Dr Thomas Chamberlain has been forced to “consider his future” at the Lyell Centre in the opening episode of Silent Witness‘ new series – so will Richard Lintern’s character be making a surprise exit from the long-running drama?
At the start of the two-parter, Thomas was stunned to be offered a job as head of faculty at UCL. Although he said he wasn’t interested, the offer is still on the table and it sounds like he’s starting to seriously consider taking it. In fact, this could be the perfect way to side-step DCI Cramer’s false allegations before the whole thing escalates and the Lyell comes under threat.
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“Thomas is an interesting place because his authority is challenged by an investigating officer who makes a few assumptions – he’s operating above his pay grade at one point,” Lintern explains.
“The police officer actually makes a mistake and seeks to absolve himself of blame by passing the responsibility for the mistake on to Thomas… The accusation is taken extremely seriously and Thomas has to fight hard to protect his reputation, both as a forensic pathologist and as leader of the Lyell.
“The investigation has important ramifications for the Lyell centre as a whole, because its reputation – along with Thomas’ – is on the line.”
Thomas is already a guest lecturer at UCL. But now Susie Merrick (Kerry Fox) at the university wants him for the top job, and it’s starting to look extremely appealing.
“There’s a perfect storm of events that occur at a vulnerable time for Thomas professionally – and exactly that moment he is offered the chance to say goodbye to all the stresses and the strains of his position at the Lyell,” Lintern says.
“The accusations against him are wholly false, but the situation results in real professional difficulty for Thomas and it makes him consider his future at the Lyell.”
So will Thomas take the job? We’ll find out in part two…
The second part of the story will air on Wednesday 9th January at 9pm on BBC1
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