I'm a die-hard Silent Witness fan but I'd totally forgotten the drama's A-list guest stars - am I the only one?

Silent Witness is one of those shows with an incredibly loyal fanbase and I very much count myself as part of it. Every time a new series starts I’m always so excited to see the Bowman Centre (still getting used to not saying Lyell Centre!) team back in action and to chat through the episodes with fellow show watchers.

Next year Silent Witness’ 30th anniversary season will air and ahead of this milestone the BBC show - and lead star Emilia Fox - have been taking us on a trip down memory lane. Over on Instagram they’ve been posting reminders of some of the Hollywood icons who’ve appeared in Silent Witness since it started in 1996.

The show's guest cast includes Oscar, BAFTA and Emmy winners and I had genuinely forgotten so many of the famous faces who’ve been part of the Silent Witness story. Do you remember any of these special appearances?

Daniel Kaluuya

Long before he scooped up a well-deserved Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah, Daniel starred in season 12 of Silent Witness. He played Errol Harris in Safe, which was a particularly heart-wrenching set of episodes where his character suffers an awful fate.

Professor Leo Dalton has to do community service and ends up forging a bond with Errol's younger brother Levi Harris and wanting to do everything he can to help as the youngster is sucked into a world of gang violence.

Benedict Cumberbatch

He's been nominated for several Academy Awards and has scooped up a BAFTA TV Award, a Primetime Emmy and an Laurence Olivier Award. You might have forgotten (like me, I confess) that Benedict also guest starred in Silent Witness back in the early days of the series before he moved on to projects like Sherlock and the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

He appeared as Warren Reid in 2002's episode Tell No Tales Parts 1 and 2, back when Amanda Burton's Dr Sam Ryan was still in the show.

Jodie Comer

Accent expert Jodie Comer starred as Eve Gilston in season 15's Fear - an episode that revolves around exorcisms and possession. Perhaps the reason I don't remember her being in this episode is because Eve's death becomes the focus of the storyline so we don't get to know her quite as well as we would a living character.

Fear aired six years before Killing Eve started airing, catapulting Jodie into a whole other level of stardom.

Idris Elba

Sir Idris Elba is best known for projects like Luther and The Wire, but he was also in the second ever season of Silent Witness in 1997. He played Charlie in Blood, Sweat and Tears, an episode where Sam Ryan investigated the death of boxer Kevin Sharma.

Of course, as with every storyline in Silent Witness, there was a lot more to it than that. In the course of unravelling a much wider conspiracy involving illegal fighting, she ended up crossing paths with Charlie, who was also involved in the local boxing ring.

Ruth Gemmell

Now, Ruth Gemmell is one Silent Witness guest star I do remember and she's been in the show playing three separate characters over the years. You might know her as Violet, Dowager Lady Bridgerton in the hit Netflix drama but in this universe she's been DC Kerry Cox, DI Beth Ashdown and Ellie Brooke.

This last appearance is one that sticks in my mind the most as Ellie is married to the lead detective in the case and becomes a central character as the storyline comes to an end. However, Kerry Cox is her biggest role as she played her in all eight episodes of season 1.

Nicholas Hoult

Star of The Great, X-Men and Mad Max: Fury Road, Nicholas Hoult is 36 years old now and made a guest appearance in Silent Witness when he was just 9. He played Tom Evans in An Academic Exercise Parts 1 and 2, and he got the honour of acting in a particularly significant episode for Dr Sam Ryan.

The plotline revolves around the brutal murder of her friend Annabelle Evans - Tom's mum - putting him right at the centre of this sad tale.

Evanna Lynch

Harry Potter star Evanna Lynch played the girlfriend of imprisoned killer Scott Weston who you might recognise from the season 13 episode, Shadows. In season 24's Redemption, Evanna's character Paisley was doing her absolute best to convince Scott's mum to support his appeal.

Given he had been arrested and found guilty of mass murder, she wasn't interested in helping him and actually tried to persuade Nikki to help prevent the appeal trial going ahead. Paisley's loyalty to her inmate boyfriend was unbreakable, though.

Martin Compston

Martin Compston has been in several investigative dramas in his time, most famously Line of Duty, though he's also got a guest appearance in Silent Witness in his repertoire. This time he got to use his own accent for the part of DS Jason Ross and as an added bonus, In A Lonely Place was primarily filmed and set in Scotland.

This episode focused on a series of horrific serial killings and Ross joined forces with Nikki and Jack to get to the bottom of it all.

Wunmi Mosaku

Earlier this year Wunmi was nominated for an Oscar for her role in Sinners and back in 2010 she starred as Charlie Gibbs in four episodes (two storylines) of Silent Witness.

Her character was a junior doctor and lab technician and she was assigned to work with Professor Leo Dalton. I can't think of a better mentor for Charlie and she got to assist with mortuary work too.

John Hannah

Known for his role in The Mummy films and Four Weddings and a Funeral, John played Dr Charles Beck in season 27's Effective Range. Charles was a pathologist who had left his former career behind him and become a forensic botanist.

Emilia called on Charles to help when they began investigating a crime that looked to be the work of serial killer Calvin Dunn. He'd carried out the post mortem on the first four victims and his wife Zoe had gone missing, presumed kidnapped by Dunn, which made him very personally involved in the case.