In the two most recent episodes of Silent Witness, we find ourselves midway through the 20th season and as expected, BBC One’s long-running crime drama shows no signs of lowering expectations.

Part 1 finds the team on the hunt for a killer when a body of a young student is pulled from a river. Whilst initially the investigation seems to be a simple murder and body disposal, Dr. Nikki Alexander (Emilia Fox), Jack Hodgson (David Caves), Clarissa Mullery (Liz Carr) and Dr. Thomas Chamberlain (Richard Lintern) soon discover that this current murder may be linked to a similar case from 4 years ago, the only difference being that her body was never found.

The parents of the young girl who went missing soon hear of the investigation, and demand to know what is happening, with the young girl’s mother, Ali (Sarah Smart) even approaching Nikki for help. Despite Nikki’s strong reluctance, Ali manages to extract the information she needs from her, and this leads to a shocking confrontation between Ali and prime suspect Aaron Logan (Harris Dickinson), with Ali stabbing Aaron with a knife!

The story then resumes with Part 2, and it is clear there are major consequences for everyone after the events of the previous episode.

Nikki finds herself under intense scrutiny from the lead detective inspector on the case, Heather Ashton (Eva Pope), who believes she intentionally give the information Ali needed, and from this, was responsible for Aaron being stabbed. Whilst Nikki fights to prove her loyalty, Jack is shocked to discover Ali’s fingerprints in a boatyard where the team largely suspect her daughter was buried after being murdered, and this leads to the team discovering a secret affair between Ali and Aaron’s brother, Ben Logan (Morgan Watkins), and that Ali’s daughter, Ruth, may have stumbled upon it.

New evidence then comes into play, and the team soon discover that Ben was aware that Ruth knew about the affair, and killed her in order to protect his and Ali’s secret.

Aired at 9pm on Monday 16 January 2017 and at 9pm on Tuesday 17 January 2017 on BBC One.

Order Season 20 on DVD on Amazon here.

What did you think of this week’s episodes? Let us know below…

Reviewed by Robert Evans.