Mumbai, July 31 English actress Charlotte Ritchie, who steps into detective mode for the first time as DS Ashleigh Francis in the gripping new British crime drama Code of Silence, said that her character is good at what she does and quite intuitive, so she's been fun to play.
Speaking about her role, Ritchie said, “She's been a detective sergeant at Kent Canterbury police for quite a while, and confident in her job. She's very instinctive and not fully by the book, but definitely not a maverick either.
“She's good at what she does and quite intuitive, so she's been fun to play. But where she excels in work, there's a marked contrast with the chaos of her home life.”
What drew Ritchie to the project wasn’t just the character, but the story’s fresh perspective, she added, “I thought it was an interesting way of telling a story, with the focus being Alison's point of view. People love crime dramas – and a lot of them are brilliant – but this felt different and refreshing in its perspective and the themes it was dealing with.”
“It's about the way we communicate, the way the world sees Deaf people and interacts with them, underestimates them and keeps them at arm's length.”
Ritchie said that it plays out against the backdrop of an already strong narrative about an inexperienced young woman who finds herself way over her head.
“I also knew that Rose Ayling-Ellis was playing Alison and she’s brilliant, so connected and alive when she's acting. There's an attentiveness to her that was captivating.”
Sharing her experience about what it was like working on a set with such diversity, she added, “It’s so great to have a variety of outlooks and experiences onset and in life. There were things that were subtly different: I began to notice that hearing people rely a lot on not necessarily looking at each other when they speak, but everyone was learning on set.”
The actress said that it meant that people looked at each other more, considered each other more and took a second to make sure someone had understood what they were saying.
Said the actress: “You just thought a little bit more about the person next to you and how they might be experiencing the day, and became more conscious of the way that you're behaving in relation to other people. It binds everyone together.”
The series puts the unsung powers of silence front and center, following Alison Brooks, a smart but struggling deaf canteen worker with an extraordinary knack for lip-reading.
Suddenly swept into a high-stakes undercover operation by the cops, Alison finds herself navigating criminal conspiracies, double lives, and an emotionally charged connection with main suspect Liam Barlow.
The British crime drama lands exclusively on Lionsgate Play on August 1.
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