Behind the scenes of Silent Witness
Writing a highly technical crime drama is no mean feat. Screenwriter, Steven Davis, explains how he comes up with the story, over comes the various hurdles, and how he virtually has to become a forensic scientist to write the show.
What research was involved for the helicopter crash which happens in Apocalypse?
There were several key areas – one always has to do forensic medical/pathological research for the series and consult experts. I do a lot of writing about science and I had visited the company that makes the special microscope that appears in the story. I have written dramas about the drugs industry in the past as well as about medicine and those areas gave me ideas. I had visited the General Medical Council recently as well.
How did you get the idea for that particular storyline?Good dramas are, I think, the collision of more than one idea. But I had followed many press stories about military procurement and the Ministry of Defence and, indeed, stories very similar to the one I tell in Apocalypse were breaking in the national press even as we were previewing the episode.
You wrote a screenplay about the Mull of Kintyre helicopter crash in June 2004. Were any of the facts which emerged from that helpful in developing the Apocalypse storyline?. I did an intense amount of research for that script and perhaps inevitably I called on it for Apocalypse.
In the Mull of Kintyre crash, an RAF Chinook twin-engined helicopter crashed into a hillside in thick fog, killing 29 people, including 25 senior police, Army and MI5 officers – some of the most experienced intelligence experts in Britain.
Did you revisit any of the contacts you made at that time for additional information?
Yes, indeed. I wanted to make sure that the circumstances of that accident 13 years ago could still crop up today. And I had to refresh a good deal of complex technical information. But the impressions made on me about the devastating personal impact of that accident on all its victims and all the subsequent controversy was always fresh in my mind.
Were you on set when the Apocalypse crash was filmed and was it how you had envisaged it?
I wasn’t on the set on that night, though I do like to be involved in production and visit as often as I can. Usually I am getting on with another project. On this occasion, I was very well served by my director Maurice Phillips, with whom I have worked before, and George Ormond, my producer. I have, however, witnessed a real-time helicopter accident, on the set of a movie I was making in Los Angeles. It is an experience that stays with you.
Silent Witness has been running for some 10 years and has won numerous awards. What, in your opinion, is its appeal?
I think audiences like demanding stories and are less afraid of technical and scientific subjects than many broadcasters seem to think. Audiences want to be engrossed and absorbed. I also find that audiences respond to stories about the real world we all live in and read about every day, and I hope I have been able to give that added dimension to my contribution.
At the launch of the last series, Emilia, Tom and William described their experiences when they attended a post-mortem. Did you attend an autopsy and, if so, what were your experiences?
I attended many autopsies when I wrote the BBC TV drama serial Degrees Of Error in 1996. It was the first drama, I understand, to involve the construction of dummy cadavers as it was centrally about medicine and pathology. I found the post-mortems deeply interesting, but it is a complex experience. Medical education is a sort of rite of passage that separates doctors, necessarily, from ordinary expectations of experience. As a writer, I have always been interested to pursue those sorts of experiences and write about them. At times, they have been risky undertakings!
What were the main challenges for you as writer on this new series?
I didn’t want to treat the story I wrote as a form of cop show with pathologists. I found it very challenging indeed, because I try to be an unorthodox writer. I am not really interested in traditional heroes and villains. I like to write about people not because they are consistent, but because they are made up of contradictions. What doctor or, say, military officer, really wants to be portrayed like that?
What do you feel motivates the three main characters Nikki, Harry and Leo?
The same thing that motivates me, I hope. I think all of us desperately want to see behind the headlines and the multiple manipulations of our modern, self-inventing society. It’s a very simple motivation, but it’s not only about heroically searching for truth, it’s also about a certain anger that arises when we feel we’ve been taken for granted or even lied to. It’s important to write characters not as oneself, but with instincts one can understand.
It is a very dark series, but are there any unintentionally humorous moments that you have seen during filming? I’m more used to talking about the intentionally humorous moments! I do try to relieve the darkness with humour, if only to reflect what people are like in real life. Tom, Millie and William all have a real sense of fun and humour, and the atmosphere on set is never morbid and dark, despite the setting.
How important is topicality in Silent Witness?
Topicality is tricky in drama, because it can take so long to develop a script and then a production. Having said that, I find I am very often writing “fictional” stories that somehow surface in the press almost as written. But that’s because I am trying to write about the real world. We’ve all got confused about drama since the rise of docu-drama. Drama is a lie that tells you the truth, with any luck, and I think too much drama has been sterilised of its connection to the real world. But I’m probably biased!
What made you decide to become a writer?
I was bad at almost everything else at school. I never forgot that I won the composition prize when I was seven... and eight and nine, I think. That saw me through a lot of adversity later! When I finished my university degree, I wrote my first screenplay. I was too young to realise it was difficult and I’ve been writing ever since.
What other projects do you have lined up for the future?
I have recently written a drama for the BBC about the international race to sequence the human genome. I’m writing a three-part drama about climate change for ITV; a drama about the Rosenbergs, the Americans executed for espionage; and I’m glad to say I’ve written another Silent Witness for Tom, Millie and William.
There were several key areas – one always has to do forensic medical/pathological research for the series and consult experts. I do a lot of writing about science and I had visited the company that makes the special microscope that appears in the story. I have written dramas about the drugs industry in the past as well as about medicine and those areas gave me ideas. I had visited the General Medical Council recently as well.
How did you get the idea for that particular storyline?Good dramas are, I think, the collision of more than one idea. But I had followed many press stories about military procurement and the Ministry of Defence and, indeed, stories very similar to the one I tell in Apocalypse were breaking in the national press even as we were previewing the episode.
You wrote a screenplay about the Mull of Kintyre helicopter crash in June 2004. Were any of the facts which emerged from that helpful in developing the Apocalypse storyline?. I did an intense amount of research for that script and perhaps inevitably I called on it for Apocalypse.
In the Mull of Kintyre crash, an RAF Chinook twin-engined helicopter crashed into a hillside in thick fog, killing 29 people, including 25 senior police, Army and MI5 officers – some of the most experienced intelligence experts in Britain.
Did you revisit any of the contacts you made at that time for additional information?
Yes, indeed. I wanted to make sure that the circumstances of that accident 13 years ago could still crop up today. And I had to refresh a good deal of complex technical information. But the impressions made on me about the devastating personal impact of that accident on all its victims and all the subsequent controversy was always fresh in my mind.
Were you on set when the Apocalypse crash was filmed and was it how you had envisaged it?
I wasn’t on the set on that night, though I do like to be involved in production and visit as often as I can. Usually I am getting on with another project. On this occasion, I was very well served by my director Maurice Phillips, with whom I have worked before, and George Ormond, my producer. I have, however, witnessed a real-time helicopter accident, on the set of a movie I was making in Los Angeles. It is an experience that stays with you.
Silent Witness has been running for some 10 years and has won numerous awards. What, in your opinion, is its appeal?
I think audiences like demanding stories and are less afraid of technical and scientific subjects than many broadcasters seem to think. Audiences want to be engrossed and absorbed. I also find that audiences respond to stories about the real world we all live in and read about every day, and I hope I have been able to give that added dimension to my contribution.
At the launch of the last series, Emilia, Tom and William described their experiences when they attended a post-mortem. Did you attend an autopsy and, if so, what were your experiences?
I attended many autopsies when I wrote the BBC TV drama serial Degrees Of Error in 1996. It was the first drama, I understand, to involve the construction of dummy cadavers as it was centrally about medicine and pathology. I found the post-mortems deeply interesting, but it is a complex experience. Medical education is a sort of rite of passage that separates doctors, necessarily, from ordinary expectations of experience. As a writer, I have always been interested to pursue those sorts of experiences and write about them. At times, they have been risky undertakings!
What were the main challenges for you as writer on this new series?
I didn’t want to treat the story I wrote as a form of cop show with pathologists. I found it very challenging indeed, because I try to be an unorthodox writer. I am not really interested in traditional heroes and villains. I like to write about people not because they are consistent, but because they are made up of contradictions. What doctor or, say, military officer, really wants to be portrayed like that?
What do you feel motivates the three main characters Nikki, Harry and Leo?
The same thing that motivates me, I hope. I think all of us desperately want to see behind the headlines and the multiple manipulations of our modern, self-inventing society. It’s a very simple motivation, but it’s not only about heroically searching for truth, it’s also about a certain anger that arises when we feel we’ve been taken for granted or even lied to. It’s important to write characters not as oneself, but with instincts one can understand.
It is a very dark series, but are there any unintentionally humorous moments that you have seen during filming? I’m more used to talking about the intentionally humorous moments! I do try to relieve the darkness with humour, if only to reflect what people are like in real life. Tom, Millie and William all have a real sense of fun and humour, and the atmosphere on set is never morbid and dark, despite the setting.
How important is topicality in Silent Witness?
Topicality is tricky in drama, because it can take so long to develop a script and then a production. Having said that, I find I am very often writing “fictional” stories that somehow surface in the press almost as written. But that’s because I am trying to write about the real world. We’ve all got confused about drama since the rise of docu-drama. Drama is a lie that tells you the truth, with any luck, and I think too much drama has been sterilised of its connection to the real world. But I’m probably biased!
What made you decide to become a writer?
I was bad at almost everything else at school. I never forgot that I won the composition prize when I was seven... and eight and nine, I think. That saw me through a lot of adversity later! When I finished my university degree, I wrote my first screenplay. I was too young to realise it was difficult and I’ve been writing ever since.
What other projects do you have lined up for the future?
I have recently written a drama for the BBC about the international race to sequence the human genome. I’m writing a three-part drama about climate change for ITV; a drama about the Rosenbergs, the Americans executed for espionage; and I’m glad to say I’ve written another Silent Witness for Tom, Millie and William.
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