ITV viewers have praised a groundbreaking new crime drama for its ‘genius’ move.

Code of Silence follows a deaf worker played by Strictly Come Dancing winner Rose Ayling-Ellis.

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Although her character is from the police canteen, she's called in to be an emergency lip reader for an investigation in Canterbury.

This is as she aims to support both herself and her mother as she's forced to work with highly dangerous criminals.

Broadchurch actor Andrew Buchan, Call The Midwife star and former Emmerdale personality Andrew Scarborough make up the rest of the ensemble.

After just one episode on screen, viewers have already lauded her brilliant performance.

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However, ITV made another huge move to support the show which viewers thought was absolutely 'genius'.

The official account of the network on X - formerly known as Twitter - stated that one commercial break would be completely silent in honour of the theme of the drama.

All the adverts shown on screen would either feature sign language or would be subtitled.

The post read: "Tonight’s episode of Code of Silence will feature a silent ad break, where all adverts will be signed and/or subtitled and run without sound."

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Viewers flocked to social media to praise the broadcaster for the 'genius' move, which some claimed was a landmark moment in TV.

One viewer gushed: "ITV turning down the sound for the adverts during #CodeOfSilence and including subtitles and interpreters is a big, big WOW!!!."

A second stated: "Brilliant idea! Am loving #CodeofSilence already. Rose Ayling-Ellis is a superb actor."

While a third claimed: "That was a landmark moment in British TV. The first time that a mainstream channel has shown Adverts in complete silence with BSL & Subtitles. I hope this raise much needed awareness within the deaf community through this drama and the silent ads moment."

"Bravo @ITV The advertbreak is genius. So thought provoking. Brilliant work," noted someone else.

As a fifth fan wrote: "ITV1 just had a silent advert break between Code of Silence programme and had subtitles/signing on every advert to highlight what watching TV is like for deaf people. Nice touch," along with a string of clapping hands emoji.

And a sixth added: "@ITV well done for the silent advertbreak for code of silence. Fantastic idea."

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Code Of Silence continues on ITV1 and is available to stream on ITVX.