The Strictly winner’s attempt to teach British Sign Language to a retirement home is far from a fairytale. But it is a smart, nuanced documentary that blossoms into something profound
There is a neat trick, used sparingly but to great effect, in Rose Ayling-Ellis: Old Hands New Tricks. According to the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, 80% of adults over the age of 70 will have some hearing loss. To demonstrate what this loss might be like for hearing viewers, the programme-makers amplify the background noise until it obfuscates the conversations that are taking place. The point is made simply and well.
Ayling-Ellis made her name as an actor on EastEnders, but became something of a national treasure when she won Strictly Come Dancing, as the programme’s first deaf contestant. Her sensational Couple’s Choice dance with Giovanni Pernice, in which the music cut out while the dance continued in silence, is one of the show’s all-time great moments.
