When the lead character of Code of Silence, who is hearing impaired, is asked why she is risking her life to be a police informant, she replies that she has always been underestimated. The actor who plays Alison, Rose Ayling-Ellis, is hearing impaired too, not just bringing veracity to her performance but also proving through career triumphs in the recent past that she cannot be underestimated.
Alison lives with her deaf mother (Fifi Garfield), doing low-level jobs to make ends meet. One of her jobs is at a police canteen. One day, when the assigned experts are absent, she is asked to lip-read a conversation between members of a violent gang.
Alison does such a brilliant job, that the cops in charge of the case – James (Andrew Buchan) and Ashleigh (Charlotte Ritchie) – come to depend on her for more assignments. For Alison, it is a thrill because, for once, somebody is giving her a chance to do something important.
She is not expected to take risks. But once she gets involved in the case, she is unstoppable. She starts working in a pub owned by a particularly nasty gangster, Braden (Joe Absolom), who is planning a robbery. She also embarks on a friendship with a new member of the gang, Liam (Kieron Moore). An orphan brought up in foster care, Liam is a lost, lonely soul, who falls in love with Alison, and she with him. Which, of course, complicates things,
Code of Silence, created and written by Catherine Moulton and directed by Chanya Button and Diarmuid Goggins, is out on Lionsgate Play. The six-episode series is more than just an effective police procedural. It stands up for the disabled without waving flags or resorting to melodrama.
Alison’s deafness adds an edge to many scenes, like the one where she secretly records a meeting of Braden’s gang and makes viewers hold their breaths.
Unlike most American cop shows, Code of Silence does not have a frenzied pace or profanity and hardly any violence. The commitment of the cops to the case – which involves a wealthy Indian family – is given equal weightage to the tender romance between Alison and Liam. There’s a charming innocence to Alison’s delight at going on a date to a pub or experiencing the luxury of a five-star hotel. Her desire to be like everyone else probably prompts her break-up with a nice hearing-impaired man (Rolf Choutan).
The show subtly conveys what life is like for a deaf person. Alison’s mother has trouble finding employment. Alison is sacked from a restaurant for getting a customer’s order wrong. Her courage and ambition do not keep away the frustrations of her condition. She says, “Really fed up with trying to prove myself.”
Alison lip-reads, using common sense and observation to make sense of what is being said. Accordingly, the subtitles appear blurred at first and then the letters shift around to make coherent sentences. Alison speaks clearly but mispronounces a few words and drops some vowels. An actor with meticulous coaching probably could not have captured the nuances of a deaf person’s speech or gestures.
Kieren Moore as Liam and Andrew Buchan as the avuncular cop give sensitive performances. But obviously, it is Rose Ayling-Ellis’s show all the way, and she plays Alison with a fierce determination.
