Prime Time TV breaks its silence on deafness
15 July 2010
We welcomed the BBC’s new drama ‘The Silence’ for its potential to raise awareness of the issues facing people with hearing impairments. There has been a lot of discussion on the BBC’s and other message boards about the main actress Genevieve Barr and her portrayal of an 18 year old who is successfully fitted with a cochlear implants and whose subsequent struggle to adapt to the hearing world is complicated further when she witnesses a murder.
While deafness is a welcome subject to see broached on prime time television, the hope is it will spur further debate on the impact the condition has on people’s daily lives and help to lift the stigma surrounding deafness.
In the first episode of The Silence, it is we find out that Amelia Edwards has benefitted from cochlear implants. Deafness Research UK is one of the foremost innovators in the field of CI research; pioneering research by Dr Margaret Tait funded by Deafness Research UK has recently shown that babies as young as 12 months who receive CIs develop communication skills comparable to normal hearing children. For older children and adults who are fitted with CIs later in life it is much more challenging to adapt and develop communication skills.
Education is also a key issue and one intriguing aspect of this new drama is the way the show attempts to demonstrate the sound that people with cochlea implants experience. This is important, as people tend to mistakenly believe that a cochlea implant simply ‘restores normal hearing’, when it does not. The brain needs to learn to recognise sounds again (or perhaps as in Amelia’s case, for the very first time). The research by Dr Tait above is also backed by the research work of Dr David McAlpine, also funded by Deafness Research UK, highlighting the primary role of the brain in processing sound.
Deafness Research UK highlights these issues to schools, colleges, community groups and companies across the country with its innovative Bionic Ear Show. Sponsored by BUPA, the show raises awareness of hearing loss, including how cochlear implants work and highlights how to protect your hearing. If you’d like to book the show for your school, community group or organisation, visit our Bionic Ear Show website.
Deafness Research UK commends the BBC for bringing to prime-time television a new drama that tackles these issues surrounding hearing impairment and restoring hearing and giving an opportunity to a deaf actress to star in this drama. We will follow The Silence with interest and hope to see more productions such as this one in the future
Anyone interested in more information on cochlear implants and the latest research, as well as other information on deafness, can contact the charity’s Information Service on or visit the deafness section of our website.
The show has raised a lot of debate on the issue of cochlear implants, see:
- The Silence: from classroom to film set – BBC blog
- The Silence: a deaf writer's view of the BBC thriller - Guardian Blog
- The Silence, Monday 9pm, BBC One – Orange TV blog
