BBC’s Virdee arrives in Bradford
Filming is underway on Virdee, a BBC crime thriller set in Bradford and based on AA Dhand’s novels.
Virdee follows Detective Harry Virdee (Staz Nair), a cop disowned by his Sikh family for marrying Saima (Aysha Kala), who is Muslim. Harry struggles with the abandonment and now with his young son, Aaron, growing up and asking questions, thinks it might be time to attempt to reunite with his family. His personal life in chaos, he must now hunt down a serial killer targeting the Asian community.
When the murderer kidnaps a local police chief’s son and holds the entire city to ransom, Harry realises that he is going to need the help of his brother-in-law Riaz, a drugs kingpin who runs the largest cartel in the county. Pulled together in an alliance that could ruin them both, Harry must make a choice: save himself and his family or save his city. He will not be able to do both.
Nina Singh (The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry) plays Tara Virdee, Harry’s niece and a keen crime reporter, with Vikash Bhai (Crossfire) as Harry’s brother-in-law Riaz Hyatt. Kulvinder Ghir (Foundation) and Sudha Bhuchar (Expats) will play Harry Virdee’s parents, Ranjit and Jyoti.
Elizabeth Berrington (Good Omens, The Nevers) also joins the cast as DS Clare Conway and Danyal Ismail (All the Lights Still Burning, The Outrun) will play DS Amin. The Virdee cast also includes Tomi May (Justice League), Andi Jashy (Gangs of London), Hussina Raja (Look at Us), Ashkay Kumar (Double Blind), Madiha Ansari (Home Sick), Jason Patel (Unicorns), Conor Lowson (The Bay) Rupert Procter (Doctors).
The six-part series is adapted for the screen by AA Dhand, pictured top with Nair, and is produced by Magical Society for BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
Hans Zimmer (Interstellar, The Dark Knight) will be composing the Virdee title theme with James Everingham for Bleeding Fingers and will also feature Shashwat Sachdev. Trainees from Screen Academy Bradford will also be joining Bleeding Fingers to get a hands-on experience of composing for screen and to assist with the composing of the series score.
The series is directed by Mark Tonderai (Doctor Who). The series is executive produced by Paul Trijbits (Jane Eyre) for Magical Society, AA Dhand, and Jo McClellan for the BBC.
Cineflix Rights is the exclusive worldwide distribution partner outside of the UK.
tagged in: AA Dhand, BBC, Cineflix Rights, Hans Zimmer, Magical Society, Mark Tonderai, Virdee