Silent Witness creator Nigel McCrery has died at age 71, his agent confirmed today “with a heavy heart”. McCrery joined the BBC on a graduate entry scheme in 1990 after serving as a police officer in Nottingham, he used background in policing to create the drama Backup, which ran from 1995-97.
He then went on to create silent witness in 1996. The screenwriter and novelist shared he was diagnosed with a terminal illness in October 2024, but did not open up about what the illness was.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live programme in November 2024, McCrery said the news came “as quite a shock”.
“I mean people deal with their deaths in different ways, and I think it’s all very, very individual to each of us. But I think for a little while you do go into shock – or I did, and I was in a bit of a state.”
Speaking about his diagnosis, McCrery said: “I used to cry a lot, I used to sob a lot.”
Host Nikki Bedi responded with: “You’re saying used to like it’s in the past, but it’s only three weeks.”
“I don’t know how long it’ll take me to get used to that,” responded McCrery.
“It’s not that I’m scared of dying, I’m actually not. I have wonderful granddaughters, and it’s missing them growing up. It’s the things I’ll be missing by not being around that I’ll find the hardest to cope with.”
In the interview he said that the diagnosis was in the back of his mind “all the time”.
“I don’t like crying in public, so I tend to get myself out of the way until it’s out of my system. And I’m hoping that as time goes on and the realisation becomes more real that I’ll calm down completely. I’m more scared of crying in front of my granddaughters, actually.”
As well as creating Silent Witness, McCrery also created drama New Tricks in 2005, which focused on three retired police officers who were drafted in to help solve cold cases. He also wrote several novels and non-fiction books.