Silent Witness

About sixty people a year commit suicide by jumping into the Thames in London. Peter Clements's function as a member of the London police force is to identify the bodies and to inform the next of kin on the death of their relatives. His profession is emotionally demanding, but he keeps going by arming himself with a good sense of humour. The film follows him at his investigation of three suicide cases. In the first case Clements succeeds in determining the identity of a woman who committed suicide nearly thirty years ago. The film examines the possible causes of her deed. Next the film follows Clements in his attempt to determine the identity of an old man, who carried nothing on him except a pair of spectacles and two small combs. In the third case Clements's help is called in to establish the identity of a drowned young man, with a tattoo of the soccer club Arsenal on one arm as the only clue. In Silent witness, behind the story of a professional civil servant with a unique profession, a world looms of people who seek liberation from despair and loneliness in the Thames. The film also looks at the question why the river exerts that strong an attraction on suicidal people.