This British crime drama will leave you exhausted and disorientated
Virdee ★★★½
Opening with a disorientating chase on foot through the city centre of Bradford that uses an urgent mix of drone and handheld cameras to keep you off-balance and exhausted, this British crime drama throws everything it has at you. But the reason Virdee resonates is that the familiar genre elements, which revolve around police detective Harry Virdee (Staz Nair) and a highly charged investigation that repeatedly escalates, are matched by personal stakes that are painfully intimate. The hardest hits in this show aren’t from fists.
Staz Nair as Harry Virdee in the British crime drama Virdee.
Harry gets the suspect in a missing teenager case he’s pursuing, but his sense of triumph doesn’t last. His broad shoulders look burdened when he meets his wife, local nurse Saima (Aysha Kala), outside a blaring wedding party. “I’m finally about to meet my racist father-in-law,” she jokes, but neither laughs. Harry comes from a Sikh family, Saima is Muslim, and their marriage has left son estranged from father. Both are the children of immigrants, with unmistakeable Yorkshire accents, but the divisions of the past still refuse to let them be.
Virdee was adapted by crime author A.A. Dhand from his series of novels based around the character of Harry Virdee. The lines between family, religion, career, and community are complicated for Harry and Saima’s South Asian generation – they flex and fray, leaving sharp edges that can draw blood. Harry’s dedication to his job is shadowed by his relationship with Saima’s brother, Riaz Hyatt (Vikash Bhai), who is secretly running one of two drug gangs that are vying for control of Bradford’s streets. The give and take between the two is full of wary compromise and sudden risk.
Aysha Kala as Saima Hyatt and Staz Nari as Harry Virdee in the crime drama Virdee.
From the first of six episodes, Virdee piles on the professional demands. “I don’t do desks,” Harry tells his new younger partner, Amin (Danyal Ismail), which is handy as the missing teen case and simmering gang war are soon joined by a serial killer, who is targeting the Asian community and seemingly choosing their targets as a means of inciting Harry. As much as the police detective charges around, a somewhat suspicious Amin in his wake, there’s a sense Harry is being led on.
The killer’s twisted crime scene scenes have a lurid, performative edge that the direction is a little too keen on showcasing, but Virdee has a sturdy emotional core that provides the show’s real foundations. Harry may tower over Saima physically, but she is wiser and stronger emotionally. When he’s rebuffed – repeatedly – by his father, Ranjit (Kulvinder Ghir), it’s Saima who picks him up, even as she starts to question Harry’s connection to Riaz. The chemistry between the two actors has a wellspring of consolation, told through bittersweet cracks and tender glances.
Staz Nair has a Game of Thrones credit to his name, but as one of the stoic Dothraki warriors shadowing Emilia Clarke’s dragon queen Daenerys, he didn’t get to reveal a great deal of range. Harry asks for much more, and Nair answers the call. As much as the other characters look at Harry with growing suspicion as his attempt to do good can only be advanced by questionable moves, it’s his doubts that resonate the strongest. As with The Responder and Blue Lights, policing here feels like a puzzle that can’t be cleanly solved. It’s a promising first season, but there’s much here that hopefully the BBC will build on.
Virdee premieres at 9.30pm on Thursday, March 27, on SBS and streams on SBS on Demand.
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