DI Ray
Lucy Mangan, writing for The Guardian, gave the series three out of a possible five stars. She praised Sondhi's use of "tangled motivations that hold the viewers' interest" to create a "police procedural with a fresh perspective" but felt that the story "at times moves a bit too slowly" and "feels a bit too by-numbers".[4] Sean O'Grady for The Independent gave the series four stars out of five, describing the lead character as "a smart, sassy, tough telly detective" and summarising "low key in tone and atmosphere, DI Ray, cop and show, that is, deserves to be a success. Mercurio ticks another box."[5]
DI Ray
At the conclusion of the broadcasting of the final episode, it remained unclear whether or not DI Ray will return for a future series. Mercurio said: "We'd all be thrilled if we got the opportunity to do more."[6]
The British broadcaster has commissioned DI Ray, a Birmingham-set, four-part series that is centered around Rachita Ray, a police officer who takes on a case that forces her to confront a lifelong personal conflict between her British identity and her South Asian heritage.
Speaking about the role, Parminder said: "I am so looking forward to getting back to the UK after such a challenging time globally to be part of this exciting new project. Written by Maya Sondhi and exec produced by the force that is Jed Mercurio, we are being helmed by an amazing team to bring something special to our storytelling landscape."
During episode 1, Rachita Ray is shopping in a local corner store, when on the way home she encounters a man holding a large kitchen knife who has already stabbed a police officer. She manages to single handedly call for backup and calm him down, before he's taken away.
We later see Rachita being awarded for her bravery, especially as she was off duty and could have been seriously harmed. The superintendent congratulations her directly, and offers her a spot in homicide as it's "more interesting".
Rachita learns from DCI Kerry Henderson (Gemma Whelan), that she's been brought in to head up a 'Culturally Specific Homicide', and she's disheartened by this as she believes she's only there to tick a box.
At the end of the episode, Rachita discovers a burner phone, assuming it to be Anjuli's. She later receives a call on the phone from Anjuli herself, and the two women meet, but it's cut short when an unknown presence knocks out Rachita and chases after Anjuli. But who is it?
After being knocked out, Rachita comes to, where PS Tony Khatri rushes to her aid as blue police lights flash in the background. Rachita soon composes herself and insists on getting straight back on the case, especially as she's clashing with the rest of team.
Meanwhile, we learn that fellow officer Martyn Hunter (Jamie Bamber) and Rachita are romantically involved, engaged in fact, but is there more to his character than meets the eye? Can he really be trusted?
Viewers have their suspicions after Rachita was at home having a bath, only another mystery person to break in and attempt to drown her, where Martyn arrived home and saved the day. It seems like lucky timing, or it could have been planned.
Rachita later receives a tip-off that Imran had been transporting something into the UK to get his family out of debt, which is assumed to be drugs. However, they make an even more horrifying discovery when they open a shipment container to find multiple corpses, with one lone survivor.
Now it's clear that human trafficking is involved, Kerry's initial theory about an 'honour killing murder' is incorrect, and they realise they're dealing with something bigger. This means they may finally have to start listening to Rachita after all.
Following the events of episode 3, it's now clear that fans were right to be suspicious of Martyn, Rachita's new fiance and fellow officer. As the team discover more about the human trafficking that was revealed in episode 2, Martyn's true identity is revealed.
Meanwhile, Rachita grew closer to PS Tony Khatri (Maanuv Thiara), and after a drink in the pub they kissed and later slept together, something she regretted especially as she ate a meal with her parents and Martyn, sharing the news of their engagement, before his true colours were revealed later on.
Chief suspect Magnus Tranter had been following Rachita and photographed her and Tony kissing on the street, and a furious Martyn looked at the picture before ordering him to shoot Tony and Rachita, with the episode ending on that shocking note.
In the fourth and final episode, we finally learned the truth about what happened to Imran, and Rachita is left reeling from the fact that her husband-to-be Martyn had been involved in the trafficking this whole time.
It was revealed that Imran was an informant working with the organised crime unit, but was murdered after he was ratted out. Martyn was also heavily involved with the OCU, and after Tony and Rachita were shot under his orders, Tony later dies of his injuries.
Rachita is devastated by this, especially when she's accused of being the reason the police department lost an officer. Her heartbreak only continues when she discovers a cassette tape of Martyn having sex with an underage woman, who is later confirmed to have been trafficked.
Martyn and Rachita have a tense meeting, with the former demanding the tape is returned, claiming he had been tricked into sleeping with the woman. But it's too late, as Rachita tipped the police about their whereabouts, and he's subsequently arrested alongside Magnus Tranter.
Despite all of Rachita's hard work in bringing people to justice, the chief brushes off her efforts, claiming she was "out of her depth" in the team, admitting he felt "under pressure to appoint her because of the ethnic needs of the case".
Rachita is suspended due to her involvement with Martyn, and we see her pulling off her lanyard and walking out of the building, past a "Be the Change" poster that contradicts everything she'd experienced.
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In the early going, DI Ray set itself up as an interesting and timely study of the kind of subtle, everyday racism (perhaps conscious, perhaps not) that many Asian police officers have to deal with.
I was disappointed with the way this descended into being more about racism than the actual crime. In doing so it rather fell between two stools and wasted the talents of Parminder Nagra and Gemma Whelan.
I thought also it was a bit too heavy re racial slurs, behavioural issues etc whether intentional or not. To me, one or two were just bonkers and spoilt the effect but brave to highlight the issues generally as a main feature running through the series. Hard to tell in real life as the current mode seems to take serious umbrage at the slightest issue to satisfy self gratification.Think there is a second series in this but concentrated on a more innovating plot and Asian customs.
British broadcaster ITV has picked up the four-part series, which revolves around Birmingham-based police officer Rachita Ray, who takes on a case that forces her to face a lifelong personal conflict between her British identity and her South Asian heritage. The story will follow a murder investigation while at the same time exploring issues of racism in the workplace.
The series is expected to film in the Midlands in the U.K. later this year. There is no word yet on where the show will land in the U.S. but it will be distributed globally by Hat Trick International and Anton Corp.
Needless to say, however, what Sondhi is doing to modernise the much-loved but often stuck-in-the-past British police drama is fascinating. As DI Ray continues this week, it will be interesting to see what nuances the show delves into, and to find out whether it manages to subvert expectations on a plot level, as well as genre-wise.
He has to tell her that he is going to be the uncle. Once they leave, Martyn tries to figure out what is wrong with Ray. He insists there was nothing in what the waitress said. She claims she is trying to get her head around all the change happening right now. When she begins up the baby subject, Martyn says he is still with her on that. They can still be auntie and uncle without all that chaos. She admits that is a relief before saying they should go home and not make a baby. The following day, Dr. Clacy comes into the station to tell Ray there was a significant amount of water in her lungs. However, the water samples were analyzed and it was revealed that there was no presence of algae.
The second episode of DI Ray had some genuinely interesting moments as the story is slowly unfolding, but far too many frustrating moments in between. I am not sure where the series is going with the development of DI Ray as a competent DI. At the moment though, the show has turned her into a poor sop to the point that I actually feel sorry for the character at times.
Most of these UK police dramas take place in London or Manchester. I think those cities are cosmopolitan enough that Asians are not as uncommon and hence there is less institutionalized racism. This story takes place in Birmingham, which is likely a lot less sophisticated and therefore the types of biases and gemeral insensitivities we see directed towards Asians is probably more prevalent. 041b061a72