Silent Witness creator Nigel McCrery has passed away age 71 after battling with a terminal illness, his agent has confirmed.
The sad news has left his family, famous colleagues and BBC viewers devastated, after his agent announced his death “with a heavy heart”. The former Nottingham police officer, who joined the Beeb on a grad scheme, used his cop know-how to craft crime drama ‘Backup’, airing from 1995-1997, before hitting gold with Silent Witness in 1996.
The talented writer revealed last October he was battling a terminal condition, keeping quiet about the details. On BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live n November, he confided the diagnosis hit like a bombshell: “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.”
He admitted to breaking down often post-diagnosis: “I used to cry a lot, I used to sob a lot.”
(Image: BBC)
Presenter Nikki Bedi chimed in:”You’re saying used to like it’s in the past, but it’s only three weeks.” To which he repsonded: “I don’t know how long it’ll take me to get used to that.
“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.”
(Image: BBC / BBC Studios)
In the interview, he also confessed that his health diagnosis was constantly in the back of his mind. He added: “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.”In the interview he said that the diagnosis was in the back of his mind “all the time”.
(Image: BBC)
Alongside Silent Witness, Nigel also created New Tricks in 2005, which followed three retired coppers who were helping to solve cold cases, as well as writing several novels and non-fiction books.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
