| Virdee | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Crime thriller |
| Based on | City of Sinners by A A Dhand |
| Screenplay by | A A Dhand |
| Starring | Staz Nair, Aysha Kala, Nina Singh, Vikash Bhai, Kulvinder Ghir, Sudha Bhuchar, Danyal Ismail. |
| Theme music composer | Hans Zimmer James Everingham |
| Composer | James Everingham |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 6 |
| Production | |
| Executive producers | Paul Trijbits AA Dhand |
| Producer | Stella Nwimo Himesh Kar |
| Production company | Magical Society |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC One |
| Release | 10 February 2025 |
Virdee is a six-part British crime thriller television series. It is adapted by A A Dhand from his own Bradford-set crime novel series. It stars Staz Nair and is being produced by Magical Society for BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
Harry Virdee is a detective hunting down a killer targeting the Asian community in Bradford. Meanwhile, his Sikh family are dismayed at his decision to marry Saima, who is Muslim. [1]
Based on the character from the A A Dhand crime novels, which debuted in 2016 with Streets of Darkness, which in September 2023 was reported to be the novel being adapted into a six-part television series. [2] However, later reports suggested it is actually the third novel, City of Sinners, which Dhand has himself adapted for television. [3]
Executive producer is Paul Trijbits for Magical Society, AA Dhand, and Jo McClellan for BBC. [4] The series producer is Stella Nwimo and the series is being co-produced by Gareth Coulam Evans, Callum Dodgson and Sylvie Richards. The series is set to be scored by James Everingham, with the main theme composed by Everingham and Hans Zimmer featuring Indian composer Shashwat Sachdev. [5]
In August 2023, Sacha Dhawan was cast in the lead role. [6] In February 2024, he was replaced in the role by Staz Nair. [7] That month, announced cast also included: Aysha Kala as Saima Virdee; Nina Singh as Tara Virdee; Vikash Bhai as Riaz Hyatt; Kulvinder Ghir as Ranjit Virdee and Sudha Bhuchar as Jyoti Virdee. Elizabeth Berrington and Danyal Ismail also star in the series.
Filming commenced in February 2024 in Bradford. Bradford is the 2025 UK City Of Culture and in the series you can find various iconic landmarks [8] [9] [10]
A premiere of the series was held at St George's Hall, Bradford on 6 February 2025, at a Red Carpet event, attended by Dhand, Nair, Kala, Bhai and Ismeal]] amongst others. [11] [12] The six-part series was shown in the UK on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on 10 February 2025. [12] [13]
Multi-award-winner composers Hans Zimmer and James Everingham have been announced to be composing the Virdee title theme and series score, featuring Shashwat Sachdev. Trainees from Screen Academy Bradford will also be joining the scoring process to get a hands-on experience of composing for screen. [14]
Lucy Mangan in The Guardian praised the "satisfying plot" and the charisma of Nair as Virdee and "Dhand’s great talent for finding the emotionally universal in the culturally specific." [15] Carol Midgely in The Times enjoyed the "strong" and "powerful” portrayal of the family dynamics in the series but cautioned viewers against the "barbarity" of the violence. [16] Chris Bennison for The Telegraph favoured "the gentler domestic scenes" describing Kulvinder Ghir, as Virdee’s disapproving father, as "quietly impressive", and compared Nair to "Daniel Craig-era Bond" but for all the "vignettes that fascinate – the gangs specifically recruiting young South Asian women to deal drugs because the politically aware Bradford police don’t dare stop and search them" felt that "they get buried" by "crime-thriller tropes". [17]