Code of Silence, review: a quietly revolutionary crime drama

Telegraph

18-05-2025

Code of Silence (ITV1) is based on such a good idea that you wonder why nobody has done it before. Then you remember that Rose Ayling-Ellis is the first deaf performer to have a mainstream acting career. The TV industry has been waiting for someone like her to break through, a talented performer whose winning stint on Strictly Come Dancing showed us that she has the chops to carry a show.
In this ITV six-parter, she plays Alison, a young woman plucked from her job working in a police canteen to help out on a covert investigation. All the usual lip-readers are busy, and the detectives need someone to help with surveillance on a gang suspected of planning a heist. She helps to identify a new recruit to the organisation, Liam (Kieron Moore), and basks in the praise from her police bosses. They tell her to forget everything she has seen and heard in the operations room, but, of course, she can't. Soon, Alison is looking up Liam's social media and pursuing her own enquiries, getting a job in the pub where he is a customer.
Now, in most dramas, characters who bypass the police and launch their own investigations are annoying. Alison isn't, because Ayling-Ellis makes her feel so real. You can completely understand why someone frustrated at being stuck in a boring career, held back by her deafness from realising her true potential, becomes caught up in the excitement of this new world. You can also understand why she's drawn to Liam, one of those criminals who at first seems quite sweet.
The writer, Catherine Moulton, has been partially deaf since childhood. It's obvious that both she and Ayling-Ellis have brought their experiences to bear, and they do it brilliantly. Words appear on the screen telling us what sounds Alison can hear and how they translate: 'Ewe se ewe leaf im' is, 'You said you would leave him', which comes from Alison spying on colleagues in the canteen who are conducting a secret affair.
A less authentic script would have had Alison effortlessly translating every conversation, but it's made clear that lip-reading isn't as easy as many people think, requiring logic and context. Alison is tasked with watching CCTV and covert camera footage from difficult angles, leaving her with only fragments of dialogue that she must piece together. Throughout, there are explanations of how it's done, and the opening scene gives us an idea of how the world sounds to Alison, which is something akin to being underwater.
There is solid support from Charlotte Ritchie and Andrew Buchan as the detectives who employ her services and underestimate her bravery. A taut plot sees Alison drawn further into danger, and the direction builds a real air of menace. The episodes don't drag.
'I'm really fed up of trying to prove myself,' she tells her mum near the beginning, but with this drama, Ayling-Ellis establishes she's easily capable of leading a strong thriller.