Hot Picks: DI Ray

Given that it’s a police drama produced by HTM Television – the company co-founded by Line Of Duty creator Jed Mercurio, which also made BBC1’s Bloodlands, and ITV’s Trigger Point and Stephen – DI Ray’s creative credentials look very promising.

The four-part series has another link to Line Of Duty – it is the debut drama from actor and writer Maya Sondhi, who played PC Maneet Bindra in the smash hit procedural. She has previously written on Ackley Bridge, EastEnders and The Kumars At No. 42, and has now created a Birmingham-set series following inspector Rachita Ray, a British Asian police officer new to homicide.

Ray, played by Parminder Nagra (Bend It Like Beckham; The Blacklist), is assigned to investigate the suspected honour killing of a young Muslim man. As well as grappling with the suspicion that she’s a ‘token appointment’ – chosen due to her ethnicity rather than her ability – she quickly realises that the suspects can’t be guilty. 

The evidence against the two brothers from a British Hindu family is extremely thin, but her attempts to explain this to superiors and colleagues are ignored, driven by hidden biases and a keenness to wrap up the case.

When her investigation leads the team to a much more sinister crime, Rachita uncovers a web of deceit, which also challenges her to confront the lifelong conflict between her British identity and South Asian heritage.

Sondhi says the drama is “not a textbook thing, it’s so personal”. She believes that placing identity at its core will help DI Ray stand out in a crowded international crime market.

“What Rachita discovers opens up a lot for her about her identity; it forces her to ask questions about herself,” Sondhi says. “Identity is something you never really sort out. I’m going to be 40 next year. I still feel like I’m doing a lot of exploration in the series.”

Madonna Baptiste, exec producer at HTM Television, says the theme of identity and the crime backdrop complement each other. “Crime opens up opportunities to go into the communities and understand the lifestyles,” she says. “Plus, the search for identity is a universal theme. Everyone can empathise with it.”

Mercurio, who is also exec producer on DI Ray, says the drama benefits from being “writer-led” and Sondhi’s presence on set as an exec producer “helped elevate the production”.

“Maya’s voice is a very specific one, relating to South Asian heritage, and the issues she raises are part of her life,” he says. “This is about creating a character with whom people who’ve gone through those experiences can empathise, through whom they can recognise the show’s authenticity and complexity.”

DI Ray is the key scripted London Screenings launch for distributor Hat Trick International, which is selective in the number of projects it represents. Director of sales Sarah Tong says HTM and crime are helpful selling points, but the story’s search for identity offers something different in the market.

“We’re not pigeon-holing DI Ray. We work across the world with free-to-air, pay-TV and SVoD, and we are already in discussions in a number of markets with all kinds of platforms,” she says.