'Code of Silence' Hits the Ground Running in the Double Episode Premiere
BritBox’s latest crime thriller, Code of Silence, has hit the ground running with an adrenaline-filled two-episode premiere. The series stars Rose Ayling-Ellis as Alison, a young Deaf woman with a talent for lipreading and a thirst for adventure beyond her mundane life. Alison’s life takes a dramatic turn when she is hired by detectives to read lips to spy on criminals in a dangerous case.
The series was written and created by Catherine Moulton, whose previous writing credits include the 2023 series Hijack and the recently released The Stolen Girl. Moulton wrote to Alison, drawing on her own experience of being hard of hearing and using lip reading to communicate. The role of Alison is a perfect fit for Ayling-Ellis as a rising star and prominent Deaf actor and advocate for Deaf culture and British Sign Language.
In this series, the mystery is secondary (even tertiary) to Alison’s character development and her personal life. She becomes deeply entrenched in the world of the criminals she investigates, which ultimately reveals more about her desires, insecurities, and past than it does about the crime itself. With richly drawn characters, complex relationships, and a faithful representation of the deaf experience, Code of Silence is so much more than just a thriller.
