Silent Witness star Emilia Fox says that she 'never had a plan' for her acting career before landing BBC gig

Emilia Fox has appeared as Dr Nikki Alexander in the long-running BBC crime drama since 2004. The 50-year-old actress revealed that before landing the role, she never planned to be working on the show for more than two decades.

Emilia told Women’s Weekly magazine: "I've never had a plan for my career. I've gone with what feels right in the moment, and very much on what I was lucky enough to be offered.

"When I started doing 'Silent Witness', I already had an interest in the crime genre and loved crime literature. Actually getting to play a part that was in that world was thrilling. I had no idea how fascinated I would be in the medical scientific side of it."

Silent Witness is currently airing its 28th series on the BBC with ratings still high for the show. It has already been recommissioned for a 29th series, ,with Emilia revealing that she looks forward to the show being backed by BBC bosses because it “suits her personality”.

She added: "I always felt that while I was loving it, I wanted to continue doing it. And now it's become such a blessing in my life - I look forward to it so much when we get asked to do a new series.

"It suits my personality as someone who loves familiarity, who feels more confident when I know where I am. And because each storyline is different, I still feel like it's new each time."

Silent Witness returns for a two-part finale on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 9pm on Monday (February 3) and Tuesday (February 4).