Code of Silence– Read My Lips
Alison Brooks (Rose Ayling-Ellis) is a low-paid cafeteria worker in the London police station. One day Detective Sergeant Ashleigh Francis ( Charlotte Ritchie) watches Alison’s remarkable lip reading skills watching two police officers talk about their impending divorce in the cafeteria. Perhaps she could help in bringing down an organized crime syndicate that has perplexed the police for years. This is the opening scene of Code of Silence, a British crime drama, with startling performances by some deaf actors.
Soon Alison is recruited to eavesdrop on the criminal gang, mostly through watching footage on CCTV. She scrutinizes facial expressions and observes their body language and the context of the venue. Like any good detective, Alison must study the scene, piecing together clues. And she desperately needs the money to pay for the apartment rent for her deaf mother and herself. In addition, she works a third job as a bartender to make ends meet.
Alison’s side hustle proves crucial to entrapping the leaders of the crime syndicate. However, a handsome, rather shy computer hacker, Liam Barlow (Kieron Moore) soon becomes attracted to her, so much so that he tries to learn sign language. And Alison is equally smitten by the joy at being attractive to a hearing person. She teaches Liam about the intricacies of sign language and reading lips: context is everything. To read lips is to interpret body language, psychological attitude, and emotion. Communication is more than speaking and listening. The viewer is learning too.
Thirsty for validation in a hearing world where society commonly expects less than what the deaf are capable of, Alison takes unnecessary risks. Against her better judgment and blinded partly by her feelings for Liam, Alison chooses to become involved with Liam over her current on-again off-again boyfriend, Ethan Lewis (Rolf Choutan), also deaf.
Solving the crime requires suspension of belief in some scenes involving the criminal mind and intuition of the mobsters. Other times the viewer can’t help but be annoyed by Alison, a fiercely intelligent yet untrained detective, who somehow is fooled and betrayed over and over again. Yet Detective Sergeant Ashleigh Lewis refuses to be disappointed in the young lip-reader and supports her until the very end of the season.
The performances are captivating, particularly the chemistry between Rose Ayling-Ellis and Kieron Moore, allowing for any scepticism about a possible romance to evaporate.
And bravo for a portrayal of the disabled with as complex lives as the rest of us. Additionally, The Code of Silence contributes to the understanding of how the disabled are forced to adjust and accommodate to a world that mostly does not recognize a role in accommodation and adaptation to their needs.
Availability: BritBox
Note 1: Both Rose Ayling-Ellis and Rolf Choutan were born deaf.
Note 2: An interview with Rose Ayling-Ellis and Kieron Moore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlzmNFiRDoY
Note 3: Season 2 is in production.