DI Ray: She’s like a female Columbo in a green coat
DI Ray puts Birmingham, racism, identity and organised crime in the spotlight. RACHAEL DAVIS finds out more from star Parminder Nagra, series creator Maya Sondhi and producer Jed Mercurio
ITV’S new police procedural DI Ray has all the hallmarks of a great crime drama.
Penned by actor-turned-writer Maya Sondhi and produced by Line of Duty’s Jed Mercurio and Black Mirror’s Madonna Baptiste, it lifts the curtain on Birmingham’s murky criminal underworld – as well as serving up a healthy dose of murder and mystery.
Crucially, for its creator, it tackles themes of racism, identity and organised crime with a delicate balance of tension, dark moments and a sprinkling of humour, all while giving a platform to British Asian talent and stories.
At the heart of the fourpart drama is DI Rachita Ray, played by Bend It Like Beckham and ER star Parminder Nagra.
She is a strong, tenacious, persistent and hard-working detective – “like a female Columbo in a green coat” – who is forced to confront a lifelong personal conflict between her British identity and her South Asian heritage when asked to join a complex homicide probe.
In being called up for the investigation, Rachita achieves the promotion she has been waiting for. But when she is told it is a ‘culturally specific homicide’, her heart sinks – she thinks it must be a token appointment due to her ethnicity rather than her ability.
“It throws her off slightly and she knows that she’s probably going to have to work twice as hard as anyone else, but that’s just who she is,” Parminder, 46, explains. However, it soon transpires that the case is much more complicated than an honour killing: as the body count continues to rise, it becomes clear Rachita and her team are dealing with highly dangerous organised criminals.
“Rachita has been hired to deal with things like honour killings but we wanted to subvert that straight away – even though it’s easier for the team to believe this is an honour killing, all the pointers say that it’s not that kind of crime,” says writer Maya Sondhi, 39.
“I wanted her to investigate something beyond her, messier, more complex, so she’s dealing with more than just a homicide. It’s also organised crime, smuggling and sexual assault. I wanted to throw her in at the deep end.”
While taking the form of a police drama, DI Ray also tells a story of cultural identity, particularly that of South Asians in Birmingham.
Jarring examples of everyday racism and racist micro-aggressions pepper the plot, including a moment when Rachita is given a lanyard that belongs to somebody else – an error that would have been noticed had the person just taken a proper look at it rather than making an assumption based on her ethnicity.
“Rachita’s thing is that she’s part of a whole generation of people born and brought up in the UK who see themselves as British,” says Parminder. “I’m British but you still have those stumbling blocks. With Rachita, she also has to work twice as hard to be recognised for the work she does.”
Parminder says she loved playing a strong, intelligent, career-driven woman in her 40s on DI Ray, particularly because Rachita is a lead role for an Asian woman – a rare occurrence on TV.
“It’s starting to happen more but having been in the business for so long, I feel like I’ve been saying the same thing for a long time,” notes Parminder,
Gone are the days when I used to insist on doing my own stunts. Now, I look for the stuntwoman and thank her profusely for making me look good
Parminder Nagra
who was born in Leicester to Indian Punjabi parents.
“I can see the change with the likes of (Netflix drama) Bridgerton, but in DI Ray, this is my generation of women, we’re in Birmingham, and it’s so relatable.”
Further to simply being set and filmed there, DI Ray also puts Birmingham in the spotlight through the talent involved.
“I wanted breakthrough talent to be in it. We’ve got brand new Brummie actors who are so good and I’m so excited to see what they do after this and see them fly,” beams Maya.
Parminder says it was “amazing” playing a character from the Midlands because: “I didn’t have to worry about how I sounded – I could literally just lean into my
Leicester accent.
“In other roles, I have to do RP (Received Pronunciation) and I don’t think my accent is ever on TV, other than (Match Of The Day presenter) Gary Lineker!” she adds. “It was very liberating because I could just get on with the character rather than worrying about the voice.”
While playing a detective was fun, Parminder says it was also a challenge – not just because she had to be slick, professional and “do a whole speech reading out number plates in the phonetic alphabet”, but because of the chase scenes that were like “doing a HIIT workout for five hours”.
“I remember running through
Grand Central Station and, wow, my thighs... I’m in decent shape but it was knackering!” she recalls, laughing.
“Gone are the days when I used to insist on doing my own stunts.
“Now, I look for the stuntwoman and thank her profusely for making me look good.”
With Jed Mercurio at the helm there will, of course, be plenty of dark, gritty, white-knuckle moments in DI Ray. Maya worked closely with him to develop the concept for the series. She wanted to write from her own perspective about her heritage and identity and Jed helped her find a format that would work for a mainstream audience.
“I think that’s also a really important consideration with DI Ray. We wanted it to have mass appeal and that’s why it became a crime drama – so that Maya could tell her story,” Jed concludes.
“There’s lots of jeopardy and times when we really fear for Rachita’s safety but there’s also a really important mystery to be solved.”
“I hope the audience enjoys watching Rachita, that they get caught up in her journey and the suspense of the show, the thriller aspect,” adds Parminder.
“I hope they get wrapped up in what’s going to happen next and, hopefully, in good Jed Mercurio style just when you think one thing is happening, it won’t be what you thought it was!”