BritBox’s newest protagonist, Rose Ayling-Ellis brings us the art of lip reading in the new crime thriller, Code of Silence. From the perfect creator, Catherine Moulton who learned to lip read from a young age. 

The Synopsis 

Code of Silence is told through the point of view of Alison Brooks (Rose Ayling-Ellis, “Reunion”), a Deaf canteen worker. Alison is struggling to make ends meet, juggling two jobs, one in a police canteen and another in a local bar, while also doing her best to support her Deaf mum, Julie (Fifi Garfield, “Switch”). It’s not long before Alison is pulled into a high-stakes police investigation when DS Ashleigh Francis (Charlotte Ritchie, “Wonka”) asks that she use her lip-reading skills to monitor a dangerous criminal gang. As her interpretation of their covert conversations becomes central to the investigation, Alison is plunged into an exhilarating new world. Her role quickly becomes key to unlocking the police case, but her feelings become complicated when she finds herself drawn to one of the suspects, Liam Barlow (Kieron Moore, “Master of the Air”). Despite knowing the risks and the growing threat to her personal life, Alison can’t let go.

I was able to connect with Rose Ayling-Ellis and Catherine Moulton for the premiere of Code of Silence. Moulton shared where she found the inspiration for this story and Ayling-Ellis about her character and more! 

Nancy Tapia: Let’s start by congratulating you…

Catherine Moulton: Thank you.

Nancy Tapia: With Code of Silence and code of mystery and determination by Alison’s character. Which I really admire. They tell her no and it’s like saying the opposite, haha..

Rose Ayling-Ellis: Haha…That’s reckless.

Nancy Tapia: Catherine, we’ll start with you in creating this story.

Catherine Moulton: Yes. Well, it came from just an idea I had when I had lip reading lessons. I’ve been partially deaf since childhood, but I had lip reading lessons much later in life and I wasn’t aware quite how much work lip readers are doing. So that 30-40 percent of speech is visible on your lips, but the rest of it is guesswork from people’s facial expressions, their body language, where they are. So you’re putting together context and that just made me think that that’s what detectives do. That lip readers are essentially detectives and it just felt like a perfect idea for a show that hadn’t been done before to have a lip reader as the main investigative character.

Nancy Tapia: Yes, as I was watching I was like, “Wait, do law enforcement really use this tactic?” Because I’d never heard of it, but it’s brilliant.

Catherine Moulton: Thank you, we did our research. We spoke to police officers who use lip readers and we spoke to some forensic lip readers. So it’s maybe not the best known tactic, but it is something that they do.

Nancy Tapia: So Rose, is that how you kind of prepared for this getting into the world of forensic before diving in?

Rose Ayling-Ellis: Yeah, so Cat actually approached me and a member of production approached me about two years before we started filming. So I was there right from the beginning. Which means I have a lot of input in the writing and we would talk a lot, we had a lot of meetings, we come up with an idea. To prepare myself for it, I felt I actually wanted to input a lot of frustrated experiences that a lot of deaf people experience about how society sees our life and how we should live our lives. For example, “Alison” working in a bar and acting with different jobs and then everyone always expects, “oh, you should be very grateful because you got a job.” And actually “Alison” wants so much more for her life and she feels that she can. I think a lot of disabled people experience that. I know so many stories of people working in the same company for 10 years and never get promoted and someone brand new comes in just fresh out of university and gets promoted within five months.

Check out Michael C. Hall Talks About A Second Chance In Dexter: Resurrection | INTERVIEW

So I really wanted to have that experience in it. I think a lot of it came from my massive knowledge of being deaf really, but preparing myself for it. I did think, “oh, it’s lip reading” because everyone just thinks you can just lip read everything but it’s impossible. It’s really hard to lip read. So I did try and test out of my lip reading field, so I went on the streets in London and tried to lip read some people’s conversation and I was quite surprised how much I could pick up and how much I couldn’t pick it up. A lot of it depends on that accent and their body language. So if this person would be pointing at the stand with a street map and be like, oh, he is talking about the stop. So knowing your context of what they’re talking about is what helps with lip reading. So I lip read a bit, nodding with some people’s conversation in the shoot.

Nancy Tapia: Wow, and Catherine, so I love how in the series displays what Rose was talking about. How you’re trying to read lips and how for us as viewers, it’s displayed on screen. It starts as fuzzy words and then it comes clear. Can you tell me about the idea of inputting in that way.

Catherine Moulton: Yeah, it was really trying to visualize what Rose was just talking about that it is really difficult to lip read. It’s not reading a book. There are certain shapes that are clear and then you’re building in all the rest, filling it in, a lot of it is guess work. So it was a visual representation of that. The first letters that appear are often the shapes that are really clear on your lips. Then the rest of it is Alison’s internal process of how she’s working out what’s being said. 

We wanted it to show that it is difficult and it is not an easy thing where you just suddenly see it all. It is not like subtitles and there was a lot of to and fro about how those worked and making them feel clear enough, but making them really hard. I think that a lot of the time it was about taking stuff away and making it a bit harder because we wanted to really show that it is difficult.

Rose Ayling-Ellis:

We worked so hard on it for so long trying to get that balance right because you want it to be authentic. But if you do it realistically, know who’ll understand what we said. It happens so quickly in your brain, you’re doing it so quickly you don’t realize you’re doing it. We were trying to show that, but you also need information to keep the storyline going. So if all of that free balance of putting it together, it’s like a great big puzzle, which is what lip reading is, it is a big puzzle.

Nancy Tapia:

I feel as I watched, “Alison” has a little bit of Rose. You’ve broken a lot of barriers in your career and here is “Alison” doing the same. Can you talk a little bit about representing that strong-willed?

Rose Ayling-Ellis:

I think when you are disabled you don’t really have the choice to be more short and willing. I think it’s exhausting. Sometimes you feel you’re having to prove to everyone you can do it and then when you prove it to them they’re like, “Oh wow, it’s amazing what you can do it.” And I’m like, “No.” That’s too much work for me to have to prove to you guys that then I don’t want to actually be really sad and miserable about my life and like “Oh, I can’t hear.” I don’t want to do that as well. So I think, and it’s a mix of everything. You don’t really have a choice to be a spokesperson. At the moment, I’m getting a lot of recognition in this country for my job, which then automatically made me a spokesperson on behalf of all deaf people. But I can’t represent all deaf people, we’re all so different. I can only do my best. I think it is a complicated relationship with your identity.

Nancy Tapia: Well, now you’re going to be recognized here in the US and then a lot of stuff gets picked up in Latin America. So you’re all going to be all international.

Rose Ayling-Ellis: Oooohhh, well, I would love to get a job in America. I mean, I’m happy to get a job because then it will be nice to have a job. No, I mean I like having a job. I love acting. I love my work. So if I don’t recognize in America that could be mental, I’d be mad because I’ve been doing all my work in the UK so it’d be nice for me to travel. I would love to travel more.

Nancy Tapia: Let’s also mention that Code of Silence also has some romance! I can’t wait to finish the development of that relationship with someone who “Alison” should not be interacting with.

Rose Ayling-Ellis: A bit naughty, but I feel they have a lot in common in their own way because “Alison” is frustrated with the life that she has. But then also Liam (Kieron Moore) with his background, he had a really rough upbringing which then put him into this position that he never really asked for. He’s now with all these bad people and I think they can see it in each other. They can see that they’re living the life that they don’t really want to live. I think that’s what attracts them and we all love a bit of romance. We all like a bit of romance with a bad boy vibe, haha…

Nancy Tapia:

Haha…I love it! Well thank you so much for your time. Congratulations! I can’t wait to finish the series.

Don’t miss the weekly Thursday episode of Code of Silence on BritBox. Also available to stream in ASL.

Source: LRMExclusive, BritBox

About BritBox

BritBox is the leading streaming destination for the best of British television, offering an unmatched collection of expertly curated entertainment. From critically acclaimed dramas and mysteries to comedies, documentaries, and lifestyle programming, BritBox invites audiences to step out of their everyday and into a world of exceptional British storytelling. Launched in 2017 and now owned by BBC Studios, BritBox is available in the US, Canada, Australia, and the Nordics. For more, visit britbox.com, or find the BritBox app on most mobile and connected TV devices.