Not-so-Silent Witness - part 2

Anyone else feeling nervous about watching Silent Witness tonight?  This week it's the series finale, so heaven alone knows what they can do to top last week's hide-behind-a-cushion Harry dead, then amazingly not dead two parter...  Here's hoping they don't actually kill someone off...  Would it be too Hollywood to actually have a happy ending for once?  Hmmm... probably.

Last week's episodes drew a lot of discussion as to whether or not it was fair on the audience to kill Harry quite blatantly in episode one, and then have him actually not dead - and saved in an unlikely manner, which wouldn't have fitted the timeline they showed in episode one.  Personally, I was just relieved by the not dead-ness of it all, but I could understand the point that playing on the emotions to boost the shock factor (and maybe the ratings?) might be a bit unfair.

It got me thinking however, about the publicity (or lack of) given to someone else who actually did die, and then was alive again. 

You might know where I'm going with this - or you might not...  I felt quite challenged that I write quite freely about a plot line in a BBC drama, but actually - it's more difficult to write about the death and resurrection of Jesus, a real person who really died - in a horrible way, even worse than anything the script writers have ever come up with on Silent Witness, and then was miraculously made alive again - what the Bible refers to as resurrection. 

The thing is, I believe that what the Bible says about Jesus is true.  That it's a historical account of Jesus' life-death-and life on earth; and that everything He said is true too.  You might well disagree with me, and that's your choice; but if there's even a small possibility that God's Son came to earth and died a horrible death in order to free people from sin and death, and give them life - then isn't that worth finding out about?

One way of exploring these things is to go on an Alpha course.  This is a course written by a guy called Nicky Gumbel who leads a big church in London.  It covers all sorts of interesting questions such as: Who was Jesus?  Why did He die?  What's in the Bible?  How do I pray? etc. etc.  Alpha Courses are run all over the world in all sorts of places from churches to prisons.  You can find out more about Alpha by clicking here.

However, if you live in the Rugby area, and are free on Wednesdays this week onwards, my church are running an Alpha course in Mosaic, our fabulous coffee shop.  Each Wednesday evening at 8pm they'll be a chance to hear a speaker, discuss questions like the ones above, and drink nice coffee and (even better in my opinion) eat nice cake!  If you want you can email the church office (office@becchurch.org.uk) to let them know you're coming, or you can just turn up.  You won't regret it.

So here's me, being a Not-so-silent Witness...  Gxx

Not-so-Silent Witness

This week on BBC 1's Silent Witness, they reached new, dramatic heights...  Properly scary, heart in mouth stuff, as Dr Harry Cunningham (aka actor Tom Ward) came face to face (or gun) with scary girlfriend murdering, Ukrainian mafia tattooed hit man.  At the end of Monday's episode, we - the great British public -saw Harry killed, and then doused in petrol and burned... 

Shock reverberated around Facebook, as my friends and I struggled to believe that they had killed off one of the main characters in such a horrible way.  I'm sure the shock was felt more keenly as poor Harry was quite easy on the eye... 

Not since Adam (aka Beautiful Adam / aka Rupert Penry Jones) was unceremoniously blown up on Spooks a couple of years ago had I been so upset by the demise of a fictional character...

I don't think I was just upset because Harry was (to steal my friend's phrase) pretty.  Or because frankly seeing anyone shot and then burned is fairly horrific...  I was sad for all the story lines that could never happen; for the seismic shift that would have to occur in every future episode.  I guess it's testament to the good script writing that you actually end up caring about the characters.  At that moment if I could have done, I would have found Tom Ward - and checked that he was actually alright; I know it sounds daft - but there we are, the instinct of the trained carer never really goes away, even if it's completely unnecessary...

I have to admit that I watched Tuesday's episode reluctantly, thinking that perhaps even more horrible deaths would occur (yes, I know, a drama about forensic pathologists is bound to contain horrible deaths...); but I felt that not seeing the end of the story-line would just make it worse...  And so it was with great relief that I watched and saw not only no more deaths of major characters, but that actually Harry hadn't been killed after all, but had escaped his attacker who had inadvertently got himself knocked down by a truck whilst reloading his gun (there's swift justice for you!), and that Harry had swapped some of his clothes etc. with the hit man to make it look like he had died instead.  And breathe...

Actually, I still hid behind a cushion for the rest of the episode, thinking that Harry (or Nikki, or Leo) could still get shot...  And to think a bit of telly in the evening is supposed to be relaxing... 

I didn't calm down until the credits were safely rolling. That said, I'll probably end up doing it all again next week.  (I don't know much about being a forensic pathologist, but I would very much doubt there is as much imminent peril as occurs on Silent Witness...)

As an aside - BBC, (I know you're obviously reading my little blog...) do you think you could resurrect Adam in Spooks now?  I know he was (supposedly) blown up by a humongous car bomb, but they couldn't find a body (no surprises there...) so could you not have had him in hiding for a while, just until Lucas threw himself off a building and you needed a new section chief?... 

I know - I need to get out more!