Season 1
The Silence is a British crime thriller television mini-series created by Fiona Seres which centres around Amelia, an eighteen-year-old struggling to integrate into a hearing world following cochlear implantation, who witnesses the murder of a police officer. The subsequent investigation unravels a net of police corruption.
The series aired in the UK on BBC One from 12-15 July, 2010. There are four hour-long episodes in the series.
The Silence premiered in South Africa on DStv's BBC Entertainment channel on Monday 11 April 2011, at 20h30. New episodes broadcast weekly.
Synopsis
Eighteen-year-old Amelia Edwards (introducing Genevieve Barr) 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.
Breaking free from her over-protective parents (Gina McKee and Hugh Bonneville), she goes to stay with her party-loving cousins, homicide detective uncle, Jim (Douglas Henshall) and vibrant aunt, Maggie (Dervla Kirwan).
But when Amelia witnesses the audacious murder of a policewoman, she is reluctantly propelled further into a loud and frightening world.
Jim is assigned the case and, when Amelia identifies a police officer on the drugs squad as one of the killers, he urgently needs to protect his niece.
If his colleagues find out what she has witnessed, she will be in extreme danger from the very people with whom he works. By keeping her a secret, however, he will jeopardise his own position in the force and put his whole family at risk.
The Silence is about an ordinary family thrust into extraordinary circumstances. 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.
This is the first major role for severely deaf actress Genevieve Barr, who won the coveted role of Amelia while on the Teach First scheme, teaching in a challenging inner-London secondary school.
The Silence is the first UK project for Australian writer Fiona Seres, who's CV boasts acclaimed Australian dramas Tangle, Dangerous, Love My Way and The Surgeon.
The Silence is made by Company Pictures and executive produced by Charles Pattinson and George Faber for Company and Polly Hill for BBC One. The series is produced by Eleanor Greene and directed by Emmy Award winning director Dearbhla Walsh.