DI Ray creator wanted to avoid female detective "trope"

"We've seen that a million times over, and I didn't want to do that with her. I feel like she's different. She has her issues, but they mainly come from her upbringing, her identity, trying to prove herself.

"And also, we didn't want to touch the fact that she's a single, childless woman in her 40s. I did not want to go there."

Parminder Nagra stars as the Birmingham-based police detective, who is investigating the murder of a high-profile criminal in the show's second outing.

But the twists and turns of the case ignite racial tensions, which "cause a personal conflict for Rachita, both as a British Asian woman and as a police officer".

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"She must fight to prevent a turf war erupting on the streets of Birmingham," adds the synopsis.

But following the events of season 1, which saw Ray's fiancé, DCI Martyn Hunter (Jamie Bamber), outed as a corrupt officer, the detective's emotional state is in a precarious place, which bleeds into her decision-making at work.

"I hate it when people's trauma is forgotten," added Sondhi. "It's annoying. It's like it's wiped and it's gone, so we wanted to keep that.

"But having endless panic attacks in toilets and things like that, it's like, oh, come on, we need to push it through now."

Sondhi went on to describe Ray as being like a "swan" in season 2.

"She's kicking hard underneath," she said. "And actually, the key thing is she's a really good, instinctive police officer, and that's what she cares about. She just wants to do her job really well, and not because she wants to be seen to be doing a job really well – she actually cares about victims and justice.

"So I think when you see her doing that, you see her strength, and you see why she came back and why she survives."

DI Ray season 2 will begin on ITV1 on Sunday 20th October at 9pm, with subsequent episodes following across the week. All six episodes also drop on ITVX on 20th October.

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