Maya Sondhi on DI Ray, writing and south west London
Maya Sondhi on DI Ray, writing and south west London
We chatted with the writer and actress about the second season of her hit show DI Ray, why she loves writing, and her favourite things about south west London
Credit: David Reiss
The second season of Maya Sondhi’s ITV police drama DI Ray is set to air this autumn. Second seasons are always exciting prospects – it’s the chance to expand your story, develop what you set up, and explore new avenues. DI Ray has some great groundwork to build on: it’s continuing the story set up in Season One, which revolved around police officer Rachita Ray (Parminder Nagra) as she is promoted to Detective Inspector in a fictional Birmingham police force. The show differs from many police dramas of its ilk, exploring the racism faced by its British-Indian main character, and institutional problems within the police.
“I’ve had the space to really explore with this season,” Maya explains to me over Zoom. Her enthusiasm is palpable even through a computer screen; it’s clear she loves this show. “It looks better. It’s on a bigger scale. We know who she is now, so we don’t have to set that up. So we can just get on with the crime stories!”
Season One had been commissioned during the height of COVID, with Maya writing the majority of the first season at home with a newborn baby. The production for season one was affected by restrictions, with sets locked down tightly and actors having to isolate during filming to avoid getting sick. For Maya, the freedom of Season Two’s production made it much smoother sailing.
She’s written for other shows before, but this is the first she has created herself. “It’s my third baby!” she jokes. The story she’s telling is incredibly important to her – she put a lot of herself into its creation. Much like Rachita Ray, she grew up British-Indian in Birmingham. She feels a certain level of responsibility, as she’s giving voice to unheard stories. “The representation is important to me: representing people who have perhaps not had very good representation, or stereotypical representation. I want to make sure people feel seen.”
Maya is certainly familiar with the world of police dramas, having starred on three seasons of Jed Mercurio’s Line of Duty as Police Constable Maneet Bindra. What is the enduring appeal of these kinds of stories? What is it about police procedurals that keeps viewers so hooked?
Maya has some ideas. “People like being armchair detectives. But I also think they like having the rug pulled out from under them. Audiences are really clever, and should never be spoon-fed anything. There’s so much content right now that if somebody’s not into something, they’ll just turn over. You’ve got to surprise them – they like being surprised!
“I do think they like it when the procedural stuff is really accurate,” she adds. “What I discovered on Line of Duty was that people weirdly love the procedural details – the stuff you’d think would be mundane.”
These are the lessons she took into creating DI Ray. “I hope that people going into it will find, not only a good and surprising crime story, but also some characters they can really connect with.”
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She didn’t always know that she was going to be creating shows. She has previously been in the writers’ room for shows like BBC’s This Is Going to Hurt and Channel 4’s Ackley Bridge, but this is her first foray at the helm. It’s the writers’ room that she loves – the process of creation.
“When I was first a jobbing actor and doing a million side jobs, my parents said to me, ‘Why don’t you write? You’ve got so much in you.’ At first I thought, ‘I can’t write, I’m not clever enough.’ But that’s stupid. If you want to do something, you just have to do it. That’s my advice to anyone: just do it.”
While she came to writing later, she’s always felt the call to acting. She loved acting from a young age, having attended a youth theatre in Birmingham followed by community drama at the Midlands Art Centre. From there she attended a summer course at the National Youth Theatre before applying to LAMDA on a scholarship after winning a dance and drama award.
She believes the arts need to be made more accessible for everyone. She mentions imposter syndrome, something she admittedly suffers from. What’s her advice for overcoming it? Again – ‘just do it.’ “You’ve got one chance at this. So just go for it. What’s the worst that can happen?”
She loves acting, but it’s writing that allows her to really stretch her imagination. “As an actor, you can only play one part at a time. But with writing, I can put as many pieces of myself into as many characters as possible.”
As for dream projects? She’d love to work on a comedy show. “I love comedy! It can be totally silly, but it can also be really moving and have really important messages underneath. I don’t think you need to have intense drama to move people… There are so many thrillers and crime dramas, which is great, but I think we do need to counter that with some lightness. I think we all need the joy as well.”
While originally from Birmingham, Maya now lives in south west London with her two children. She loves it here – she’s got three commons within easy access: Tooting, Streatham and Clapham.
“I adore the sense of community around here,” she says. “My children and I love meeting the dog walkers in the park. And I do yoga and Pilates, and it’s all groups of women uplifting women. It can be difficult being a woman raising two children, but there’s so many coffee shops around here where you can just meet people and spend time together.”
Season Two of DI Ray will begin airing on ITV in the autumn. Maya is looking forward to viewers seeing what’s in store, with directors Nirpal Bhogal and Nicole Volavka having worked on the show, and the return of Parminder Nagra and Gemma Whelan in their roles. Here’s to the new season – we’ll be along for the ride.
