The real-life deaf FBI agent who inspired a gripping crime drama is back in the spotlight as the series is returning to UK screens after more than two decades.
US thriller series Sue Thomas: F.B. Eye, which follows deaf agent Sue Thomas through her career with the ‘Feds’, is making a nostalgic comeback on Freeview channel Great Mystery this month.
Created by Dave Alan Johnson and Gary R. Johnson, the series originally launched on October 13 2002, until its third and final series in May 2005.
Sue Thomas: F.B. Eye draws themes from the real-life cases of Sue Thomas – a deaf woman whose exceptional lip-reading skills earned her a role on a top-tier FBI surveillance team.
She was born in Boardman, Ohio on May 24, 1950, and died on December 13, 2022, aged 72.
At just 18 months old, Sue became profoundly deaf for reasons that were never fully determined.
The hit series Sue Thomas: F.B. Eye, is returning to screens after more than two decades, after being inspired by the real-life agent of the same name
At school, she faced a number of hurdles due to her disability, and found herself placed in ‘the dummy class’.
‘I just didn’t talk funny. I was now the dummy,’ she said during a talk in 2010.
Sue has spoken about standing up to introduce herself to her class, opening her mouth to speak, and the entire room erupting in laughter, meaning for 12 years she was too scared to open her mouth at school.
However, through working with a speech therapist, Sue did learn to speak.
By placing her hands on her therapist’s throat, she was able to feel the vibrations in her neck and imitate them herself while watching in a mirror to shape her mouth the same way.
Years of speech therapy followed, then voice lessons, not for performance but simply to get her voice to rise and fall naturally, followed by years of dramatic reading purely for articulation.
In 1979 Sue became the first-ever deaf person to be recruited to the highly renowned American intelligence and security service.
At the FBI, Sue initially began working as a fingerprint examiner which she described as ‘incredibly boring.’
Sue Thomas: F.B. Eye draws themes from the real-life cases of Sue Thomas – a deaf woman whose exceptional lip-reading skills earned her a role on a top-tier FBI surveillance team
She was born in Boardman, Ohio on May 24, 1950, and died on December 13, 2022, aged 72
In the much-loved series based on her life and work in the FBI, Sue herself was portrayed by actress Deanne Bray, who went on to star in Law and Order as well as Grey’s Anatomy
One day, agents working on a surveillance case came to her because the sound mechanism on their camera had failed, and they had footage of suspects talking but could not hear a word.
They asked whether Sue could lip-read the tape, so she wrote down all that she saw. After that, she never returned to the dreaded fingerprinting.
It was in this new role that Sue gained her iconic title as ‘the secret weapon of the FBI’, working for four years between 1979 and 1983.
Sue was drafted in to lip-read suspects from long distances – like across an airport – and take notes of suspects’ conversations during illicit deals.
Other cases included her being positioned on top of rooftops with only binoculars to view suspects’ lips from afar, producing transcripts of what they said.
Throughout her extraordinary career, Sue mainly worked on white-collar cases, including drug-related crimes as well as embezzlement and financial offences.
Sue went on to write her autobiography, named Silent Night, which inspired the TV series.
In the much-loved series based on her life and work in the FBI, Sue herself was portrayed by actress Deanne Bray, who went on to star in Law and Order as well as Grey’s Anatomy.
Speaking about Sue herself, Deanne said: ‘She really shifted my perspective about how a deaf person can make a choice on how they want to navigate this world.’
When Sue first met Deanne in-person, she looked the actress up and down and said simply: ‘The new and improved Sue Thomas.’ Bray was taken aback, the two hit it off immediately.
Sue also appeared twice in the series across its 56-episode run, appearing in the episode Billy the Kid and the series finale, Ending and Beginnings, as a consultant fittingly named Deanne.
The show came to an abrupt end after the network PAX decided to no longer produce original programming after three seasons
Sue’s best friend and roommate in the series was Lucy Dotson, who offered constant support and encouragement throughout their cases.
The character was played by Canadian actress Enuka Okuma, who recently starred in the award-winning medical drama The Pitt.
The cast also included Marc Gomes, who has appeared in The X-Files and Dexter. In the series he played surveillance specialist Dimitrius Gans.
The show came to an abrupt end after the network PAX decided to no longer produce original programming after three seasons.
Sue Thomas F.B. Eye returns to UK screens on May 1st on Great Mystery, available on Freeview Channel 50 and via the Great Player.
