DI Ray

Thrilling series aims to do a lot for representation - including the Leicester accent.

“In other roles, I have to do RP and I don’t think my accent is ever on TV, other than [Match Of The Day’s] Gary Lineker. Also produced by Jed Mercurio, the head honcho behind the BBC’s mega-successful Line of Duty, DI Ray promises a series of shocks across its four episode run this week. But when her first case is deemed a ‘culturally specific homicide’, Rachita fears she only got the job due to her Indian heritage.

Since starring alongside Keira Knightley and Jonathan Rhys Meyers in Bend It Like Beckham, Parminder has had huge success Stateside. The actress was a series ...

What she doesn't count on is what this case stirs up inside her; the realisation that she’s been burying a personal identity crisis." "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," she explained. Like this story? It even has a connection to Line of Duty. Find out more here… Looking for a new drama series to watch? DI Ray on ITV could be the answer.

Line of Duty star Maya Sondhi tells NationalWorld all about her new ITV crime drama DI Ray, how she approached its themes of identity, and more.

A lot of people go through it on an everyday basis, and we need to work out a way in the right way to deal with it so that we can feel comfortable, but we’re also not keeping up. Then, for people who are on the other side of it, maybe just think, have I ever have I ever dealt with someone in a kind of an offhand, casual way that might have been quite offensive to them? Obviously, we can’t go too far the other way, when you can’t even say anything – but we do need to find a happy medium, I think. When it’s just there to serve the script or the story, or when it’s actually things that people say, and the ways that people would react. I wanted it to be funny, because I just didn’t want it to be bleak and grim. [laughs] – and I feel like as an actor, you kind of understand when lines feel right, and when they when they just don’t feel like something anyone would say? That was – you probably know, you can probably tell – that was real. We have to get names checked, too – so if you can have characters’ names, one of the biggest checks we had was to make sure that there was nobody in the police force with the names used in the show. I feel like I want [DI Ray] to be that kind of casual with it. Because I think – I don’t know about you – there’s nothing worse than watching something and then there’s a big clanger where you go “that just wouldn’t happen.” It takes you out of it, and then you’re not as invested in the characters – I just didn’t want that to happen here, because I want you to go with [Rachita Ray] all the time. This show is peppered with everyday sexism and everyday racism, but it’s not the thing that then takes up the rest of the episode. I wanted to address it, but I didn’t really know how, because it’s quite a niche thing – and, you know, it’s not really very hooky to sell to commissioners.