| The Silence: Episode Guides Episode One Synopsis A deaf girl witnesses a murder... Eighteen-year-old Amelia (Genevieve Barr) breaks free from her over-protective parents (Gina McKee and Hugh Bonneville), when she goes to stay with her party-loving cousins (Harry Ferrier, Rebecca Oldfied and Tom Kane), homicide detective uncle Jim (Douglas Henshall) and vibrant aunt Maggie (Dervla Kirwan). Amelia has recently had a cochlear implant fitted and is undergoing intensive speech therapy – and learning to hear for the first time. Joining in with the chaotic and lively household, Amelia volunteers to take the dog for a walk, and witnesses the audacious murder of a policewoman. Reluctantly she is propelled into a loud and frightening world. Jim takes on the homicide investigation unaware that his niece is the key witness to the murder. Traumatised, Amelia wants to retreat back into her silent world but realises she has to tell her uncle what she has seen. Jim wants to protect her because she is his niece and vulnerable – but by doing so he will jeopardise his own position in the force and put his whole family at risk... The Silence is about an ordinary family where something extraordinary happens. The teenagers' partying lifestyles and casual drug-taking collide with Jim's investigation, and all their lives are hurled into a cacophony of police corruption, betrayal, drugs, and murder. BBC Press - April 2010 Eighteen-year-old Amelia Edwards has recently been fitted with a cochlear implant, enabling her to hear, but she struggles to accept that she has a place in the hearing world. Amelia breaks free from her over-protective parents when she goes to stay with her party-loving cousins Tom, Sophie and Joel, her homicide detective uncle, Jim, and her vibrant Aunt Maggie. Amelia witnesses the audacious murder of a policewoman and is reluctantly propelled further into a loud and frightening world. Jim is assigned the homicide investigation, unaware that his niece is the key witness to the murder. Traumatised, Amelia wants to retreat back into her silent world but realises she has to tell her uncle what she has seen. Jim wants to protect her because she is his niece and vulnerable – but by doing so he will jeopardise his own position in the force and put his whole family at risk. The Silence is about an ordinary family where something extraordinary happens. The teenagers' partying lifestyles and casual drug-taking collide with Jim's investigation, and all their lives are hurled into a cacophony of police corruption, betrayal, drugs and murder. BBC Press - June 30th 2010 Episode Two Synopsis Amelia identifies one of Jane Shilliday's killers – a detective on the Drugs Squad. DCI Peter MacKinnon, better known as Mac (Rod Hallett), heads up the successful Drugs Squad. Jim (Douglas Henshall) becomes increasingly suspicious that there is corruption on a large scale in the Drugs Squad; and the murder of the policewoman Jane Shilliday, who was romantically involved with Drugs Squad copper Rocky (Richie Campbell), is connected. Jim's position on Shilliday's murder investigation becomes increasingly compromised as his own team on the Murder Squad close in on the very witness he is trying to protect: Amelia (Genevieve Barr). Amelia offers to lip-read surveillance DVDs for Jim. She lip-reads a conversation between Rocky and a recently murdered informant – revealing that the Drugs Squad are on the take. With the evidence stacking up against the Drugs Squad, it is only a matter of time before both the Murder Squad and the corrupt Drugs Squad find out who the unknown key witness to the murder is... BBC Press April 2010 Amelia Edwards, an 18-year-old murder witness struggling to come to terms with the hearing world after being fitted with a cochlear implant, identifies a detective on the Drugs Squad as one of policewoman Jane Shilliday's killers, as the four-part thriller continues. The Drugs Squad led by DCI Peter MacKinnon, better known as Mac, is very successful, but homicide detective Jim, who is also Amelia's uncle, is increasingly suspicious that the squad is riddled with corruption on a large scale. He also suspects a connection with the murder of Jane Shilliday, who was romantically involved with Drug Squad copper Rocky. But Jim's position on Shilliday's murder investigation becomes increasingly compromised as his own team on the Murder Squad close in on the very witness he is trying to protect, his niece Amelia. When Amelia offers to lip read surveillance DVDs for Jim, she reveals from her interpretation of a conversation between Rocky and a recently murdered informant, that the Drug Squad are on the take. With the evidence stacking up, it is only a matter of time before both the Murder Squad and the Drug Squad discover the identity of the key witness to the murder. BBC Press June 30th 2010 Episode Three Synopsis Jim and his family are terrified about the repercussions of Amelia having been identified by the corrupt police officers in the Drugs Squad as the key witness to the murder of policewoman Jane Shilliday, as the compelling thriller continues. How can the family protect her now? Amelia realises that while the killers are at large she will never be safe. Jim takes Terry, his trusted police partner, into his confidence. Astonished at the revelations of the corrupt Drug Squad, he agrees to covertly help Jim. The family is subjected to intimidation tactics by the Drugs Squad in an attempt to thwart the investigation, including physical threats to Maggie and son Tom being fitted up by Mac and charged with conspiracy to supply controlled drugs. When corrupt copper and murderer Lee Griggson turns up at her parents' house, Amelia runs away. Without taking her cochlear implant, she seeks refuge with her deaf friends, too scared to go home. But without her implant she once again has no access to sound and is terrified in her sudden and imposed silence. BBC Press June 30th 2010 Episode Four Synopsis Amelia finds an inner strength and takes matters into her own hands, in the explosive finale to the drama about a deaf teenager who witnesses a murder and becomes embroiled in police corruption. She heads to a rural police station and, even though she refuses to reveal her identity (worried that the corrupt Drugs Squad might track her down), an understanding Detective Paul Begley agrees to put her into police protection overnight. But when Begley brings in a sign interpreter things rapidly spiral out of control and Amelia does not know who to trust. When Jim realises that his boss, Frank Evans, is not going to back his allegations of corruption against the Drugs Squad, he makes the momentous decision to call in Professional Standards. Squealing on his own patch will jeopardise his position in the force and put his own life at risk. BBC Press June 30th 2010 |
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