Silent Witness

My fan videos

The TV show that made me start making fan videos was the BBC series Silent Witness. The show had been running for many years and I had seen some older episodes which had been intriguing but had never really followed it much. Then I accidentally came across a fan video on YouTube that starred a newer character, Dr. Nikki Alexander (Emilia Fox), who seemed to have quite some romantic tension with colleague Dr. Harry Cunningham (Tom Ward) and I was intrigued. I started catching up on the show from mid-season 8 at the time of Nikki’s arrival and was hooked. Not just the romantic tension hooked me, I loved the team leader Dr. Leo Dalton (William Gaminara) as well. They were like a little family of pathologists, solving intricate, exciting murder cases together through autopsies and where that led them. Every story was a double-episode of 1 hour each, so in essence almost a movie.

The first fan video I made was screenshots I had captured set to music in a PowerPoint slide show! Soon after I discovered the old Windows Movie Maker software already in place on my computer, so I experimented with the programme and remade the slideshow using that. It was set to the song “Kiss the girl” because that is what you were constantly hoping for, that these two would finally kiss already! They did once at the beginning, but that never really counted as there was no follow up action. So, here’s the first slideshow video I ever made:

And then there was the hope that they would each “Just say yes” to each other!

They went through lots of tough times, so “You gotta keep smiling” seemed like a good song for them… Harry was always able to make Nikki laugh…

Harry and Nikki were always so close, always in each other’s space, as was very evident in this season 14 double-episode called “A Guilty Mind”…

Possibly my fave slideshow video was the one I made which only had images from the season 14 double-episode called “Bloodlines”, where Harry is on the run and fakes his own death. Painful episode, not only for Harry but for Nikki and Leo as well.

I wanted the slideshow videos to have some more dynamics, so tried some effects…

Then I figured out how to make clips and the next step was setting those to music which resulted in this video. I haven’t looked back since… gone were the slideshows…

This was during season 14 of Silent Witness, Harry and Nikki had been flirting for 6 years and while very close, they never were quite ready to cross the line. Lots of unresolved tension, which is very fertile ground for video making purposes…

Harry is Nikki’s anchor. When I heard this song, I instantly knew it was about them for me…

The following song was my phone ringtone for a long time, every time I hear it now, I keep on thinking I have to answer the phone. 😉 “Jungle” is supposed to illustrate how tough the job is these two are doing and that they also support each other through it all…

And a short one, “Dream a little dream of me” as I was STILL hoping these two would finally get together…

I made a video set to clips from the season 15 double-episode “And Then I Fell in Love”…

And then Harry left after that season 15 episode and never came back! Years later I still feel bereft and cheated out of what should have culminated in a happy ending for these two… I made a sad video about that – “Goodbye my almost lover” the lyrics said and that fitted soooo well with how the story for these two ended! The video got blocked on YouTube, so it’s now also on Vimeo…

So, season 16 had no Harry in it, which was difficult enough, but when they killed off Leo at the end of that season, I was just heartbroken. That was it for me, I just gave up on it then and there… The show is still running and Nikki is still on it, but I can’t watch her without Harry and Leo around, it just feels wrong. So, no more Silent Witness videos for me, unless I one day decide to make another one for nostalgic reasons…or when Harry returns (which is extremely unlikely to ever happen).

Update Oct. 25th, 2016: So, I did indeed make another video, for nostalgic reasons! I heard the song “Arms” by Christina Perri and it immediately made me think of these two…