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Emilia Fox joined the cast of Silent Witness in 2004 as Dr Nikki Alexander and her character, along with the show's success, has continued to grow. While still appealing to an audience drawn to forensic crime, this latest series takes a glimpse into the personal lives of the team, their relationships and the emotional turmoil they are dealing with.

Along with Nikki, Dr Harry Cunningham (Tom Ward) and Professor Leo Dalton (William Gaminara) make up the team – a trio driven by their principles in their diligent quest for the truth and justice. It is clear to see they share a passion for their work, but their strong opinions can sometimes lead to conflict.

Ultimately they are a team and care deeply for one another and for the victims of the crimes they investigate. Could it be that the warmth and humanity of their characters, juxtaposed with the crime element, is what keeps the viewers watching?

Emilia reveals why she thinks the series continues to be so popular: "I hope it's because it keeps evolving and moving forward, retaining that good mixture of stories within each series. There are your classic 'whodunits' and then there are the thrillers. So I think it's keeping up with good and different stories. Also now that our characters are more familiar with the audience, I hope it is because people care about Harry, Nikki and Leo as well, and what's happening between them and how the cases affect them."

In episode one, A Guilty Mind, Nikki struggles to deal with a case involving the death of a child in violent circumstances. Emilia explains: "The case affects Nikki deeply and personally and looks at the less tangible part of pathology, which is the mind. We are used to the team finding things out through the organs and the body, but of course when it comes to the mind it's a lot harder to deal with. It's very hard to deal with your own mind when it's running away from you.

"Leo and Harry are deeply concerned for Nikki and it touches her at a stage in her life where she is a woman in her thirties, not attached to anyone and she doesn't have children, so I think it brings all those issues to the surface."

This is the first time we see Nikki struggling with a case, impacting on her mental health, so how did Emilia prepare for this storyline? She says: "I think part of it was instinctive anyway, because the death of this child is so brutal that I don't see how if you were connected in any way to a case like this you couldn't be affected."

"A lot of the real pathologists who we work with choose not to work with or do post-mortems on children because of the affect that it has on them, especially if you have a young family yourself. So I very much found that quite instinctive – the horror of what you would feel. This is taken to quite an extreme level of how it affects Nikki, so I tried to think about it as someone who didn't have children – although I quite quickly found out after that episode that I was pregnant. In a funny way it had a doubly hard-hitting effect because of how incredibly protective you feel over a child, anyone's child."

Emilia continues: "Depression is something I have come into contact with through people I know, so it felt that I could mime resources that I knew about. It was interesting on many levels."

Silent Witness definitely shocks the senses when it comes to the prosthetics and the post-mortems by being so life-like, and even more so in this series. It can be tough viewing at times, but what is it like working up close with them?

"The bodies just get better and better each year," says Emilia, "and there is just so much care taken over them. The bog body in Lost is really amazing; it was made so that you can actually move it. It felt like the leathery skin of a bog body and all the weight is completely worked out and accurate, so what you are playing with seems immensely real.

"The models and prosthetics can definitely make you feel squeamish but I think actually it was the little girl that I worked with on A Guilty Mind where I had to remind myself that she was going to be able to wash all the injuries off afterwards."

When dealing with such real and sensitive issues on Silent Witness, detail and accuracy is imperative. Emilia explains: "Every post-mortem we do we have a proper expert in the room with us, a pathologist or a coroner, who can tell us exactly what to do, otherwise the point of the show would be ruined. It's also for one's own confidence, because you are talking in medical terms and you have no idea what it means. You really need it pointing out to you, what you are saying about which bit of the body and also how you do each procedure.

"You think, 'Oh my gosh I have to be really careful and go slow,' because you are thinking of it in terms of 'I am cutting up a body'. In fact of course for those who do it every day, it is much more workman like."

"I also think it helps being able to ask the advisors about how they would feel in that situation, and they have always encouraged us to be respectful towards the bodies but to have a sense of humour between each other."

Emilia always looks forward to getting back together with the Silent Witness cast and crew for filming: "It's like returning to a family that you know very well. You are working immensely long hours with each other so it is really important to get a good team who know each other. I have also found that the more familiar I have become with the people around me at work, the more risks you are able to take performing because you are not so self-conscious."