BBC Silent Witness' Liz Carr's heartbreaking reason for quitting show five years ago

Liz Carr is readying to grace screens today after exiting Silent Witness over five years ago, with the star still leaving fans in mourning over the loss of her character.

She played the role of forensic examiner Clarissa Mullery, on crime series that sees lead character Dr. Nikki Alexander played by Emilia Fox uncover the most heinous crimes. Now she is back, making a one-off appearance of Matt Tebbutt's Saturday Kitchen.

No doubt, host Matt will be wanting to discuss all the backstage Silent witness antics and all of her reasons for quitting the much-loved show which reminded us of a heartbreaking reason that led to her departure.

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In her character's final scenes, Liz may have given fans a real life hint about her reasons to exit. On the show, Clarissa said she was opting to "focus less on the dead and more on the living".

We'll be looking into further detail all of the reasons Liz chose to exit the show.

Finale 'hint'

Liz's character Clarissa, provided a vital clue at how the actress was feeling during her final scenes, in an interview with Radio Times about her reason for departing she shared a similar view to her on-screen persona in her final scene.

She told the publication: "To quote Clarissa, 'I just know, deep down – that it's time for me to move on, to focus less on the dead and more on the living. On life'."

'Resenting' the show

Liz admitted in the same interview that she'd started to harbour feelings of "resentment" and wanted to leave on a high note.

After an eight-year tenure, Liz explained: "Silent Witness has given me such an amazing opportunity to develop as an actor. But I know this is the right time to take a leap of faith, leaving what I know and seeing what other opportunities await.

"It has been a rollercoaster of a ride, but I feel I'm leaving on an exhilarating high.The job was a joy. Clarissa was very loved, and I don't take the experience or the support that I got in that role for granted at all."

"But I wanted to see who else I could play. Silent Witness took nine months a year, so it did cut out an awful lot of projects that I would have loved to do," added the actress.

"I was starting to almost resent that, because I wanted to do other things, she continued to Radio Times."

What did Liz do next?

A woman of her word, she did explore what options were out there in the of acting and Liz did initially keep herself extremely busy.

The beloved actress who suffers from a condition called arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, and has used a wheelchair since she was 14, did appear in two episodes of ’s The Witcher, and in 2023 she featured in Loki.

She also landed a role in the second season of Good Omens last year as the angel Saraqael.

In May last year, she opened up to the Big Issue about how her health condition gave her the toughest of starts in life.

Saturday Kitchen will air on Saturday, from 10am