Inside Silent Witness stars Emilia Fox and David Caves' off-screen friendship

The epic on-screen chemistry between Emilia Fox and David Caves keeps Silent Witness fans tuning in each season – along with the compelling and gritty investigations faced by the Lyell's crack team of forensic scientists.

Emilia led the cast for over a decade as Dr Nikki Alexander before being joined by David, who made his debut as Jack Hodgson in 2013. While fans have loved watching the scientists' love story unfold over the past few seasons, how much do you know about the dynamic between the actors who play them? Find out all about Emilia and David's sweet off-screen friendship below…

Emilia and David's trusting friendship

It's no secret that Emilia and David share a close friendship off-screen having worked together for 13 years.

Opening up about their strong bond, Emilia praised her co-star as a "kind gentleman". "We have a very similar approach to our work," she recently told the BBC. "You can always rely on him for the most amazing performance. He's an incredibly skilled actor, which makes it very easy to play opposite him. But we also have a familiarity and a trust in each other. I trust him more than any other actor I've ever worked with."

The 50-year-old continued: "David is kind and good, and he's a gentleman as well. So that is a real anchor. We've stood side by side for so long. How lucky it is to have that friendship, on-screen and off-screen. I really love working with him."

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Emilia and David's 'parallel' lives

Ahead of the new series, David reflected on working with Emilia over the past decade and revealed that their lives have "run parallel to each other" during that time.

Hailing his co-star's work ethic, David said: "I really, really respect her. I've been doing this for 13 years and she's been doing it for 22 years, a long time!

"Our lives have run parallel to each other. I have tremendous time and love for Emilia," he continued. "There isn't anybody who works harder or knows the show better or cares about the scripts as much as she does. I really admire the fact that she still has that care and love."

Sharing an insight into their demanding filming schedule, he went on to say: "After 22 years of doing it, she still loves filming, she still has the passion for getting up at four o'clock in the morning and coming on set, seemingly fresh as a daisy, putting everything into it, and treating everybody very well. Everybody really respects that."

Emilia previously told HELLO! that each series can take over half a year to film. "It takes up seven months of the year," she said in 2022. "But the joy of it is that I live very close to the studio.

"So I'm very quickly home and as soon as I'm through the front door, I'm back into mum life," added the actress, who shares her 12-year-old daughter Rose with her ex-partner, actor Jeremy Gilley.

David is also a parent. While the actor remains very private about his personal life, he revealed in January 2023 that he and his wife, Verity, were expecting their second baby.