Silent Witness season 27 is here at last, with the first episode proving a cracker (warning this recap contains spoilers about the opening episode).
Teasing the story, Emilia Fox, who plays Dr Nikki Alexander says: "Straight away, we're into a case where a body is found in a church. The detective who comes onto the case recognises the MO as being possibly linked to a serial killing case that she worked on two decades ago.
"She becomes quite tunnel-visioned about it. In this episode, Nikki doesn't want to be consumed by who the killer might have been and what their character was like. She wants to stick with the facts and not get led by the detective. In some stories, we do want to know who the criminal is and want to know more about them. But for the purposes of this story, Nikki wants to make sure that no errors are made because of the biased view that the detective has."
A sneering serial killer
The episode begins in 2004 with a police recording of an interview with Calvin Dunn (played by Leo Starr), who is one seriously creepy chap. "Now that we're all comfortable, how can I help?" he smiles. We then move on in time to 2024 with a police car in High End Woods. The officer reveals they've heard reports of screams.
We then go back to the police interview in 2004 with Dunn. He claims to have been at home looking after his children. The interviewer then asks him if he’s familiar with St Margaret's Church. "It’s up by High End Woods," he replies. So we have a connection between the 2004 and 2024 scenes.
Back in the present, a policeman says, "What the hell is that?". On closer inspection, the two officers see it's dead birds.
We return to the police interview, where the officer says: "We found dead birds hanging outside St Margaret’s." Dunn laughs and she asks him if it's funny"? He replies: "It is to me love". "Detective Constable, actually," she says. "DC Ford, why that's funny?." He says, "Some mad bastard has killed four people and you're worried about some birds."
The two officers walk into St Margaret's and discover a dead man kneeling. He has something wrapped around his neck.
The victims
We again meet the officer who did the 2004 interview, Jane Ford (Josette Simon), now in the present day and about to retire. When she's told a body has been found at St Margaret's she races out of the office.
Nikki and Jack are in the lab. They quickly talk about a case before Jack says they should consider skiving off for a long lunch. That's not going to happen!
Elsewhere, we then see Lee, a paramedic, who's Dunn's son.
Back at the Lyell, Velvy tells Nikki about the body. He says the male victim was strangled by a red washing line. Nikki and Jack share a knowing look before Jack says: "Calvin Dunn". "That must be 20 years ago," says Nikki.
In the church, they find no ID on the body. The washing line is tied in a distinctive knot, the same knot, Ford says, that Dunn used. Ford recalls the Dunn case saying there were four victims — two male and two female. They were "found strangled and placed in churches in the west London area". She adds that a fifth victim was abducted, but her body was never found. There was also a sixth attack on someone called Dominic who escaped.
Dunn was interviewed four times, but never arrested. Ford says by the time they matched his DNA to the crime scenes he'd vanished without a trace. Ford thinks he's back and says it can't be a copycat as they never told the public about the knot type.
During the post-mortem, carried out by Nikki and Gabriel, they note the hands are bound by a cable tie. "Fingerprints came back negative,” says Gabriel, so they can’t identify the victim still.
Ford and Jack discuss Dunn, with Ford revealing that Dunn worked for an American weapons company on something top secret. Could they have helped him to disappear?
We learn that Dunn's eight-year-old son Lee provided him with an alibi. We see the 2004 interview with young Lee, who says he was watching Millionaire with his dad.
Back in the present, Ford says Calvin didn't have a type. She says he selected his victims on availability and reveals that his last target, Dominic, was a sex worker. Ford warns there could be more victims.
Ford goes to talk to Lee. Lee says he warned her over and again that her dad never disappeared. Lee is deeply troubled and apparently feels guilt over providing his dad an alibi.
"You’re not your dad, Lee" says Ford. Lee asks her if she's told Beck? "Not yet," says Ford. "Poor bastard has been waiting 20 years, he has a right to know if Calvin is back," says Lee.
Meeting Beck
We see John Hannah's character Beck for the first time in his house with a picture of his wife, whom Dunn apparently abducted and killed. Her body was never found. Beck performed the post-mortem on Dunn's victims and Dunn seemingly killed Beck's wife in revenge for this as Beck was part of the publicity campaign to catch him.
Meanwhile, in the woods, Velvy finds a leather glove.
Ford says she needs help to speak to Charles Beck, a pathologist. Nikki says she knows who he is, they were at medical school. They go to see Beck. Beck has been trying to track his wife for years. He's not at his house, they find him at a sailing club. Earlier a reference was made to the washing line knot being one a sailor might use, is there a connection to Beck?
Beck claims Dunn is dead and he's not their modern-day killer. He says he believes his wife's body is in a reservoir. Ford says that looked and found nothing. Ford and Nikki learn that Dunn's DNA is on the leather glove.
We see a young mum pushing a baby who turns out to be Mia, Lee's sister. Ford breaks it to her that her dad might be back. The camera switches to an angle that suggests someone might be watching Mia.
Going back to the 2004 police interview; Jack watches and we learn Calvin likes a serious amount of sugar in his tea! But more importantly Cara spots that he's calling the police "idiots". Jack wonders if he left the glove on purpose. Nikki is concerned Calvin could attack Cara and warns Jack to keep her away from the case.
Nikki goes to see Beck. He now works in forensic botany. Nikki is disturbed to see the body of a rabbit. Beck explains that he puts out netting, "but the buggers still get through". Previously Nikki had spoken about how killers often start with killing animals. Is this a second hint that there might be more to Beck?
Beck is convinced Dunn's dead. When Nikki tells him about the glove, he accuses her of evidence contamination.
Ford updates Jack that they still can't find Dunn. Ford goes to a break-in at Mia’s house. Jack is there. Mia gets a phone call apparently from her father. Jack then sees live camera footage of a man in the garden. Jack and Velvy give chase, only for Velvy to get in a kick in the face.
A new body
Nikki takes a piece of moss found in an overshoe belonging to Dunn to Beck. Beck says it's a rare type of moss and found at the reservoir which he believes contains the body of his wife.
The police search the water and find a body. "Poor Charles," says Nikki. "Really," retorts Ford. "The body was wrapped in the sail from Charles Beck’s boat! And we have CCTV of Zoe Beck with bruises all over her face the day before she disappeared." Ford says Beck claimed she got them sailing. Ford suspects that Beck used his knowledge of Dunn's killings to get rid of his own wife and make it look like Dunn did it.
Is Beck a killer? But why would he help the police find the body? Wouldn’t he keep quiet after getting away with it for so long? Or has guilt hit him? And where is Dunn?!
