![]() ![]() “I had a supportive family, but this still got in somehow.”Ī milestone: Ayling-Ellis with Danny Dyer in EastEnders, where she was the first regular deaf character. “Where did that come from? I do remember thinking I’d have trouble making friends, finding a job, having a future…” She shakes her head. “She told me I once came into her room crying, saying I wished I wasn’t deaf.” It was shocking. In a moving scene, she hears some of her mum’s memories. ![]() It was set up to my parents that I had a problem that needed fixing.” “My parents were told I had ‘failed’ a hearing test that there was significant hearing ‘loss’. Recently, she’s been asking questions, with some upsetting results. ![]() Back in the 90s, it was basically someone clapping behind you, and I just always turned around.” She doesn’t remember how her parents took the news. “Now, you often find out a few weeks after birth. When their daughter was 18 months old, her parents learned she was deaf. Not that different to how I am now, I hope.” Rewatching home videos while putting together the documentary, she saw a “playful, positive and smiley girl. Mum works in a hospital dad’s a surveyor. Photograph: Kristina Varaksina/The ObserverĪyling-Ellis grew up in Hythe on the Kent coast, just a few miles south-west of Folkestone. Signs of the times: Ayling-Ellis wears vest, corset, trousers and necklace by Christian Dior ( ). But I don’t want to become what disabled people call ‘inspirational porn’ – an inspiring story, all shiny and smiles, without looking at the problems we face in this country.” “ Strictly made an impact people became curious about deafness. It’s a change in tone purposefully less celebratory. This goes deeper.” She presents with ease, but it makes confronting watching. “On East Enders, there was a character Strictly was so positive. The film grapples with discrimination, isolation, and how technology is eroding the deaf community. ![]() Estimates suggest 11 million people in the UK are hard of hearing, with 1.2 million adults unable to hear most conversational speech. The result is Signs for Change, a film which explores the daily lives, challenges and barriers faced by deaf people in Britain. We have politics and issues that we care about battles that need fighting. “Nearly all wanted to make films about how deaf people hear music,” she says. Plenty of people approached her to make factual programmes post- Strictly. But we’re here to discuss a new BBC documentary she’s presenting, airing later this month. With both East Enders and Strictly under her belt –, and an ITV drama in the works, being on camera barely phases the 28-year-old actor and TV personality. I’m bilingual, so I adapt to situations.” “The setup means when you’re talking,” she explains, “Kirsty interprets in BSL, then I talk back. She requests I sit across from her at the table her interpreter, Kirsty, settles next to me. Having just wrapped a photoshoot, she’s relaxed, back in her own gear: jeans, linen shirt and beige hoodie with illustrations spelling out the sign language alphabet by designer Deaf Identity. It’s not far from where she now lives, newly single. We’re meeting on a midweek lunchtime in May, at a studio in north London. As Teri Devine, director of inclusion at the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) puts it: “Many deaf children were encouraged to embrace their hearing aids, use BSL, and feel more confident after watching.” It was particularly special for the wider deaf community. It took a long time to properly hit me.” Interest in British Sign Language (BSL) courses sky-rocketed. This might be a big deal.”Īlmost 18 months later, Ayling-Ellis still can’t quite believe the reaction. It was only at camera rehearsals in the studio, when I was told the crew – who never stop – all dropped what they were doing to watch that I thought: shiiiiit. “And most importantly,” she adds, “more true to me. “From there, we created the dance, shaping and changing it throughout the week.” The result, she hoped, would be more energetic, more vibrant, more full of life. Instead, with the help of other Strictly professionals, the couple reworked it, collaboratively. Photograph: Kristina Varaksina/The Observer ‘A lot has happened’: dress by Cecilie Bahnsen ( ) necklace by and shoes by. ![]()
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