A thrilling ride through Britain’s

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 four-part 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,” Nagra, 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 Nagra.

“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.”

Nagra says she loved playing a strong, intelligent, career-driven woman in her 40s on DI Ray, particularly because Rachita is a