Silent Witness (TV Series) Finding Rachel: Part 1 (2008) User Reviews

Out of Their Element and their Technology

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 27 March 2019]

Rachel, the title character, disappears. She is an aid worker in Zambia. The pathology crew goes to Zambia to do a favor for her father. He is all hepped up, filled with guilt. There is a kind of political mess going on at this time and all are in danger. Things go to a hospital, run by some missionaries. It is slow moving and confusing in the first half.

The setting helps to make it very watchable.

[Sleepin_Dragon · 7/10 · 17 October 2018]

The precedent had been set a few years previously to end the series with an episode set abroad. Naturally it has a very different flavour, the familiarity of Britain is switched for the dramatic wilderness of Africa.

The story is good, it has a degree of intrigue, and features some interesting characters, although both Patrick Baladi and Robert Pugh seem to lose their accents at times.

Personally I felt it could have been a little more dramatic, given the apparent corruption, violent gangs, it could have been dramatised a little bolder.

They should have stayed in the UK

[m56drid · 2/10 · 13 February 2020]

The worst episode in the series. Boring, zero credibility, badly written, badly directed. Avoid at all costs.

Worst episode ever

[NothingSacred_com · 1/10 · 4 December 2023]

This show, SILENT WITNESS, started well, with the Sam Ryan character leading the way as a charismatic crusading pathologist seeking justice for the victims on her slab. But this extremely lousy African episode has brought the show to its lowest ebb yet. The story itself is ludicrous: the three Home Office pathologists go haring off to Zambia because a friend of Nikki's from school asks for help finding a missing person! And it's all downhill from there. The dialogue never rises above sixth grade level, and in some places doesn't even sound like english, despite the lack of translation subtitles. Everyone acts stupidly and irresponsibly. Even the scenes of Africa, which the cast is forced to watch with rapt attention as if the view were inspiring, are visually disappointing and dull. The various stock footage of big game critters, all photographed from a distance, are dirty and boring. It's hard to believe this show lasted as long as it did. Skip this steaming pile of guano!