Code of Silence episode 1 recap: Alison lip reads a criminal gang

Code of Silence is six-part crime drama based around deaf caterer, Alison Woods, as she's brought into a dangerous investigation to lip read conversations between a gang of criminals.

Rose Ayling-Ellis leads the impressive cast in this thrilling drama as a determined deaf woman who supports herself and her mother by working in a police station canteen. Until, detectives call upon her lip-reading skills to gain important intel on a violent gang of criminals and her life becomes a lot more complicated.

Here's a recap of everything that happened in Code of Silence episode 1.

The episode opens on a woman sitting in the back of a police car. Blood is on her hands and face. It then cuts to three weeks earlier. The same woman is riding her bike and pulls up to a police station. She works in the canteen and when focusing on her, the audio changes to a muffled sound, showing that she’s wearing hearing aids on both ears. She watches a couple having a conversation and reads their lips with the words appearing on screen as she interprets it. She sees the woman tell the man, “Please don’t ask me to leave him.”

Back in the kitchen, she shares her lip-reading from the couple with her colleague. Her boss interrupts to hand her a note that says DS Francis wants to meet with her. She goes to see her and introduces herself as Alison Brooks. DS Francis thanks her for coming and reveals she got Alison's details from the community skills database that she signed up to and that her usual lip readers are busy on other jobs, so needs her.

DS Francis brings over DI Marsh, who introduces himself as James. Then, DC Lawford introduces himself as Ben, the man from the couple she was watching in the canteen. James asks her how much she can lip read, but she says it depends on the situation. As the trio of detectives step away from her, the sound becomes muffled again. Instead, she reads their lips and realises the men are questioning her ability to do it. She replies from across the room that she can. They smile and come back over.

James explains that they’re watching a gang who are planning a big robbery. They believe they’re meeting tomorrow, but in a place they can’t bug. She says with lip reading though, it’s not just about seeing words. It’s about who’s talking and what you know about them as well to add context. James explains they need to be careful what they share with her. DS Francis offers her an interpreter, but she says she doesn’t have one now so won't need one then.

She cycles to another job she has, in a bar. While she’s serving, she struggles to hear the guests asking for different drinks and notices the boss saying something to her colleague. When she arrives home, her mum signs to her to say she wanted to make sure she got home safe. Alison asks through signing what the stuff is on the side and her mum says it’s Alison's stuff from Eithan, from the breakup.

Upstairs in her bedroom, Alison opens the book from Eithan and looks at a framed photo of them together. She gets a text from DS Francis, known as Ashleigh, saying they need her tomorrow. When Alison arrives, Ashleigh and James are talking through the details about the gang they’re going to be watching. James asks Alison to watch the live feed on the monitors and tell them what she sees. Ashleigh also shows her three images of the gang, revealing their codenames as Cruella, Hulk and Wolf. She asks Alison to tell them if she knows any of them. She says no.

A man arrives at a park bench. The police have their cameras on him, but they don’t recognise him. Wolf, Cruella and Hulk arrive. Alison lip reads that the unknown man introduces himself as Liam. James plays the live feed back to see if Alison can spot anything else. She watches Liam say his name again, but notices he also says a last name like Marlow or Barlow, explaining that M, B, and P all look the same when lip reading. Another officer finds Liam Barlow’s information on file. James thanks Alison for her work, but reiterates not to tell anyone about their work for her own safety.

At home, she searches on her phone about jewel robberies in Canterbury. She then looks up Liam Barlow on social media. Her mum tells her that there’s going to be a meeting about putting their rent up and Alison says she’ll be there.

The next day, Ashleigh calls Alison back in to look at more CCTV footage. They’re looking for a date and location for the robbery. She zooms in and says Cruella is talking about Belmarsh. She notes two dates, the 7th and the 17th. She reads Hulk’s lips and says they’re talking about putting someone in a flat near an app. Ashleigh asks if they could be saying the Tap, a pub. Alison agrees. Alison gets a text from her mum that she’s at the meeting about rent and Alison quickly leaves.

Inside the meeting, Alison and her mum stand at the door. It’s so busy, she can’t hear anything and can’t read any lips. She asks the man in front of them who says that the landlord is selling the housing estate to a management company and that rent will go up. At home, her mum asks Alison to ask Eithan for money. She doesn’t want to. Her mum says they’ll sort something out. She gets a text from Ashleigh wanting to meet that night.

They meet and Ashleigh says they’re keeping an eye on a meet up at the bar. The camera isn’t working so Ashleigh says they’ll go into the bar instead and watch the conversation. While she tries to watch, she can’t see much because the angle is bad.

Ashleigh says it’s too dangerous to move closer. Ignoring her, Alison orders another drink at the bar and watches the group from there instead. She reads Liam saying that he can get them in and Hulk replies that there’s security systems. Liam says he’ll hack the server. Cruella arrives and tells them they only have one chance. Liam assures her he can do it, but needs more information. To which she replies to tell her what he needs. The table all notice her staring.

Liam comes over to the bar. He asks for napkins and Alison pushes them towards him. He then returns to the table and starts writing something down. In the car, Alison tells Ashleigh they were talking about biometric security. She thanks her for all the information, but warns her that she doesn’t want to get close to them. At home, Alison looks up The Canterbury Tap, where the gang were talking of meeting.

Despite what the police said, Alison goes to The Canterbury Tap. Hulk is working at the bar, so she leaves. As she’s cycling, she runs into Eithan and Alison asks if he was waiting for her. He wonders why she hasn’t texted him in two weeks and that he’s sorry. She says she needs more time.

Arriving at the police station, she catches the couple from the canteen talking on the stairs and Ben asks her to come and watch the live feed. They talk about wanting to find out where the gang are planning to perform the robbery and as Alison asks questions, they ask her to stick to the lip reading. On the live feed, they’re in a park and Hulk is there. Cruella arrives, followed by Wolf. And then, Liam. Alison can’t see anything and asks for one of the officers to move closer, so the police instruct a woman to do so. But, Cruella notices the woman and they all leave the park. James is angry.

Back at the canteen, Alison follows Ashleigh to apologise for what happened. She says she doesn’t need to apologise, but it’s about more than just a robbery. Cruella’s husband is in Belmarsh for 10 years for manslaughter, killing a member of the public during their last armed robbery and James is angry because he blames himself. Alison asks to be moved closer so she can get more intel and mentioned The Canterbury Tap. Ashleigh then asks her if she’s been researching the case and she says no. Ashleigh tells her again that she needs to leave the investigating to the police.

At Alison's other job, the boss notices her getting an order wrong. She’s called into the kitchen after it happens and is fired. On her way out, she steals two bottles of champagne. At home, her mum is struggling with bills. She tells her she’s been fired and says she wishes that life was easier and she didn’t have to prove herself.

Against Ashleigh's advice, Alison heads to The Canterbury Tap. She tells the barman she’s looking for a job and he says he’ll trial her. That night, working in the pub, Liam comes in and orders a drink. He asks her if she finds it hard to hear with the music playing. She says she does, and then she asks him if he’s had a bad day. He says, just work. They chat a little and he asks her name.

Alison finishes her shift and the boss invites her back the next day. She spots Liam on the phone and lip reads that he’s trying to arrange a meet-up that night. Instead of calling Ashleigh, Alison instead tries to follow Liam and watches him head into his flat. She then sees him leave again and as she tries to follow him on her bike, she mistakenly pulls out in front of his car and falls off her bike. He jumps out and takes her to the hospital. They talk a bit and they become more friendly. It shows that they've been picked up by the CCTV in the waiting room.

The next day, Alison's bike is bent out of shape and she heads to the police station. They all watch a live feed of the latest meet-up, following Liam. He heads into a shop and comes out with a black bag. He heads to the park and meets up with Hulk and Cruella. She lip reads that Liam is telling them he’s sorry he missed the meeting, but he ran a woman off her bike and had to take her to the hospital. But Alison doesn’t tell the police what he’s saying when they ask.

All episodes of Code of Silence are available on ITVX.