Strictly winner Rose Ayling-Ellis says her new TV drama gives a realistic portrayal of a deaf character but she won’t take responsibility for

Rose Ayling-Ellis has spoken of her excitement around her first lead acting role in revolutionary ITV drama Code Of Silence based around a deaf character.

The 2021 Strictly Come Dancing winner has given speeches and championed deaf people and the need for more representation on screen for years.

Code Of Silence sees Rose play deaf kitchen worker ‘Allison Brooks’ who works in a Canterbury police station canteen struggling to pay her rent. Her world is turned upside down when she is enlisted to help on a major case using her lip reading skills whilst watching surveillance footage of a gang. But her character gets drawn in more than was planned after meeting one of the criminals.

“A lot of people assume that communication is just listening and speaking, but there’s so much depth to the communication. So it is playing around with that and creating a drama,” Rose said.

On being seen as a champion for deaf people on TV, she added: “I think for the past four years, I started to learn how to balance that pressure. I started to relax and I told myself I can’t represent everyone. It’s just impossible. I can’t represent all deaf people. And it’s not on me to show that on TV, because it’s the industry that needs to cast more diverse deaf people, and that’s not on me. So I cut that pressure off. I can only do what I can and do my best and just do what I love and enjoy and feel passionate about it.

“I would love to see more, but that’s why this show is so important. I really wanted it to be more realistic and more with my world. The pressure is always going to be there. I think it is for everybody. But I hope we’re going to see more deaf people.”

Rose was crucial to the whole drama, working on it with the writers from an early stage and the project has taken a number of years to get to the screen. She brought the cast and crew into her world by doing a ‘sign for the day’ and explaining to them how she views and hears the world.

On the effort she put in, Rose said: “During the filming I was strict and I would go to bed at nine and get up at five and eat well, what you put in your body as well. I know it sounds cheesy but I really love acting, so it didn’t feel like a job.

“Sometimes when I do a project where I feel I have to represent the deaf community, it drains me out. So it’s like a balance of the two. With filming I love it, and I feel like, When have I ever got this opportunity? So I think when you don’t have that much, when you don’t have the privilege to be able to have a job like that you really take it on. But I think maybe I’m a workaholic. Maybe that’s not good! I’m thinking about it, maybe I should have a better balance.”

Other cast members were quick to praise Rose’s work on the project and the drama’s central idea.

Andrew Buchan, star of hits like Broadchurch on ITV, plays DI James Marsh and said: “It was a journey for us all. It’s definitely one of the most positive, enlightening, fantastic jobs I’ve ever done, without question. We learnt our sign of the day every day, which is magnificent, something I’ll never forget. And you realise just how many misconceptions you’re carrying.”

Ghosts star Charlotte Ritchie, plays DS Ashleigh Francis, and was excited to work with Rose.

She was shocked to find it was the first drama with a deaf central character. She said: “It feels sort of suddenly overdue. You see a show like this, and you go, wait, what do you mean this is the first. Because it’s not like everybody’s just suddenly turned up. And then everyone’s like, it should have just been done a long time ago. And then you start to realise that that hasn’t been the case. And how was it so possible for so long that there wasn’t that representation? So definitely that for me.

“Also I personally really wanted to do the job, because I think Rose is really brilliant. She’s brilliant, she’s a brilliant actress. and so to have that kind of combination of representation, but also just pure talent, it was a no brainer for me.”

* Code of Silence starts on May 18 on ITV and ITVX.