Silent PARTNERS

Original leading lady AMANDA BURTON on teaming up with Emilia Fox for the 25th-anniversary series

- IAN MACEWAN

SILENT WITNESS

NEW MONDAY & TUESDAY, 9PM, BBC1 DRAMA

When Amanda Burton appeared as Sam Ryan in the first episode of BBC1's forensic drama Silent Witness in 1996, she couldn't have imagined that, 26 years later, not only would the series still be going strong, but she'd be returning as a guest star, too!

But that's what's happening in the show's landmark 25th season, a six-part investigation that sees Sam - who left her London-based job to move back to Northern Ireland during series eight in 2004 - call in successor Dr Nikki Alexander (Emilia Fox) and the rest of The Lyell Centre team after the Health Secretary is gunned down in Liverpool at the launch of Sam's new health-passport initiative.

Here, in an exclusive interview, Amanda, 65, tells TV Times more...

For those who don't remember her from the first time around, can you describe Sam Ryan?

Sam was always a terrier for the truth. She was never swayed by anyone else's opinion, and she was quite irritatingly blinkered! I used to sort of feel Sam's presence, and she was a strangely spiritual character.

I love the notion that she is still busy and active, and a strong career woman, rather than being hauled out of her knitting group!

What's she been up to since leaving her job at The Lyell?

She set up the whole pathology department for the UN, where she met her husband, Jomo (Holby City star Hugh Quarshie). He fell ill, and they realized there was a lack of organ donors across the world.

So they put together this huge project to launch a health-passporting scheme.

As well as a Silent Witness milestone, it's also 40 years since your TV debut in C4 soap Brookside, playing accountant Heather Haversham - has that time gone quickly?