Emilia Fox returns to BBC One as Forensic Pathologist Dr. Nikki Alexander for a new season of long-running crime drama Silent Witness.
Nikki is joined by Forensic Scientist Jack Hodgson (David Caves), Forensic Lab Scientist Clarissa Mullery (Liz Carr) and Forensic Pathologist Dr. Thomas Chamberlain (Richard Lintern).
> Buy the Season 15-16 boxset on Amazon.
Episode 1: ‘Sniper’s Nest – Part One’
Tuesday 6 January 2015, 9pm
When three people are shot dead at a petrol station, Nikki and Jack strive to track down the sniper at large in London and stem a public crisis.
DCI Jane De Freitas’s personal fall-out with boss and partner Chief Supt Robert Drake is the least of her worries when three people are shot dead in a petrol station. Nikki and Jack conclude that it is the work of a concealed shooter from long range: A sniper is at a large in London.
They combine ballistics and wound pathology with DCI De Freitas’s expertise in victim and killer profiling to narrow down the suspects. De Freitas contains her undercurrent of animosity with Drake, as the team work to find the killer apparently striking at random.
Episode 2: ‘Sniper’s Nest – Part Two’
Wednesday 7 January 2015, 9pm
As the sniper’s threat widens and pressure on the police mounts, Nikki and Jack investigate links between the victims to close the net on the killer.
The sniper plays a macabre game of cat and mouse with police, whilst Jack forms a friendship with the teenage son of one of the victims, offering sympathy and support.
Thomas tries to ensure the safety of his daughter Rosie and estranged wife Julia amidst growing public fear, whilst fighting his urge to interfere in their lives.
Nikki and Jack look closer at the targets to elucidate the hidden motive of the killer, and the investigation is scaled up by DCI Jane De Freitas, but it’s Jack’s shocking discovery at one of the victim’s homes that leads the team to the perpetrator.
Episode 3: ‘Falling Angels – Part One’
Monday 12 January 2015, 9pm
Nikki and Jack investigate a man run down and killed by a tube train. When a female vicar is then murdered after being followed on the underground, the team face the difficult prospect of building a case against her distraught husband.
Nikki forms a bond with high-flying DI Luke Nelson, impressed by his intelligence and compassion. He asks her to help re-evaluate the details of his father’s murder when he was a child.
When a young roofer is stalked and brutally killed on his journey home, Nelson and the Lyell team identify a suspect on the tube cameras who links the murders, and a full-scale manhunt is launched.
Episode 4: ‘Falling Angels – Part Two’
Tuesday 13 January 2015, 9pm
Tension on the tube network threatens to boil over, and security is stepped up. The accidental verdict in the first death is called into question and the witnesses are brought in for interview. Amongst them is Lana Sutherland, a young hotel worker who has taken in a homeless man, Owen. DI Nelson lets Lana slip through the net before he realises she may be harbouring a dangerous killer.
Nikki helps Nelson unearth the mystery of his father’s death, allowing him to confront and resolve the childhood memories that haunt him. He refocuses on the case and, with Jack and Nikki, discovers the missing key that links the victims.
Episode 5: ‘Protection – Part One’
Monday 19 January 2015, 9pm
When suspected paedophile Dale Barge is found murdered in a children’s playground, Nikki and Jack are brought in by inexperienced detective Rory Drennan. It’s not long before the team link Barge’s death to a missing child, Lizzie Craddock.
Jack teams up with hard-nosed child protection DI Gina Conroy. They put pressure on Lizzie’s parents Johnnie and Cheryl to try to find her. Lizzie’s social worker Louise is brought in to help, and Nikki encourages her to stay positive when she blames herself for Lizzie’s disappearance.
Episode 6: ‘Protection – Part Two’
Tuesday 20 January 2015, 9pm
Daniel Garvey is found dead in his car. Social worker Louise fears that he may have been killed by his 16-year-old stepson Kevin, who has just come out of care.
Nikki, Jack and Thomas focus in on Lizzie Craddock’s movements on the night of Barge’s murder. Jack and DI Gina Conroy discover Lizzie’s last known location but fear what they may find there.
Louise comes under further pressure when she is forced to make a call on whether a sick child, Ricky Mansfield, is being abused by his parents.
Episode 7: ‘Squaring The Circle – Part One’
Monday 26 January 2015, 9pm
A shootout at a city hotel leaves young Ukrainian nanny Sofia Teplov dead, along with an unknown hitman.
Russian oligarch Maksim Bazhanov – the target – narrowly escapes the attack. Nikki and Jack work with young City DI Sarah Parks to identity the dead hitman as they try to discover who is trying to kill Bazhanov and why.
Jack is drawn to Sarah, whose daughter has a rare childhood cancer, and is impressed by her ability to juggle work and family.
The discovery of the hitmen’s identity as ex-army frustrates the team as they realise that he could have been hired by any number of paymasters.
Episode 8: ‘Squaring The Circle – Part Two’
Tuesday 27 January 2015, 9pm
Amy Greenwood, who works for the Doshi property moguls, is found dead in the apartment of Maksim Bazhanov.
Nikki, Jack and Thomas ingeniously prove that foul play was involved in Amy’s death and help the police find the missing Bazhanov.
Amy’s mother Justine is a powerful player in the City Assembly and, fuelled by the death of her daughter, she puts pressure on DI Sarah Parks’s investigation.
Maksim is a powerful man with many enemies, and the team find one of them where they least expected it.
Episode 9: ‘One Of Our Own – Part One’
Monday 2 February 2015, 9pm
Rising star Sergeant Sam Honeywell is found beaten and shot in his burnt-out car in Essex.
The police are up in arms in what is a hugely emotive and political case for them, and DCI Jim Sullivan is determined to nail Honeywell’s killer.
When a local drug dealer and son of known crime boss Dean Fallon seems to have his alibi sewn up, suspicion shifts closer to home.
Honeywell is discovered to have been in an affair with Kate Parry, wife of his best friend, Sergeant Carl Parry (James Alexandrou). It looks bad for Parry, and Jack reveals details of Honeywell’s final moments, which hits Sullivan hard – he had been like a father to the murdered cop.
Episode 10: ‘One Of Our Own – Part Two’
Tuesday 3 February 2015, 9pm
Known Essex criminal Jason Simons is found murdered in a way that is perhaps too similar to Honeywell to be a coincidence.
As anomalies in his post-mortem stack up, the team discover that Simons was not what he seemed. Traces of drugs on Simons’s penknife point them towards a major drugs importation, but his bereaved girlfriend Tess claims to know nothing about it.
Suspicion turns back to Dean Fallon, but a discovery in his medical records and the death of the Fallon family lawyer Ben Osrin takes the investigation in an unexpected new direction.
> Buy the Season 15-16 boxset on Amazon.
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