'Code of Silence' Star Rose Ayling-Ellis on the Fight for Deaf Representation

BritBox’s Code of Silence has all the hallmarks of a typical crime thriller, but it’s also unlike any show on television today. Key to its success is its lead actor, Rose Ayling-Ellis, a rapidly rising star and one of the most prominent Deaf actors in the UK. Ayling-Ellis is an Olivier-nominated actor of stage and screen, the first Deaf contestant on Strictly Come Dancing, and has guest-starred on Doctor Who, Reunion, and Ludwig, to name just a few. Alongside acting, she is an advocate for d/Deaf and disability representation and access in media and a champion of British Sign Language.

Code of Silence follows Ayling-Ellis’s character Alison, a young woman at a dead-end job in a police department cafeteria whose life is turned upside down when detectives approach her for help on a case. Because she is deaf, the detectives want to utilize her lip-reading abilities to eavesdrop on a gang of jewel thieves they are investigating. But as the investigation unfolds, Alison becomes increasingly reckless and personally involved in the case. Her commitment to the case is put to the test by Liam Barlow (Kieron Moore), a hacker with the gang who has a sensitive side and a soft spot for Alison. 

The series is notable not just for its representation of Deaf individuals on screen, but also for its disability representation behind the scenes. The show’s creator and writer, Catherine Moulton, is hard of hearing and drew from her own experience to create the character of Alison. Three of the show’s executive producers, Moulton, Ayling-Ellis, and Bryony Arnold, are women with disabilities, a rarity in the television landscape. The series has been a hit with British audiences and has already been renewed for a second season.

Telly Visions spoke with Rose Ayling-Ellis about bringing the character of Alison to life and the intricacies of ensuring representation and accessibility in front of and behind the camera.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Telly Visions: You’ve spoken before about the responsibilities you have as a Deaf actor, to not only act but also handle on-set accommodations for yourself and accuracy for the Deaf characters you play. On this show, you have the executive producer credit. What did that entail?

Rose Ayling-Ellis: It was interesting, because I was doing all the work that I’ve been doing a lot in the past anyway, but I never got credit for it, so it’s nice that I get the credit. I was involved in the writing process right from the beginning. I network with Deaf people, bringing them into the crew as well as casting them as actors. I knew all the deaf actors, having been involved with the auditions and auditioning alongside them. (Fifi Garfield and Rolf Choutan are deaf actors who play Alison’s mom and boyfriend, respectively.) 

Having input on how I wanted the film set to be and how I wanted it to be an accessible environment for everybody, not just for Deaf people. It was just nice that the work I’d been doing anyway, I get credit for it. It wouldn’t be for me to get the fancy title to make me look good; I would genuinely do the work. I came into the editing room as well and did a lot of feedback on the lip-reading subtitles. I was quite involved a lot.

TV: Code of Silence conveys the physical and sensory experience of being hard of hearing so well, and a lot of that comes down to the sound design and the visual design of the show. What was the process like for developing the show’s look and sound?

Ayling-Ellis: I always get asked, “What can you hear?” and the thing is, I don’t know what hearing people can hear, so I don’t know what I’m comparing it with. So rather than me trying to explain, I brought in my hearing aids and a doctor’s stethoscope; the doctor plugs it into your hearing aids.* I brought it in and made them all listen to it. Everyone assumes that we just hear nothing. But it’s not true, with hearing aids, there’s so much noise going on. We can’t cut down background noise; it’s so mechanical. 

(*Audiologists use specialized stethoscopes to test if hearing aids are receiving and emitting sound; it essentially allows the user to hear what a hearing aid hears.)

We then recorded one of the scenes. We plugged my hearing aid in and attached a microphone to it, then recorded the scene and obtained a clip of it. Then we sent it to the sound department so they always had that to refer back to. 

We also brought in a deaf drummer [Evelyn Glennie, of the band Composure]. Because she’s deaf herself, it was great to have someone in the sound department who understands the world we hear; that’s what’s really important. You can’t make stuff without deaf people; you can’t create the story without our understanding. We’re walking out with a richer story; we know all of this.

TV: Alison is a deeply layered character with complex motivations and numerous secrets. How did you chart her emotional journey as an actor?

Ayling-Ellis: I based it a lot on my early days of working in different places. I used to work at the supermarket and a clothing shop, and the amount of weird discrimination I experienced back then... I put that frustration into Alison, as well as the frustration of everyone else deciding what your life should be like. I was like, 'No, no, no, I get to live how I want to live.' I put a lot of that into Alison. But she is so reckless, while for me, if danger happens, I’m running out the door; I’m not facing it. It was quite fun.

TV: You’ve said that Code of Silence was the most fun you’ve had on a job. What made it such a good time?

Ayling-Ellis: It was such an inclusive environment, and not just for deaf people. We had Bryony [Bryony Arnold, Code of Silence’s executive producer]; she’s a wheelchair user, so we had ramps everywhere, and then we had someone who has a visual impairment in the costume department, so we had color-coded names on the door. We had an access coordinator. What Bryony had always said is that we’re going to be disabled at some point in our lives, and we could all have disabilities that we don’t even realize that we have. 

If one person is struggling to stand up all day long, rather than saying you can’t work now, we provide access. We’d get a little stool and sit them down. It was an environment that truly valued each other, and we made sure that everyone could do their best work, which created a more pleasant atmosphere. It’s easy when you’re on a film crew and you don’t have time to get on a job and not say hello to anyone. But everyone started with “How are you?” Everyone knew each other, everyone was in the room together, and could see each other. You just feel seen.

TV: Code of Silence has been available in the UK for a few months. What has the reception been like from viewers?

Ayling-Ellis: Everyone’s been rooting for Alison and Liam! Everybody seems obsessed with them. It’s gotten an outstanding reaction. For so long, a lot of people have thought that having disabled people in a program wouldn’t sell. Now, we have evidence that this is actually what people want. They want to watch something like that because there isn’t anything like it.

TV: You’ve been in several genre shows recently, like hard sci-fi in the most recent season of Doctor Who, and now a crime thriller. Is there a genre you’d like to try that you haven’t yet?

Ayling-Ellis: I want to do more rom-coms or comedies because I haven’t done that area at all. We don’t see a deaf person in a rom-com; that would be quite cute. That’s hard to get right. You have to get your comedy timing, and that’s a whole new skill. I’m very much like, anything that’s hard and hasn’t been done before, I want to do it.

TV: Maybe in another universe, Alison and Liam are Bonnie-and-Clyde types in a rom-com… is that too much to ask?

Code of Silence continues with new episodes on BritBox on Thursdays through the end of August 2025. Season 2 is already greenlit.