including crime analyst Kit Brooks, played by Francesca Mills. The star said of her character: “I love Kit. She’s bright-eyed, very eager, and very clever.
“She has got a brain that I think works faster than her. Things are coming out of her mouth, live, as they are processing. What I’ve learned about crime analysts is they must have eyes on everything.
“If there are the four main sections of an investigation, Kit’s job is to loop the whole thing together.” Francesca, who is 28, is known for playing Cherry Dorrington in Harlots and Meldof in The Witcher: Blood Origin.
From Staffordshire, she was born with the genetic disorder Achondroplasia, a common form of dwarfism. As of 2021, she lives in London.
She started her career in theatre, joining Warwick Davis’s Reduced Height Theatre Company, and she went on to star as Hermia in Shakespeare’s Globe’s 2023 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She won first prize at the 2024 Ian Charleson awards for her role.
Francesca Mills as Kit Brooks in Silent Witness (Image: BBC)
Following her win, she told The Times: “I realised I wanted to act when I was nine. My parents have been supportive and sit in the front row of all my shows.
“I’m lucky they have never tried to steer me in a different direction. Playing Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream was on my bucket list because I was passionate about being in a version of the play where the remarks about Hermia’s height in the fight scene were brought to life if a little person was in the part.
“There’s nothing like the Globe’s stage, it’s a rare experience being there and I loved it from beginning to end.”
She faced some rejection in her early life, when she was told she could not be in the Royal Ballet.
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Francesca Mills was born with a form of dwarfism (Image: Getty)
Although she was raised to understand her height was no limitation, she faced an uncomfortable reality in her teens.
She told The Guardian: “I went from truly believing I could make it as a professional dancer to swallowing that someone of my height wouldn’t be accepted into the Royal Ballet.”
With her dreams of becoming a dancer seeming further away, she joined a local drama club.
“I do think I’m an actor now, but I hope in every show there’ll be a dance routine. When they asked how high I wanted the heels for the opening number in The Duchess of Malfi, I requested a stonking platform to mince around in like a Shetland pony.
“I want people to go: ‘Oh, I didn’t know little people could move like that, dance in heels that high’,” she said.
Silent Witness airs on One tonight, January 6, at 9pm