BritBox isn’t easing into original drama. Code of Silence drops a Deaf woman with expert lip-reading skills into the middle of a covert police operation and lets the tension do the talking. The concept isn’t window dressing. It’s the engine of the story.
Premiering Thursday, July 24, Code of Silence stars Rose Ayling-Ellis as Alison Brooks, a police canteen worker dragged into the murky world of surveillance when a detective realises her lip-reading talent is too valuable to ignore. It’s a gamble on both sides. She’s under-trained and under-informed, but also observant and underestimated – the kind of combination crime dramas often overlook until it’s too late.
That’s the trick of Code of Silence. It doesn’t build a story around disability. It builds a story, full stop. Ayling-Ellis plays Alison not as an idealised hero or a victim of circumstance, but as someone stuck balancing care duties, economic strain, and a dangerously blurred line between her role and her feelings. Charlotte Ritchie adds grounding as DS Ashleigh Francis, while Kieron Moore brings just enough charm as Liam Barlow to complicate the assignment.
Catherine Moulton’s script draws from lived experience, but doesn’t lean on it for moral weight. There’s tension, yes, but not the overwrought, over-scored kind. Just the kind that slowly eats at the corners of a good decision.
Whether the series sticks the landing remains to be seen. But Code of Silence starts with something most dramas fumble: an original voice.
