Silent Witness star Emilia Fox has revealed the “greatest compliment” she has had on playing Dr Nikki Alexander in the BBC One crime drama for 21 years.
Fox spoke to Good Morning Britain with her co-star David Caves, who has played Jack Hodgson for 13 years, about inspiring the career choices of young fans.
They also shared their opinions on whether they thought they would ever be able to perform a post-mortem themselves after so many years in the role.
Emilia Fox has racked up 21 years as Silent Witness lead Dr Nikki Alexander, while her co-star David Caves has been forensic expert Jack Hodgson for 13 years.
The pair told Good Morning Britain on Tuesday that the “greatest compliment” on the long-running role came from young fans who had grown up with the show and decided to become just like their characters.
Fox said: “It’s one of the greatest compliments, when you have young people coming up to you and saying we watched the show, we watched it with our parents and now we want to study science or be a pathologist or forensic scientist. Very often they come up in train stations or airports, it’s really strange.”
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However, while Fox’s character might have inspired some future career choices, she said she would be unable to take on the job of a forensic scientist in real life herself.
Asked by hosts Susanna Reid and Ed Balls whether they thought they could perform a post-mortem, Caves said: “I reckon Fox could do it. I’d be terrible.”
But she laughed off the suggestion, saying: “No I couldn’t! I wish I could.”
Fox added: “We have learned so much and that is testament to the great writers on the show who do their research so well and to the real experts we work with. The pathologists who take us through every single detail of how to do a post-mortem. Fascinating.”
Talking about the very realistic-looking corpses that feature in the post-mortem scenes, she said: “It’s a fantastic make-up department, prosthetic department, and then also actors. Very often it’s the real actor lying there and having to be dead for the day on a mortuary slab which is very hard.”
She added of why she thought the show had run for such a long time: “I think it’s the premise of the show itself. It’s a really interesting idea that you get the clues from the body itself. It’s got the mixture of the crime solving with the police, of course, but actually the medical, scientific side of it. It’s a behind the scenes of how crimes are solved.”
Silent Witness fans have been excited to see Nikki and Jack’s romance play out in the storyline, with the pair set to marry soon.
But as work always comes first for Nikki, actor Caves hinted at whether the wedding would go ahead as planned.
He said: “Oh well, we shall see. Jack is having to run around a lot to try and organise this wedding. He’s the neurotic one, he wants to have this perfect wedding, so he’s very excited about it and trying to prepare things while trying to do this crazy job they both do.”
Fox added: “There’s so much to do, Jack is doing it all, and she’s become paralysed by how much there is to do. She is committed, but we’ll have to see what happens.”
Good Morning Britain airs on ITV1 at 6am on weekdays.
