Emilia Fox marks 30 years of Silent Witness and talks finding the positives after a big break-up

This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.

What’s the view from your sofa?

The sofa faces the television, but when my daughter [15-year-old Rose, with ex-partner Jeremy Gilley] and I try to watch something, mostly the view is of our dogs Dolly and Clive, who climb on top of us. Dolly likes to be held like a baby and Clive sausages himself between us.

What are you watching at the moment?

I have a rule that I don’t watch television or read while I’m working, because I always think I should be studying my script. Rose said, “Mum, you’ve got to watch The Traitors, Strictly Come Dancing and I’m a Celebrity,” So, I caught up on those. Now I’m watching The Hack.

Who controls the remote, you or Rose?

Rose, hands down. For starters, she knows how to use it. I only have it when I’m switching the TV off to say, “OK, that’s enough.”

It’s the 30th anniversary of Silent Witness this year. When it debuted in 1996 starring Amanda Burton, it was still unusual having a female lead. Has that situation improved?

There was also Helen Mirren playing Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect – but it was such a big thing at that time for Amanda to play Sam Ryan and to portray the difficulties of women working in pathology or forensic science. Now I see such great parts for women who are older and I think good drama should reflect the experiences of people of all ages. And it gives me hope, personally, as an actress in her 50s!

What’s informed how you play forensic pathologist Dr Nikki Alexander?

What impacted me most was going to see real postmortems before I started Silent Witness. For me, so much of the job is about the respect for the deceased and how they are treated within a mortuary, and the interest in finding clues through someone’s body about how they’ve died.

The show moved from London to Birmingham in 2024. How did you manage the commute from London?

It wouldn’t have worked if Rose hadn’t started weekly boarding school. She wanted to be with her contemporaries, which I really understood. I did the same thing at 13. I was effectively an only child for a long time, because my half-sister Lucy is 15 years older and my brother Freddie wasn’t born until I was 15, so I wanted to be with my peers. Rose has flourished and it’s meant I can be away from home for a longer period of time.

Did you find it hard being away from your partner?

Actually, Jonathan [Stadlen, a TV producer] and I separated last February. The end of a relationship is always sad, but with age and life experience, you draw on the things that make you feel better and do them, like going on girly trips with Rose and being with friends. It’s been nearly a year now and I’m feeling positive.

Add Radio Times as a Preferred Source on Google

Keep up to date on what’s worth watching with your favourite entertainment news from Radio Times – see more of our exclusive news and interviews featured prominently in Top Stories when using Google.

You come from an acting dynasty that includes your parents Edward Fox and Joanna David, brother Freddie, uncle James and cousins Laurence and Jack. Has anyone ever called you a nepo baby?

This is a whole new expression to me. Are you a nepo baby only when you’re in the entertainment industry and not other professions? I didn’t want to be an actress growing up and I wasn’t exposed to their industry. But then I got lucky and got a holiday job during university [playing Georgiana Darcy in 1995’s TV adaptation of Pride and Prejudice] and I was like, “Wow! This is a nice job and now I don’t have to think about what I want to do.”

You’re also the star of crime series Signora Volpe, you’ve presented the documentary series In the Footsteps of Killers and you narrate the Audible series Crime Scenes. Would you like to try a totally different genre?

I don’t have a particular interest in true crime, but I like playing characters and exploring people who are good and are trying to make sense of what’s going wrong in the world and get justice. There’s a really nice feeling in that. But if I was given the choice, maybe I’d play a baddie. It would be a nice challenge to get into the mind of someone completely different from me.

The latest issue of Radio Times is out now – subscribe here.

Silent Witness airs Mondays and Tuesdays on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from Monday 2 February.

Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what's on. For more TV recommendations and reviews, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.