita, who was accidentally killed by Mary who had hidden her in the “smoky” loft. Upon finding her dead, Mary dumped her body in a flooded field.

In the final scene, a . . . . . . You'll need to get Silent Witness: Season 24 to find OUT!

SILENT WITNESS: SEASON 24 BBC ARCHIVES