BEST CRIME DRAMA SILENT WITNESS

Who would have thought after its first episode on 21 February 1996 that Silent Witness would still be going strong all these years later, making it the longest-running crime drama currently on TV in the world? To mark the show’s 25th anniversary there’s a special treat for fans as original star Amanda Burton (left), who played pathologist Sam Ryan for 54 episodes before leaving the show in 2004, makes her return in the first of three new two-part investigations. Sam’s now the head of a controversial new healthcare scheme – and when the Home Secretary is assassinated at the launch event, she calls in her successor at the Lyell

Centre, Nikki Alexander (Emilia Fox), to help her solve the case. See feature pages 4-5. Mon-tue, 9pm, BBC1