Code of Silence review: ITV's new crime drama is a creaky old bus, but Rose Ayling-Ellis will persuade you to get on board

And like BBC's Reunion, this week's new ITV drama Code of Silence (ITV1, Sun/Mon, 9pm) also stars former EastEnder and Strictly champ Rose Ayling-Ellis.

It's not her fault that her two starring roles have been scheduled together, but Code of Silence suffers in comparison with the harder-edged Reunion.

In the new ITV show, Ayling-Ellis's Alison is a young woman in flux – her relationship has broken down, she's living at home with her mum and under threat from a new landlord and she has two dull jobs to help her pay the rent.

One of those dull jobs is in a police station canteen, which brings her to the attention of coppers DI James Marsh (Andrew Buchan) and DS Ashleigh Francis (Charlotte Ritchie).

They're tracking a gang of robbers planning its next job, and while they can get close enough to the group to get video surveillance, and they can track the text messages of the gang boss's driver, they can't apparently hear what they're saying.

So they call upon Alison and her lip-reading skills to gain vital intelligence.

This is where Code of Silence begins to strain credulity – the fact that they can get so close, find out so much, but basic levels of audio surveillance seem to be beyond them.

Alison gets deeper into her crime-cracking role, despite the coppers repeatedly telling her to “leave the detecting to us”, and by episode two they are perfectly happy to embed her in the pub the gang uses as its HQ.

This despite her lying to them about a burgeoning relationship with a new member of the gang, Liam (Kieron Moore), and nervously hanging about staring at the gang members in efforts to lip-read their nefarious plots.

Meantime, the gang members are given codenames straight out of Gladiators – Hulk and Wolf – and seem to enjoy gathering for summit meetings in children's play parks, which would rouse the suspicions of even the most neglectful parent.

The sub-plot surrounding the new landlord and their plans to redevelop the estate where Alison and her mum live is so hammered home that it must have some sort of relevance later on the series, but you spend the first two episodes wondering where the link is.

Where Code of Silence is largely down to its lead actress. Ayling-Ellis is great at showing how much she's been waiting for the thrill of her new life.

After constantly being relegated to dead-end jobs, the stultifying, hard grind of doing so much and finding out it's only just enough to get by, she is clearly intoxicated by the idea that she might finally have found a role of value, which will also see her being valued.

“I don't want to be hearing,” she tells her mum, “I just want them to be a bit deaf. I'm fed up trying to prove myself.”

Despite the Keystone Cops vibe of DI Marsh and DS Francis, you buy completely Alison's determination to help, to show that she is more than the labels society has placed upon her.

Meanwhile, however, the other characters are little more than cyphers – the villains all glowering looks, lowered eyebrows and raspy voices, newcomer Liam clearly a boy from the wrong side of the tracks in over his head, and the police officers dense and inept.

Ultimately, it's Ayling-Ellis who persuades you to get on board this creaky old bus – let's just hope it makes it to the right destination.