DI Ray, a new thriller about a ‘culturally sensitive homicide unit’, tackles racism in the force. Star Parminder Nagra and writer Maya Sondhi talk about decoding police-speak, working with Jed Mercurio and the perils of tokenism
A south Asian woman is standing by the wine in a supermarket, wondering which Merlot to choose. She plunges three into her basket (they’re on offer) when an older white man snakes round her to ask where the eggs are. It becomes clear he has mistaken her for staff because she is brown.
“Wish you lot wouldn’t keep moving the stuff around. No good for me memory,” he says. She starts to explain without any conviction that she does not work there “actually”, but before the words have left her mouth he has gone.
