David Farnor | On 05, Jun 2022

“You’re exactly what we need right now,” says the guy promoting DI Rachita (Parminder Nagra) in ITV’s new police drama. We certainly agree, having seen her diffuse a dangerous situation in a thrilling opening sequence involving a car, a knife and an angry man. But it soon turns out that’s not what her boss means at all – she’s just what the police need to make the force seem more progressive and inclusive, at a point it’s under scrutiny for being anything but. That tension between frank criticism of the UK’s
very flawed criminal justice system and often nail-biting confrontations makes DI Ray a superb, timely addition to our living room roster of police detectives.

Rachita’s first case in her new role is the killing of a man whose death is presumed to be the result of a rivalry between two Muslim and Hindu families.

Throughout the series, Ray is continually expected to be able to connect to the Hindu, Muslim and Sikh families involved in the investigation,

Those kind of assumptions, projections and stereotypes are rife in the police’s handling of the homicide. They even have a term they’ve coined for it: a Culturally Specific Homicide, or CSH. It takes Ray’s perspective to see past the surface level skin colour of those involved in the case to treat it like any other and crack the whole thing wide open – and, of course, that leads her to being even more disliked than she is already among her colleagues. And yet she’s also othered by the South Asian communities she’s engaging with as part of her police work, with primary suspect Navin Kapoor (Ryan McKen) calling her a “coconut”.

The script, by Maya Sondhi (Maneet Bindra in Line of Duty), is brilliantly observed in its depiction of the microaggressions faced by Rachita every day on the job. “Where are you from?” her superintendent asks. “Leicester,” she replies. “What’s your heritage?” comes the response, almost without missing a beat. The only friendly face around is PS Tony Khattri (a warm, amusing Maanuv Thiara), yet it’s clear that they both have had very different experiences and distinct reactions to them, dealing with casual prejudice in their own ways, while Tony leans into his family’s culture and Rachita finds herself unfamiliar with most of the traditions he references.

That kind of nuance, in both support and strife, gives this four-parter a beautiful complexity, and the cast clearly relish it, from Gemma Whelan as Richita’s bigoted senior officer, who manages to be both pernicious pedantic and blankly impersonal, to Jamie Bamber as Rachita’s boyfriend, a fellow cop who is so out of tune with her problems and needs that you half suspect that he’s a villain too – a dinner scene with his parents is wonderfully awkward.

So far, so heavy-handed, right? Not at all, as Sondhi manages to craft a thriller that’s rich but also moves like it’s on rails. The pacing and plotting rival Line of Duty’s twisting efficiency, while still serving up enough details that it might well help to broaden viewers’ perspectives on both inclusion and the systemic problems exposed within the police in recent years. At the heart of it all is the excellent Parminder Nagra, who’s been waiting to be a household name since her breakout turn in Bend It Like Beckham. Holding together a series that’s both thoughtful, smart and stuffed with suspense, she’s exactly what our Sunday nights needed.

DI Ray is available to watch on ITV Hub.

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