'Virdee's First Images Remind Us of the Series' Historic Nature

The last time we checked in with the upcoming BBC crime thriller Virdee, it was October 2023, and the series had just been commissioned starring Doctor Who's Sacha Dhawan. Dhawan had just wrapped up his role as the latest incarnation of The Master on the long-running science fiction show, and the move to lead his own crime series on the BBC was a significant step in his career. However, it wasn't to be. Dhawan had to exit the project due to being in ultra-high demand, causing scheduling conflicts. In February 2024, the BBC announced Dhawan's replacement: Staz Nair, who Game of Thrones fans will recognize as Qhono, the Dothraki warrior who becomes second in command to Daenerys Targaryen in the show's later seasons. The series also revealed the rest of the cast, as filming was about to commence in Bradford.

Bradford, located in West Yorkshire, might not sound like a significant place to film. However, the series is the best-selling series of crime novels by A.A. Dhand, whose titular detective, DI Harry Virdee, a British English Sikh investigator, lives and works in the city of Bradford. Dhand, who has published four Virdee novels so far, is adapting his own work for the small screen, starting with the first Virdee novel, 2016's Streets of Darkness, so it makes sense that he'd set the screenplay in the city where the novels are set.

With filming now complete and Virdee scheduled for a 2025 release, the BBC has finally released the first images for the series. These images emphasize the groundbreaking nature of the project: an almost all-South Asian cast, with actors of Indian and Pakistani descent in the roles of both heroes and villains. The images show them dealing with the sorts of family issues that plague us all: parental disapproval of one's chosen partner and career and families that won't stop meddling, either out of an abundance of love or a need for control.