Francesca Mills Talks Season Twenty-Eight of BBC’s Silent Witness

The Brains Of The Operation

BBC’s Silent Witness returns for an impressive 28th series and here’s one of its new stars, Francesca Mills talking about the new run…

Tell us the story of how you got the part of Kit.

My mum is, without doubt, the biggest Silent Witness fan there is. For her, this is the peak in my career. There’s nothing now that can top this. I made the mistake of telling her when I first did a self-tape for the role of Kit at the end of 2023. Self-tapes are very early in the stage of auditions, so I knew it was a shot in the dark. But I just thought it was really cool to have done a self-tape for it. And I loved the character. Then I didn’t hear anything for a few weeks, but my mum didn’t drop it. She was asking me about it every day, which made me panic. So when I did find out I had got a recall, I made the decision not to tell mum because I thought, “I just don’t need the pressure. I know how much it will mean to her, and I want to do her proud, but I’m just going to do this on my own.”

I got through to the next round, which was going to The Lyell Centre and meeting Emilia and David and doing a screen test with them. Still my mum was asking about the part, but I didn’t tell her anything because I thought it was the last thing I needed. I felt like I was having an affair! And then, a few weeks later, my agent rang. I could tell by his voice that I had got the part, and then I just screamed and cried. But I was most excited because I got to go and tell my mum the whole story. When I finally told her, she was over the moon. She so thrilled, and she can’t wait for it to come out.

Why do you think it meant so much to her?

It was a personal thing that I really wanted for myself, but also for my mum. I remember as a kid I would sit next to her on the sofa, and we’d watch Silent Witness together. I’d know that once the credits rolled, it was time for me to go to bed, but I’d just try and stay insanely still, so she’d forget that I was on the sofa. But as soon as the credits were over, she would say, “Right, time to go to bed!” I have so many beautiful memories of watching Silent Witness with my mum, so it was such a personal one for me. When I got the part, I was just delighted.

Can you outline your character for us?

I love Kit. She’s bright-eyed, very eager, and very clever. She has got a brain that I think works faster than her. Things are coming out of her mouth, live, as they are processing. What I’ve learned about crime analysts is they must have eyes on everything. If there are the four main sections of an investigation, Kit’s job is to loop the whole thing together. Not only loop the whole thing together but find a piece of paper from years ago that is connected to that person’s dog walker’s dead mum, and discover where the factory that made that piece of paper is. Then she has to work out that couldn’t possibly be true because that particular paper wasn’t made at that specific time. That’s what I found so addictive about playing her. There are no flies on Kit.

What was it like working with this cast and crew? 

It’s so lovely to be part of a production that has been running for so long. It’s so iconic. They have a formula that really works, and that applies behind the camera as well. I cannot stress enough how it is like a family. I laughed every day. It’s so lovely to get that opportunity to get to know people for such a large amount of the year. People aren’t blasé about it, each day when we see the story lines and the props and the science lab, there’s still that childish excitement about it. That is contagious and translates through the screen, which is why it’s so addictive to watch Silent Witness.

I was like a kid in a candy shop. I was like, “I want to learn everything from these incredible actors and soak it all up.” It’s such an honour to get this opportunity to watch the best of the best and learn their work ethic and see how they approach each storyline. I was so excited. I’ll never forget it. I truly loved every second of it.