RAY OF HOPE
Parminder Nagra leads a murder hunt in a gritty new thriller series
British TV isn’t short of detective dramas, but this new thriller stands out. Produced by Line Of Duty’s Jed Mercurio, the four-parter follows Rachita Ray, played by Bend It Like Beckham’s Parminder Nagra.
After making her way up the ranks in Birmingham, DI Ray is promoted to lead a murder hunt. However, when she discovers the case is a “culturally specific homicide”, she suspects she’s been handpicked because of her own heritage.
As she tries to crack the case, Ray battles with the implications of her appointment, racism in the workplace and an identity crisis that she’s kept buried for years.
Here, Leicester-born Parminder, who now lives in LA, tells us more…
Hi Parminder. Talk to us about your character, Rachita…
She’s conflicted about her own identity and the piece raises a lot of questions about what happens in the workplace and whether she’s hired for the case because it’s culturally specific or because of her ability.
How does she cope feeling her promotion is tokenism?
It makes her heart sink, but this is what she does for a living. The case has been assigned to her and she doesn’t shy away. She knows that she’s probably going to have to work twice as hard as anyone else.
Was that part of the appeal?
Rachita’s a good, meaty character.
You don’t often have an Asian female lead on TV. That was the main appeal for me – that I’m not playing the best friend or a secondary character, it’s all about Rachita. One day, I’d love to play a character who isn’t thinking about her identity. Bend It Like Beckham was about her identity, too.
How is it playing a detective?
The scenes where I just have to give lots of information were sometimes really hard to play. I had to do a speech reading out number plates in the phonetic alphabet. Then we had the chase scenes. In my head I was Superwoman, but in reality? Not so much. I remember running through the station at Grand Central in Birmingham and wow, my thighs… But in the moment I felt like Tom Cruise.
How about returning to the UK?
The jet lag kills me, but we filmed in Birmingham, which is an hour away from my family. And my niece had just been born, so I got to hold her. I don’t have a physical home in England, but my family’s there, so it feels like home.