Should Silent Witness be cancelled? Viewers react to call for BBC1 show to go
Radio Times TV editor Alison Graham has had enough of the BBC1 drama after two decades on television – but did viewers agree?
"It's time Silent Witness was silenced for good." That was the challenge Radio Times TV editor Alison Graham put to BBC1 as the series reached its series 20 finale.
She argued that, after 20 years, the crime drama had run its course, and that it was time for the pathologists to hang up their scrubs.
"We are currently living in an age of some of the most thrilling dramas that I can remember, so let’s shut the mortuary door on Silent Witness for the last time," she said – but do viewers agree?
Unsurprisingly, Graham's call for the axe generated a huge number of replies.
"They have rung the living daylights out of this programme," agreed Caroline Ogilvie in the comments. "Maybe it's time to let this witness shut its eyes and go to sleep before it becomes laughable."
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Not everybody agreed however. "I hadn't really noticed the storylines getting any more ridiculous and I've been watching it for 20 years, often in anticipation of a new series," wrote Merriweather Ley. "Maybe it's because there is so much rubbish drama on television that this stands out as a quality if slightly absurd program with much better production values than most of the dross on TV."
While Graham bemoaned the unrealistic "crime-busting aspect of Silent Witness", Sarah Partingon said, "I don't care if it's not true to life, it's a drama".
But many other viewers agreed that the series has been poorer this year.
#SilentWitness - usually ♥️silent witness, but this series has got more far fetched every week & tonight's just takes the biscuit!!
— Louise Duncan (@karting_mum) January 30, 2017
The series finale is still available on BBC iPlayer – but should it be the last ever? Read Alison Graham's column in full here, and give us your verdict below.
