Series 16 will see the arrival of Caves as forensic scientist Jack Hodgson, alongside forensic pathologists Dr. Nikki Alexander (Emilia Fox) and Professor Leo Dalton (William Gaminara).

Writer Tim Prager teased: “With Tom [Ward]’s departure, we made a number of storytelling decisions. We started by reflecting the new privatised age of forensic science and imagined the “Lyell Centre” the home of our Forensic pathologists as having to adapt to what was happening in modern Britain. Ed Whitmore, another of the show’s core writers, and I both recognised that forensic science and forensic pathology had become so closely related in today’s investigative world that we imagined a Forensic Science service that might combine the two disciplines.”

He continued: “From that genesis the character of Jack Hodgson began to be created. One of the structural problems of the programme, something that had developed unexpectedly over the years, was that the three principle characters all did the same job creating the possibility of overlap and duplication in the storytelling. They were all cerebral characters. Emotions kept in check. You couldn’t really imagine Harry Cunningham or Leo Dalton (or indeed Nikki) getting into a punch-up.”

Prager added: “I wanted Jack Hodgson to be invested with some excess testosterone, a Northern Irishman whose flee or fight mechanism is stuck on “fight”. He would be plain speaking. We wanted him to have an edge that hadn’t been sanded away by posh education. He would be younger than Nikki and see the chance to work at the Lyell centre as an opportunity to run his own forensic science franchise. We would give him a history that included a healthy suspicion of how Police investigators use the forensic information that he provides. He would come into the team as the junior partner to Professor Leo Dalton and Dr. Nikki Alexander not their equal and he would have to fight for his place at the table.”

Series 16 kicks off with ‘Change’ at 9pm on Thursday 10 January, which sees a wealthy, ageing confectionery company owner found dead in his London hotel suite. Nikki joins forces with Jack to prove to sceptical DI Gold that it’s murder, not death by natural causes. The second part of ‘Change’ will air on Friday 11 January.

Are you looking forward to the arrival of Jack? Let us know below…

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