Research Texts - Silent Witness

What Happened In The Opening Episode?

In this episode of 'Silent Witness' (Episode 2, Series 9 ' Choices') it focuses around a shooting that occurred outside a club in London. This lead to a crime scene and the death of three people. From the start of the episode no one understands who committed the shooting and why. After the shooting, three pathologists (Harry Nikki and Leo) are called to the scene to try and understand the cause of the shooting. With the three pathologists investigating the bodies in their lab, Nikki is called out to investigate a car that was described at the crime scene. Through this Nikki discovers a decayed body within a warehouse close to the abandoned car. From there Nikki is off on her own case in trying to find the cause of death of the decayed body, while Leo and Harry still try and uncover the truth about the shooting. Through the episode the pathologists find out that the guns supplied in the shooting were from the same buyer and understand that he or she must be stopped.

Through their investigation the three pathologists are challenged from beginning to end. Leo is struggling to deal with the death of his wife and daughter which affects the work ethic of Nikki and Harry. This is seen all through the episode and is challenged half way through.

Within the episode we are also introduced to another set of characters, Wayne and his mother. They are an unfortunate family with little money with Wayne getting into drug dealing and the mother taking ecstasy. Harry meets Wayne and both grow a strong relationship. This is due to the incident of Wayne's baby sister going into hospital due to a mild infection. From there both Wayne and his mother grow a liking to Harry.

Besides the story of the pathologists and the family the narrative also involves the a gang and their involvement with the shooting. From there the audience is told what is going to happen towards the end of the episode (which is another shoot out).

With these characters introduced they are taken through this investigation linking most of the characters together at the end of the episode. Wayne is friends with the gun dealer and also with one member of the gang, the gang obtain their weapons from the gun dealer, the club owners also buy from the same gun dealer, the pathologists interview the club owners and one of the pathologists (Harry) has a strong relationship with Wayne. This circle of events helps in solving the investigation of the shooting.

When the pathologists find out that the guns were supplied by the same person, Wayne is caught up in a new investigation to the death of a club owner. Wayne is interview and denies everything, and refuses to dub out the owner of the gun. This then puts Harry in a bad position of trust. He doesn't know weather to believe Wayne or not. Eventually he believes him. Wayne then tells Harry who owned the gun and goes to visit the dealer. The dealer shows no aggression but kindly tells Harry that he is the gun dealer and tells him what the gang and the club owners are going to do with the guns. From there the second attempted shoot out is stopped before it starts.

While all of that is going on Nikki finds out the ID for the decayed body (which is a young girl, roughly 18) and attempts to go and investigate how she died by visiting the relatives and friends of the young girl. Through her investigation she comes in contact with one of the young girl's best friend. This best friend is a little unstable due to the addiction to drugs. She at first refuses to share any information and this becomes strange to Nikki. Nikki doesn't not give up and keeps kindly pushing her. She eventually cracks and confesses that she did drugs with her best friend and realises she was dead the next day. She then hid the body in a container in the warehouse where the young girl's decayed body was found. The best friend then has some sort of resolution and is sent to a rehabilitation clinic.

Opening Scene Of The Episode

At the beginning of the episode we are introduced straight away to the club and the club owner Ainsley Modest, along side his girlfriend Helen Roach. Through their conversation in the car outside the club, we see that Helen is soon to be come married to the Ainsley. As the Helen leaves the car to go a wait outside the club with her friend Simone Campbell, Ainsley also steps out and decides to walk towards his Helen. As he does this a black Range Rover starts to slowly drive pass the club. Ainsley sees the car and notices that the window starts to wind down, revealing an Uzi machine gun. The club is then shot at multiple times, killing three people and injuring others. The car then drives off leaving an unpleasant aftermath.

Characters Within The Opening Scene

- Helen Roach - Girlfriend

- Ainsley Modest - Boyfriend

- Simone Campbell -  Helen's friend

Single Camera Work Within The Episode

One example I could use for single camera production within the episode is the scene with Harry and the gun dealer. In this scene we see the two characters walk into a back room which is really compact. Due to the lack of space, only one single camera was used so that the shot was achieved, using up all of the space within the room. Another example of this would be the scene within Wayne's flat. The flat is small and compact and requires only one camera. 

References

Silent Witness Picture - http://i4.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article1223166.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/Tom%20Ward%20on%20set%20with%20Emelia%20Fox%20and%20William%20Gaminara-1223166
Silent Witness Cast and Crew - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0700569/fullcredits?ref_=tt_cl_sm