Code of Silence star Charlotte Ritchie on heartbreaking mental health ‘struggles’

You might know her as the scheming detective superintendent Ashleigh Francis in new ITV drama Code of Silence, but Charlotte Ritchie has been on and off our TV screens for more than a decade.

She was in Fresh Meat for five years, and starred alongside Tom Stourton in BBC Three sitcom Siblings in 2014. Call the Midwife, Private Lives, Doctor Who, Ghosts, Taskmaster…

But it was the Netflix series You that catapulted her to global fame. She portrayed Kate Galvin in the fourth and fifth series.

Playing a not-so-likeable and really-quite-manipulative character brought with it some challenges, as she recently revealed…

Charlotte plays Ashleigh Francis in new ITV crime drama Code of Silence (Credit: BBC/YouTube)

Code of Silence star Charlotte Ritchie struggled with fame after You role

In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar earlier this year, Charlotte Ritchie describes her character, Kate Galvin, as calculating and manipulative.

Kate has been her most grown-up role to date, after a run of more youthful characters. Darker, less sympathetic, impeccably dressed: Kate is different. And playing a vastly different character means people who recognise her treat her differently, too.

“People who know me from Kate are just not afraid to talk to me. But they assume I’m going to be like her, so the reception is a bit colder. People who know me from Ghosts practically give me a hug, […]. It’s quite a strange experience.

“I really struggled with it for a year or two – that feeling that you’re known but people don’t really know you, and wanting to live up to their expectations. I’ve had talking therapy for the last few years, and it’s helped me process it.

“I used to worry that people would think I was like Kate, and then I felt like I had to prove that I wasn’t. Now I know it doesn’t matter. I don’t have time in each interaction for them to understand the whole of me and for me to understand the whole of them.”

She revealed herself as more than a tad gullible when she appeared on Taskmaster (Credit: Taskmaster/YouTube)

Where to watch Code of Silence

ITV crime drama series Code of Silence became available to watch on ITVX on May 18, 2025.

Viewers in North America will be able to watch it via streaming service BritBox from July.

Shooting began in September last year and ran into February 2025. Filming locations included Canterbury, Watford, Hemel Hempstead and St Albans in Hertfordshire.

The series stars Rose Ayling-Ellis in her first lead role. She has been deaf since birth, and made her acting debut in short film The End, in 2011.

Since then, her career has gone from strength to strength. She played Frankie Lewis in EastEnders from 2020 to 2022, won The Stage Debut Award for her performance in As You Like It in 2023, and became a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2024.

Code of Silence is on Sundays and Mondays at 9pm on ITV1. Or you can watch the whole series now on ITVX.

Read more: Code of Silence viewers disgusted as Alison’s disability ‘exploited’ amid ‘rookie mistake’

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