Latest news with #Ayling-Ellis
NZ Herald
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- NZ Herald
Deaf actress Rose Ayling-Ellis has a message she wants you to hear
When Ayling-Ellis' character, Alison, watches CCTV footage of suspected gang members, she scrutinises their facial expressions and observes how they stand. Like any good detective, Alison must study the scene, piecing together clues. In a clever visual conceit, jumbled subtitles appear on-screen and gradually unscramble as she decodes each sentence. Code of Silence first screened on ITV in Britain in May, and its debut episode drew over 6 million viewers, according to the broadcaster. Ayling-Ellis was already known to many from Strictly Come Dancing, the wildly popular BBC show that inspired the Dancing With the Stars franchise. She won the show in 2021 with a routine, to Clean Bandit and Zara Larsson's Symphony, that fell silent halfway to mirror her experience of being deaf. Kieron Moore and Rose Ayling-Ellis in Code of Silence. She plays a deaf woman who is recruited by the police to eavesdrop by lip reading. That victory made her a household name and landed her TV presenting gigs, including as a sportscaster at the 2024 Paralympic Games. But after being 'on the TV as myself quite a few times,' she said, she wanted to get back to acting. This year, Ayling-Ellis has also starred in the miniseries Reunion, a revenge thriller about a deaf man recently released from prison, and played opposite Ncuti Gatwa in an episode of the cult sci-fi series Doctor Who. Though she has been acting professionally for 13 years, Code of Silence is her first leading role. Her character in the show is working in a police station cafeteria when one of the officers recruits her, and she also has a side hustle as a pub bartender to make ends meet. 'I feel like that is what is currently happening in the UK,' Ayling-Ellis said. 'Everyone needs two or three jobs to be able to pay the rent.' She said that she and the show's creator and screenwriter, Catherine Moulton, wanted to reflect that times were 'hard for everyone' in Britain at the moment, and 'even harder for disabled people'. The British Government's treatment of disabled people has been in the spotlight this year, and last month Prime Minister Keir Starmer proposed restricting welfare benefits to tamp down on rising social security spending. 'This Government is trying to get disabled people back to work, but not providing the help for us to be able to work,' Ayling-Ellis said. While she wanted to draw attention to the barriers that disabled people face, she said, she also wanted to show that they live complex and varied lives. 'We've got personalities. We make mistakes. We have love interests,' she said. In the show, as in life, Ayling-Ellis said, lip reading is 'like a puzzle.' Photo / Max Miechowski, The New York Times Hungry for adventure and against her better judgment, her character in 'Code of Silence' strikes up a romantic relationship with one of the gang members she is investigating. That was in contrast, Ayling-Ellis said, to a desexualised perception of disabled people, who often 'get treated like a child'. She shook her head. 'I'm a woman. I'm 30 years old.' During her childhood in Hythe, a seaside town about 95km southeast of London, she often felt like 'the only deaf person in the whole word,' she said. After high school, she studied fashion at an art college, and specialised in embellishments like beading. 'I don't need to be able to hear to do that job,' she recalled thinking. Now, she felt 'a little bit angry about that,' she said, adding, 'I should've chosen what I wanted to do, rather than what I thought other people would accept me doing.' As a teenager, Ayling-Ellis had attended a film-making workshop for deaf children. But being behind the camera was 'slow and boring' – whereas being in front of it was another story. 'It's energetic, and I'd really get into a role,' she said: 'I loved performing.' She joined Deafinitely Youth Theatre, part of a London-based company for deaf people, and looked for other gigs on the side. 'At that time, I didn't have an agent,' she said, 'so I used to get jobs through Facebook.' Ayling-Ellis said she was first 'noticed' after being cast in a BBC miniseries called Summer of Rockets, a role that landed her representation. She went on to appear in the long-running British soap opera Eastenders, which she described as 'my film school for two years'. Ayling-Ellis has been acting professionally for 13 years, but Code of Silence is her first leading role. Since winning Strictly Come Dancing, Ayling-Ellis said she had 'felt a responsibility to try and educate people, to shift their minds in how they see deaf people.' She has presented several documentaries about deafness and published a children's book, Marvelous Messages, which highlights what she called 'the many other ways' of communicating 'that are not speaking or listening.' The book also includes inspiring deaf figures from history, like stuntwoman Kitty O'Neil. When Ayling-Ellis was growing up, deaf role models were scarce, she said: 'Helen Keller? Great lady! She's blind and deaf and a Victorian woman. But I'm not relating.' Moulton, the Code of Silence creator, who is partly deaf, said that she became a fan of Ayling-Ellis watching Strictly Come Dancing and wrote the TV show with her in mind. She also cast deaf actors Fifi Garfield and Rolf Choutan as Alison's mother and ex-boyfriend. Moulton said she hoped to create roles for deaf actors 'who haven't always got those chances to be able to build a career, to get to the place that Rose is now'. Samantha Baines, a British actress who wears hearing aids, said that Ayling-Ellis had a similar attitude. 'Rose ensures that any live event she takes part in has live captions as well as British Sign Language interpretation, any radio show has transcripts and promotes the hiring of other deaf creatives,' she said. 'Rose isn't pulling the ladder up after herself.' Ayling-Ellis said she had begun noticing that her TV work was having an impact – not just for deaf people, but among hearing audiences, too. 'Lately, I'm starting to see people signing to me more,' she said. 'I think they're a bit more excited about meeting deaf people, rather than terrified of getting it wrong.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Simran Hans Photographs by: Max Miechowski ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
Edmonton Journal
05-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Edmonton Journal
Deaf character makes herself heard in Code of Silence
Article content First and foremost, Code of Silence is just plain good TV. Compelling characters, suspenseful plot, and relatable themes of black, white and the messy grey in between. But secondly, the show is breaking ground for inclusion on the small screen. Article content The new drama centres on a deaf canteen worker named Alison Brooks (deaf actress Rose Ayling-Ellis), who, thanks to her lip-reading skills, is drawn into a police investigation of an impending jewelry heist. The series debuted in May on British network ITVX, and it starts streaming July 24 on BritBox in Canada. A second season is on the way. Article content Article content 'The fact that this is a deaf protagonist leading a show for a mainstream audience in such a compelling circumstance is just brilliant,' executive producer Bryony Arnold told The Hollywood Reporter. 'It is a thriller and a relationship drama, but underneath that, we will hopefully be teaching the audience a little bit about deaf awareness and deaf culture.' Article content Article content That's to say teaching in subtle nudges, not in ham-handed shoves. The accomplishment is a testament to the show's team, behind the camera and in front of it. Article content 'Rose (Ayling-Ellis), and I both have different experiences of deafness,' creator and writer Catherine Moulton, who is partially deaf, told The Hollywood Reporter. 'And we had a script head who is deaf, and we had deaf, disabled and neurodiverse (DDN), people throughout the crew.' Article content Ayling-Ellis, meanwhile, has seen her career become white-hot in the lead-up to Code of Silence. After starring on British soap opera EastEnders, she earned an Olivier Award nomination for her role in As You Like It, participated in two documentaries about deafness, starred in the BBC thriller Reunion, and appeared on Doctor Who. Article content Article content After Code of Silence debuted in Britain, The Guardian described her performance as 'a triumph.' The Independant said 'she's surpassed herself' and predicted that she'd eventually win an Oscar. The show currently has a 100 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Article content There's a quiet scene in Code of Silence in which Alison is watching TV with her mother, who's also deaf. It's been a tough day. Alison asks her mom, 'Do you think about what life would be like if things were different?' Article content
Daily Record
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
ITV crime series with 'perfect' Rotten Tomatoes score available to stream now
Fans are hailing the series - starring former Strictly Come Dancing winner Rose-Ayling Ellis - as 'groundbreaking' and 'addictive' An ITV crime thriller series has been hailed for its "riveting" acting. TV critics have been unable to pull themselves away from the programme, which many say is "addictive". Starring in the lead role in Code of Silence is Strictly Come Dancing star Rose Ayling-Ellis as Alison Brooks, a deaf civilian who is drafted in to assist a major police investigation; with all their hopes pinned on her ability to help aid their search. "Alison Brooks' lipreading skills pull her into the police's investigation of a dangerous gang, but her undeniable connection with criminal Liam Barlow threatens everything," the official synopsis reads. The series, which is now available on ITV and aired on the channel in May, has been given a perfect score of 100% by critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Although some feedback is mixed, it appears the one thing in common is that everyone could agree they couldn't stop watching. One critic wrote: "Yes, this is a pretty traditional crime drama in a host of ways, but it's got a true star turn in the lead and a story that will keep you entertained from start to finish." Lavishing praise on Ellis, another wrote: "With Code of Silence (Ayling-Ellis) is revealed to be something else: a riveting actress with the talent to anchor a knuckle-biting criminal caper." One noted: "But although it's not a heavyweight crime drama, it's still worth a watch for its simulation of the deaf experience. The handling of lip-reading is fascinating, and the sound effects are perfect." "Is every second of this series satisfying? Nope. Still, overall, Code of Silence is truly groundbreaking, and the first three instalments are sublime," wrote another viewer. Someone else added: "You can watch and learn - or at least newly appreciate an under-acknowledged world - without being shortchanged on your entertainment at all. That's quite a triumph." "Coincidences abound... But it's still enjoyable, and the sheer talent of the people involved keep things absorbing. An addictive Sunday night drama," someone else penned. It appears the show has already become a smash hit with viewers, with a second series reportedly already underway. During her stint on Strictly Come Dancing, Ayling-Ellis won the show in 2021 with a routine that grabbed viewer attention when the accompanying music fell silent halfway through to mirror her experience of being deaf. Between her time in the BBC dance competition, her previous stint in EastEnders and her starring role in this ITV crime thriller, Ayling-Ellis has become a face to champion the deaf community in its entirety.
Irish Examiner
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Rose Ayling-Ellis: ‘I can't represent all Deaf people because all Deaf people are different'
Every day on the set of new ITV crime drama Code Of Silence, the cast and crew learned a word in British Sign Language (BSL), but Deaf actress Rose Ayling-Ellis had some rules. 'I really tried to avoid teaching rude words, because often that's the only one people remember, and they don't remember anything else,' says the former EastEnders star, 30. 'So, [I told them] 'You can only learn your rude words when you learn more useful ones.'' Ayling-Ellis, who played Frankie in the BBC soap from 2020-2022, plays Alison Brooks in Code Of Silence, a Deaf woman who is working in a police canteen when her talent for lip-reading is spotted. Stockport-born Andrew Buchan, 46, stars as DI James Marsh, while Ghosts and You actress Charlotte Ritchie, 35, plays DS Ashleigh Francis, and, together, they recruit Alison to help them surveil a gang, but what starts out as a covert job becomes fraught. Buchan says learning a word every day was 'magnificent' and lip-reading fascinating. But he says that what Alison is asked to do in the show is 'unfathomable and farcical' when compared with the work of trained forensic lip-readers, who are 'highly sought after by law enforcement. They spend hours analysing video after video of CCTV footage, trying to catch killers, rapists,' he says. Alison, meanwhile, is 'in no way experienced to do this' and his character, Marsh, is a 'very blunt, monomaniacal, driven, impatient' boss, who is recklessly 'enlisting the help of this complete wildcard, who could derail the whole thing'. Buchan says working on the show was 'definitely one of the most enlightening, fantastic jobs I've ever done, without question'. Code of Silence was created by Catherine Moulton (Baptiste, Hijack), who has experience of lip-reading and hearing loss. For star Charlotte Ritchie, the clear communication on set made filming a joy. 'TV sets can be a bit fast paced, can get a bit impersonal, and you can rush past people in the morning and maybe not take the time to communicate and check in,' Ritchie says. 'With this production, there was such an emphasis on really looking at people, really making sure that people were understood, and I think the more that that's possible, the nicer the set feels, and the more people are able to take a breath to work in a way that feels expansive. It just puts communication right at the forefront.' Ritchie attributes this openness to Ayling-Ellis. 'Rose did a really amazing job — because she didn't have to — but she made so much space for everybody to do that.' Ayling-Ellis and the rest of the cast are hopeful that Code Of Silence will usher in a new era of inclusion on telly, while also being a gripping six-parter packed with drama. The entire cast sound in awe of Kent-born Ayling-Ellis, who won Strictly Come Dancing in 2021 with professional dancer Giovanni Pernice. 'I really wanted to do this job, because Rose is really brilliant,' says Ritchie. 'I am just singing her praises now. I need to say something bad about her. She's also a diva! No. Ha ha.' 'I felt like I'd never been truly listened to until I met Rose,' adds Manchester-born Kieron Moore, 28, who plays Alison's love interest, gang member Liam Barlow. 'She pays so much attention to you when you talk. I was constantly learning how to be a better person and a better actor [because of her]. I had that in common with Liam: He's fascinated, he sees [lip-reading] as a skill, he sees this person as a bright bit of light.' Ayling-Ellis says: 'A lot of people assume that communication is just listening and speaking, but there's so much depth to communication.' She entranced the British public when she performed a dance set in silence on Strictly, a moment that represented the Deaf community in a truly momentous and moving way. The actress has become a beacon for a community that has long been ignored by television and film, but that brings with it a lot of pressure. Ayling-Ellis says: 'I've learnt how to balance that pressure and I tell myself I can't represent everyone, it's impossible. I can't represent all Deaf people, because all Deaf people are different and it's not on me to show that on TV.' Ayling-Ellis was born Deaf and was awarded an MBE for services to the Deaf community. 'It's the industry that needs to cast more diversity of Deaf people and that's not on me, so I've cut that pressure off me. I can only do what I can and do my best, and just do what I love and enjoy it and be passionate about it.' 'The pressure is always going to be there,' she adds, 'but I hope we see more Deaf people on screen.' Buchan, who recently appeared in the festive smash hit Black Doves, alongside Keira Knightley, found working with Ayling-Ellis broadened him as a person. 'Rose isn't just reading your lips, she's reading who and what you are, so you have to make an effort — in life and in the scenes — to be entirely legible and that's a very new and brilliant experience,' he says. 'It makes everything very alive and present and in the moment.' Former boxer and Emmerdale and Vampire Academy actor Moore agrees. 'Doing this job has impacted me way more as a person than it has as an actor,' he says. 'There's this level of honesty that comes with Rose that, I promise you, you've not seen, except from younger members of your family.' Ayling-Ellis and the rest of the cast are hopeful that Code Of Silence will usher in a new era of inclusion on television, while also being a gripping six-parter packed with drama. 'That combination of representation and pure talent was a no-brainer for me,' says Ritchie. 'You see the show and it feels so overdue.' Code Of Silence will premiere on ITV1, STV, ITVX, and STV Player on Sunday, May 18.
Leader Live
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Leader Live
Rose Ayling-Ellis thanks Claudia Winkleman for getting her a job on Doctor Who
The 30-year-old said her guest appearance in The Well episode of the BBC sci-fi series earlier this year, which was rewritten for her, was a dream come true in an interview with Big Issue. She said: 'Doctor Who was on my bucket list. 'I really wanted to be on it, I saw Russell T Davies at an awards ceremony and Claudia Winkleman forced me to speak to him. 'So it's thanks to Claudia that I got the job. 'It was already written, so they changed it to make her a deaf character, but that's great. 'I don't want every character to be defined by their deafness.' in the interview, Ayling-Ellis also shared her concerns over government welfare cuts to disability benefits announced earlier this year. She explained: 'My big issue at the moment is the cuts to disability benefit, that's such an important issue for so many people. 'There's a lot of fear around. 'Rather than making cuts, they need to support disabled people better. 'People making (benefit) assessments need to have better disability awareness. 'I remember mine years ago, they wanted a telephone call to assess my need for Disability Living Allowance. 'I'm deaf, I can't hear you on the phone, and if I'd talked through an interpreter, they would say I can live independently and I'd have got nothing.' The ex-EastEnders star is now preparing to take on the lead role in ITV detective thriller Code Of Silence, which she is also an executive producer on. Speaking about her new role, she said: 'I'm not doing the producer job because I'm famous or whatever, I'm doing it because I'm deaf and I do all this extra work anyway. 'Every single project I do, I have to be the one saying, 'can we make sure we do this?', I always get that responsibility. 'So I wanted to be involved from the beginning of the process and not leave it all until the first day on set.' The full interview with Ayling-Ellis can be found in this week's Big Issue, available from local vendors, and online at
