Judging by a spectacularly gloomy first of six episodes, Bradford is a cross between Al Capone’s Chicago, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Michael Mann’s Heat. Moody drone shots portray the city centre as a warren of shadows and skullduggery; everyone talks like protagonists from a gumshoe novel.
Aysha Kala as Saima Hyatt and Staz Nair as Harry Virdee (Photo: Vishal Sharma/BBC/Magical Society)
Any self-respecting noir will feature a tragic love story, and there is an element of that in Virdee. The lead detective is from a Sikh background, while his wife, Saima (Aysha Kala), is of Indian-Muslim heritage. Virdee’s father (Good Gracious Me’s Kulvinder Ghir) and others in his community cannot forgive him for crossing what they regard as a religious red line. That fact is made painfully clear when Saima is on the receiving end of a racial slur in an early scene set at a wedding (which goes on almost as long as the eternal nuptials at the beginning of The Godfather).
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Read MoreBut there are other problems. A sequence in which Virdee chases a suspect down a train line has so much nauseating shaky-cam action that sensitive viewers may need a lie-down and a cold, damp cloth across the forehead.
Kulvinder Ghir as Ranjit Virdee (Photo: Sam Taylor/BBC/Magical Society)
The series also suffers from pacing issues. Part one focuses on the search for a missing teenager and Virdee’s relationship with his brother-in-law, who just happens to be one of the biggest criminals in West Yorkshire – a fact our heroic copper has managed to keep secret. But then, at literally the last minute, it is revealed that there is a serial killer on the loose in Bradford.
The thriller genre has been overwhelmed lately with cosy crime dramas, where the heroes are inevitably white and middle-class men, wisecracking while investigating horrific murders. Virdee is a welcome pushback against that trend – not just because its lead character is of South Asian heritage but also because it isn’t afraid to be grown up and serious.
‘Virdee’ continues next Monday at 9pm on BBC One
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