DI RAY. ITV 9pm mon to Thur - tv pace. NO SPOILERS

[Blondeshavemorefun]

looks good. On 4 nights starting tomorrow mon 2nd may

DI Ray is a new ITV crime drama that has been described as "fresh, relevant and thought-provoking". The four-part series is written by Line of Duty actress and screenwriter Maya Sondhi and is produced by Jed Mercurio's HTM Television. Jed serves as executive producer for the new series.

The four part series will follow DI Rachita Ray, played by Bend It Like Beckham and The Blacklist star Parminder Nagra. The synopsis is as follows: "Rachita achieves the promotion she’s been waiting for when she’s asked to join a homicide investigation.

However, on her first day she’s told the murder to which she’s been assigned is a ‘Culturally Specific Homicide.’ Rachita’s heart sinks – she suspects she’s a ‘token appointment’, chosen for her ethnicity rather than her ability.

"Never one to shy away from a challenge, Rachita sticks to the case, determined to both find the killer and call out the obvious biases her colleagues are bringing to the investigation. And it’s far from easy. The case isn’t a run-of-the-mill murder; it involves delving deep into the dangerous world of organised crime."

Who's in the cast of DI Ray?
Parminder Nagra leads the cast as the lead role of DI Rachita Ray, a Birmingham based police officer who is originally from Leicester.

The Tower and Gentleman Jack star Gemma Whelan stars as DCI Kerry Henderson, who clashes with DI Ray as she believes she's been given a "bump up" too soon.

Speaking about this, Gemma revealed: "In Kerry’s view, everyone else has worked their way up through the ranks and earned their place in the team, whereas Rachita has had a ‘have a go hero moment’ as Kerry sees it, and hasn’t earned her job title."

@RampantIvy everyone is allowed their opinion! It’s not great it’s improved last night but after Monday’s episode I almost gave up...each to their own ...

Wow! Don’t watch just for the obvious as the last episode is scaringly good! Very well done overall. Needed to have more time to not edit and squeeze into just a few episodes.

I found the racism references refreshing as it’s it’s not a side that I’ve seen on tv. before. But I have experienced on a daily basis so it felt real enough to me.

I really enjoyed all of it. It looks like they have left it so that there could be a second series.

watching it now. Why has she gone to the hotel???

Yes the hotel bit was odd. She was onto him so I assumed it was being recorded or someone hiding in next room but nope!

Overall I enjoyed. Felt very sorry for her and the constant racism she experienced at work. Hopefully get a season 2!

Line of Duty has made me suspicious of everyone and if it was longer the twists could’ve been developed.

i enjoyed it.

I found the ending very sad, that she was treated so badly by the force and under investigation, basically taking her promotion away, when she had achieved so much. Why did her team resent her appointment so much? Pure racism? I find that shocking - maybe I am naive - in a big, multicultural city like Birmingham.

Also very sad for her she discovered Martyn was so different to what she thought. He seemed controlling though and she wasn't so confident, which is unusual for an experienced police officer.

I don't understand how those two short exchanges could lead to a big investigation into bullying, either.

I missed the bit with the bullying

The bullying was also a silly /sad accusation.

The front desk women on first day gave her the pass card of (I think) random other Asian person. Which is pretty stupid if giving out security cards without checking properly.

Then got her rank wrong later, which di ray corrected. (Called her a dc so lower rank) I mean they are all about rank in the police, with their maam etc. one assumes the front desk lady complained first in case she was accused of racism.

If that’s meant to be the bullying then that’s outrageous. I can’t even see on what grounds.

and yes it’s racism to give the wrong ID badge of another Asian person imo.

She was given her promotion purely because of her colour/ethnicity. It was obvious right from the beginning that there were racist attitudes towards her - from the desk officer through to the superintendent.

They clearly didn't expect her to actually solve the initial crime, and just expected her to go along with their desire to gaol the Kapoor brothers. She wasn't actually expected to investigate any further. It was tokenism, pure and simple. (As well as, obviously, racism)

But the woman gave her the ID of a detective constable when she was detective inspector. She would never have done that to a white man. She was both racist and sexist and intended to humiliate her.

Yes totally agree to racism, sexism and tokenism.

Yes, sexism too

I got the impression that her team had started to accept her by the end when they were all having a drink in the pub.

I didn't like the ending. I hope there is a series 2 where she gets a chance to redeem herself.

Gave up halfway through because of this. The acting was pretty unconvincing too I felt.

I didn't notice that the acting was unconvincing. I would make a terrible TV critic
The acting would have to be really bad for me to notice it.

In terms of racism references being heavy handed.. I don’t get why that’s wrong? If that’s people’s experiences then why is it wrong to portray it?

I thought the acting was good, actually. D.I. Ray knew she was in an untenable position from the outset. She talked several times about not fitting in as well, which I thought was a really interesting perspective - not being white or British enough and not being sufficiently Indian either. All the assumptions that went with her supposed background were interesting.

Her team was ambivalent, because they were being directed so strongly by superior officers. But once she started to uncover what was really happening they did noticeably start to respect and follow her lead. Once they were all sharing the investigation, and all being involved.

I didn't like the ending, as it seemed as if she had given up (although who would blame her?!) but hopefully it's a trailer for season 2.

To me, it felt like it undermined the experience that friends and colleagues have described, in that rather than the damaging and subtle micro aggressions that they have experienced which leave them questioning themselves, they were smack you round the head 1980s style racism. That’s just an opinion and I hold my hand up and say I’m white British and have never experienced racism so I don’t know first hand.

It felt like we were watching a sixth form drama about racism, quite clumsy.

I’m not white
And have experienced both types of racism- in your face, aggressive being spat at, being scared. And the type shown in this. Both were awful and affected me. The (unsubtle) micro aggressions were probably harder to deal with as it’s harder to define and as it seems small to others it felt, at the time, to be petty to complain about. So you just swallow it and carry on. I am very glad/ relieved that this sort of stuff is being shown. And that’s what was refreshing about seeing this on screen.

The front desk lady. It's hard to outright accuse her of racism (if you are di ray) as she could well be just incompetent/busy /made a mistake.

Now I think we are supposed to know it's racist, or using lazy assumptions about di ray, but it's hard to actually say she was being racist. Which I suppose is the point.

Thats why it’s so hard to complain about. As there’s the element of doubt. But I’d say the person experiencing it knows.

I’m sorry that you have been through this.