D.I. Ray is a British crime drama, initially screening on ITV, written by Maya Sondhi, who was in Line of Duty as Maneet Bindra. It stars Parminder Nagra as newly promoted Detective Inspector Rachita Ray, a homicide detective tackling her first case. According to interviews with Sondhi, the series is set in Birmingham, where Ray finds herself immediately assigned to a South Asian murder case on the assumption that her background will help her to deal with it.
The executive producer is Jed Mercurio, who previously worked with Sondhi on Line of Duty.
An ITV News At Ten interview with clips was made available online here
.
The first season is composed of four episodes, with the first episode released on May 02 2022. A second season is confirmed with production starting in 2023.
This series contains examples of:
- And Starring: Jamie Bamber gets this distinction, though it's actually "with" for him, "and" for another cast member.
- Artistic Licence – Law: The British police's CSH terminology ('culturally specific homicide') was invented for the show.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: DCI Martyn Hunter, a supposedly generic Nice Guy who appears utterly devoted to Rachita, turns out to be a Dirty Cop working with one of the traffickers she's looking for, had sex with one of the underage trafficking victims (though he swears he thought she was of legal age), and is indirectly involved in the victim's murder.
- British Brevity: The first season consisted of only 4 episodes.
- A Deadly Affair: Martyn orders a hit on Rachita and her lover upon finding out that she cheated on him—though this is also likely yet another attempt by him to stop her investigation—killing him.
- Dirty Cop: Martyn Hunter turns out to be this, being the gang's inside man on the police force, though he claims to have been blackmailed into after having had sex with one of their underage trafficking victims.
- Eloquent In Their Native Tongue: Despite assumptions that she's fluent, Rachita hasn't spoken Hindi since she was a small child; English is her first language.
- Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: Rachita cheating on her fiancé with a fellow South Asian police officer thanks to their shared feelings of isolation and discrimination is "good", despite her fiancé being loving and devoted to her. It gets even "gooder" once it turns out that her fiancé cheated on her with an underage trafficking victim
- Heritage Disconnect: Rachita doesn't speak Hindi, has a white partner, and is a little bit disconnected from her heritage.
- Human Shield: Rachita's lover serves as this when they're shot at, ultimately Taking the Bullet for her.
- Minority Police Officer: Rachita herself. This also applies to PS Khatri (Pakistani) and Min (Vietnamese).
- Mistaken for Servant: The first episode opens with Rachita out shopping. Another shopper, an older white man, asks her where the eggs are and it quickly becomes clear that he thinks she's one of the shop staff. He walks off before she can correct him.
- Racial Face Blindness: On her first day in homicide, Rachita's given a security pass for another Asian officer with a completely different name, and it's hinted that this may be a possible reason.
- Rewatch Bonus: Rachita's attack, after which Martyn shows up almost immediately, scaring the guy off, but finds no sign of forced entry and insists that she comes and stay with him. This appears to be the natural reaction of a loving and protective boyfriend, but when it turns out that HE'S involved in the investigation, it's really that he wanted to keep an eye on her so as to undermine her. Not to mention the considerable
Fridge Horror of him either enabling the attack. . .or possibly being the attacker himself. - Ripped from the Headlines: The case of the death of Vietnamese migrants smuggled into the UK is a ringer for the actual 2020 case where a lorry driver was found guilty of manslaughter in Northern Ireland.
- Wham Episode:
- Episode 3 Hunter meeting with Tranter prior to a drive by where Rachita's the intended target.
- Episode 4 Hunter's arrested with Tranter, but Rachita's case of supposed bullying is still under review to determine if she did so on purpose.
