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DI Ray Series 2 opens, like all good love stories, with a murder… in this case, finishing off crime boss Frank Chapman, alas with some collateral damage.
I’d forgotten everything that happened in the first series, other than the fact Parminder Nagra was in it, so when Gemma Whelan from The Tower popped up, I also forgot she was in it, and expected ITV to have created their equivalent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with crossovers. Sadly not. Oh, they missed a trick, there.
Ms Ray has a disciplinary meeting about the events of series 1, but however that might turn out, I expected in advance that since we’ve only just started series 2 of “DI Ray“, she would still continue in that role.
The opener also teases at a turf war between the Chapmans and the Mochani family, because reasons, but bet your bottom pound, it’ll involve a lot of shouting and/or chest-beating, or in the case of Michael Socha as Frank’s son, Dave, just sitting down and behaving in a petulant manner.
So far, that’s the only episode I’ve seen, and it’s fairly snooze-worthy. I will check out a second, but while it was available for preview, I’ll watch it on ITVX where it has subtitles, since the dialogue is occasionally a bit muffled.
However, as the cops are trying to find out who killed this crime boss, I struggled to care. And while re-reading my review of the first series, I recall that such feelings were prevalent during that one, so why did this ever come back? Plus, it’s been extended from 4 episodes to 6!
Oh, and at one point, Rachita renames a file in Windows to include slashes, but whether back or regular, it’s one of a number of characters that Windows won’t let you use in a filename. Similar nonsense happened last time, when an English UK PC keyboard was somehow instantly able to type in Vietnamese. Which Windows app was that?!
Oh (again), a tip for any cops, just shouting “Police! STOP!” does NOT make the baddies stop!
UPDATE EPISODE 2:
DI Ray begins tonight at 9pm, but the whole series is already on ITVX. It’s not yet available to be pre-ordered on Blu-ray or DVD.
Director: Nirpal Bhogal
Producer: Roya Eslami
Creator/Writer: Maya Sondhi
Music: Edmund Butt
Cast:
DI Rachita Ray: Parminder Nagra
DS Clive Bottomley: Steve Oram
DCI Kerry Henderson: Gemma Whelan
DS Kwesi Edmund: Peter Bankole
DC Charlene Ellis: Witney White
Supt Ross Beardsmore: Ian Puleston-Davies
DCI Liam Payne: Sam Baker-Jones
Dave Chapman: Michael Socha
Amy Chapman: Heather Forster
Lucy Chapman: Tamala Kari
Joey Chapman: Kiera Thompson
Suzie Chapman: Lauren Drummond
Frank Chapman: Tony Van Silva
Rav Mochani: Taha Rahim
Sharan Mochani: Syreeta Kumar
Priya Mochani: Priyasasha Kumari
David Brown: Ian Attard
Dr Sylvia Clancy: Nicola Alexis
Hiroka McGregor: Naomi Yang
Amara Dhawan: Dinita Gohil
Megan Parks: Phoebe Marshall
Mrs Parks: Eiry Thomas
Hardeep: Kriss Dosanjh
Nick Henderson: James Daffern
Ethan Henderson: Cian Barry
Jay: Zariah Bailey
Liz: Annette Badland
Aled: James Eeles
Claire Doyle: Angela Bull
Lou Kirkby: John Vernon
Stevo Miller: Jamie Bell
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.