Strictly Come Dancing winner Rose Ayling-Ellis has landed her own ITV drama – where her character uses lip-reading to help catch a dangerous gang of criminals.
Code of Silence puts Rose in the lead role of catering worker Alison Woods who is based in a police canteen and is deaf.
But she is plucked from her day job to lip-read the conversations of some criminals and is plunged into a new and exhilarating world.
Her interpretation of the gang’s clandestine meetings quickly become key to unlocking the police investigation.
But her feelings about the case then become complicated when Alison finds herself drawn to one of the suspects.
Rose, 28, who has been deaf since birth, said: “I am so thrilled to be coming on board for Code of Silence.”
The drama is written by Catherine Moulton who is partially deaf and a hearing aid user.
She taught herself to lip-read growing up, and came up with the idea after taking lip-reading lessons.
She said: “It’s a fantastic opportunity to combine my love of a tense, twisty thriller with my experience of lip-reading and hearing loss.”
Rose added: “When I first read Catherine’s script it was obvious that her first-hand experiences enabled her to write a truly authentic character and I knew I had to be a part of this project.”
Filming of the six-part thriller will begin shortly with it premiering on ITV and streaming site ITVX.
Polly Hill, ITV Head of Drama, said: “Code of Silence really stands out. It’s a brilliantly original story. It’s a mainstream crime show, but one that can make a real difference to the audience’s understanding of the deaf community.”
Rose, who won the dance show with Giovanni Pernice, 32, in 2021, has campaigned for disability rights after gaining prominence on EastEnders and as the first deaf Strictly contestant.
At the Edinburgh TV festival last year, Rose said she was “done with being the token deaf character” and said more needs to be done to make TV accessible.
She added: “It is not nice when my favourite TV shows don’t have subtitles.”
