Who is Tom Faulkner on Silent Witness?
SILENT Witness has made its return on the BBC for its long-awaited 25th series.
The Lyell team explore another case and a new character at the centre of it - Tom Faulkner. WARNING: This article contains spoilers from series 25, episode one.
Who is Tom Faulkner?
The first episode of Silent Witness saw Nikki (Emilia Fox), Jack Hodgson (David Caves) and Dr Simone Tyler (Genesis Lynea) investigating the health secretary’s fatal shooting.
The team also discovers more about Sam's (Amanda Burton) new enterprise UNITAS, an organ donor company that can help patients around the world, but has access to personal healthcare data which could be used for the wrong reasons.
As the episode came to a close, the forensics team manage to find the shell casing from the murder weapon and after running tests, they soon find out the fingerprints matched those of Tom Faulkner.
As Tom's face pops up on the computer screen, Nikki, who took over from Sam, claims that she also recognises him.
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How Tom is connected to Nikki remains a mystery for the time being.
However, Silent Witness producer Nick Lambon teased to the: “‘I think it’ll be a huge shock when the audience find out who Tom is and why he’s such a significant person in Nikki’s past and how he’s connected to Sam as well.
“Tom and Sam are two people who used to be very close."
He added: “They used to work together and then they had a falling out.”
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Who plays the Silent Witness character?
Matthew Gravelle is a 45-year-old Welsh actor.
His early screen roles include one-off appearances on Hearts and Bones, Holby City, Casualty and Torchwood.
He has more than 60 roles to his name, but TV fans will likely know him best from his stints in Keeping Faith, Exile, and Broadchurch where he played Joe Miller in series one and two.
The actor also starred as Joshua Peake in the Amazon Prime action series The Widow, and DI Nathan Eason in the ITV drama Manhunt.
What do we know about Tom Faulkner's history?
Tom Faulkner is a former military serviceman who began working for the UN in recent years.
He worked for the UN during the same time as Sam Ryan and even travelled to Stockholm with her after another politician was killed in 2018.
This is the first time Faulkner has been seen on Silent Witness, but he was born in Cambridge, where the first three series of the show were set.
This could be how he first came into contact with Sam.
Even though Tom’s fingerprints were found on the shell casings, it’s not clear or confirmed if he is the killer - but he may know who did.
At the end of the episode, Tom asks Nikki: “Do you want to know who killed the health secretary?”
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How can I watch Silent Witness?
The first episode of Silent Witness season 25 aired on BBC One on May 23, and is available to watch now on iPlayer.
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Episode two will air at 9pm on BBC One on May 24, 2022.
Future episodes will air on Mondays and Tuesdays until the season finale on June 7.