PBS Sets 'D.I. Ray' Season 2 Premiere Date

Since 2015, PBS' Summer of Mysteries has been headlined by two hit series headlined by two white guys: Grantchester and Endeavour. Whatever happens for the summer of 2024, that won't be the case, as the current lead of Grantchester, Tom Brittney, is out the door, due to be replaced by Rishi Nair in Season 9. However, Endeavour's conclusion had multiple shows vying for the new open slot. So far, fans know that Professor T, the Ben Miller starring English language remake from Eagle Eye Drama, aka Walter & Friends from Walter Presents, will be stepping up to fill the gap. But there had been no announcements about the other two candidates introduced in the summer of 2023 — Ridley, starring Adrian Dunbar, and D.I. Ray starring Parminder Nagra. Though both had issues in their first seasons, D.I. Ray was clearly the superior series, and PBS has apparently agreed, as it has been given the nod to return in June 2024.

Hailing from Jed Mercurio, the man behind the BBC's enormous hit Line of Duty, D.I Ray was, much like series from Mercurio's HTM Television (Hat Trick Mercurio Ltd) studio like Bodyguard, Trigger Point, and Bloodlands, a show that features actors now out of work since the flagship series ended. However, D.I Ray was the only one that directly tied back to Line of Duty, set in the same fictional Birmingham Police Force. It is also, notably, the only one to come to PBS, as the others were quickly snatched up by streaming services like Netflix, BritBox, and Acorn TV. However, it was also the only one to grab onto policing's third rail, race, and hold on with both hands despite the discomfort it brought.

Nagra plays the titular D.I. Rachita Ray, a British South Asian detective who endures daily microaggressions for the color of her skin when she's not enduring them for being female. The first season begins when she is assigned to a case involving South Asian suspects, not because she's more qualified, but to cover the butts of her white male superiors, something she simply accepts as the ladder she's handed. Ray herself has a lot of baggage around her own heritage, having turned her back on much of her upbringing, including dating exclusively white men. In the first season, she's forced to face both of those choices in ugly ways while also trying to solve a case that won't quit escalating, the way Murcurio cases tend to do.  By the end of the season, she's put on enforced leave to deal with her issues, but with a Season 2 already in production, it won't be long until she's called back to cover someone else's butt once again.

Here's Season 2 synopsis:

After being suspended from the force when her fiancé was found to have links to organized crime, DI Rachita Ray returns to homicide to investigate another sensitive and high-profile case centering on the murder of Frank Chapman, the head of a notorious crime family and a local nurse caught in the crossfire. Their deaths ignite tensions across the city, putting DI Ray in a race against time to uncover the truth before the Chapman family act out their revenge and an all-out gang war erupts onto the streets. All evidence points towards a rival crime family, the Mochanis, being responsible for the murders, but as DI Ray starts pulling at the threads of the case, a much more insidious mystery begins to unravel. Once again, the series will explore deep personal conflicts for Rachita as both a British Asian woman and as a police officer.

Nagra returns for Season 2 alongside Gemma Whelan (The Tower) as DCI Kerry Henderson, Ian Puleston-Davies (The Bay) as Superintendent Ross Beardsmore, Steve Oram (Ghosts) as DS Clive Bottomley, Peter Bankole (Peaky Blinders) as DS Kwesi Edmund and Sam Baker-Jones (Noughts + Crosses) as DC Liam Payne. The new cast for season 2 includes Patrick Baladi (Sister Boniface Mysteries), Dinita Gohil (The Sandman), Witney White (Father Brown), Michael Socha (The Gallows Pole), Syreeta Kumar (Torchwood), Lauren Drummond (Press), and Taha Rahim (The Serpent).

Maya Sondhi and Sarah Deane wrote all six episodes of D.I. Ray Season 2, with directors Nirpal Bhogal (Endeavour) and Nicole Volavka (The Pact) splitting helming duties and Roya Eslami producing. Mercurio and Sondhi are executive producers, along with Madonna Baptiste.

D.I. Ray Season 2 will premiere on Sunday, June 16, 2024, at 10 p.m. ET and air and stream weekly on Sundays on most PBS stations, the PBS app, and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel. All six episodes will be available on premiere day on PBS Passport for members to stream. As always, check your local listings.