Rose Ayling-Ellis to use lip-reading skills to fight crime in new ITV drama

The 28-year-old actress will play a deaf catering worker in Code Of Silence.
Rose Ayling-Ellis will play a character recruited by police to use her lip-reading skills to uncover the conservations of criminals in a new ITV drama (Jordan Pettitt/PA)
PA Wire

Rose Ayling-Ellis is to play a character recruited by police to use her lip-reading skills to uncover the conversations of criminals in a new ITV drama.

The 28-year-old actress, who is known for her role in long-running soap EastEnders, was the first deaf contestant to take part in Strictly Come Dancing and she went on to lift the glitterball trophy.

Ayling-Ellis, who competed on the celebrity dance show with her professional partner Giovanni Pernice in 2021, will now star in new crime drama Code Of Silence.

She said: “When I first read Catherine Moulton’s script it was obvious that her first-hand experiences and understanding has enabled her to write a truly authentic character and I knew I had to be a part of this project.

“I am so delighted ITV are as excited as we are to bring this to life and I can’t wait to get to started.”

Ayling-Ellis will play a deaf catering worker, called Alison Woods, who to make ends meet works in both a police canteen and a local bar and cares for her deaf mother.

Woods then becomes key to a police investigation when she translates a criminal gang’s conversations as she finds herself drawn to one of the main suspects, the announcement said.

Writer Moulton, who has worked on Baptiste and Then You Run, said: “It’s a fantastic opportunity to combine my love of tense, twisty thrillers with my experience of lip reading and hearing loss, and all in a show for ITV.

“I can’t imagine a more perfect Alison than Rose and I will do my best to make sure the story keeps audiences on the edge of their seats.”

The six-part thriller is executively produced by Tom Leggett and Damien Timmer for Mammoth Screen alongside Moulton.

The drama will premiere on ITV and will be available on ITVX.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in