DI Ray creator Maya Sondhi on making the switch to writing

Fans of Line Of Duty will remember the moment in series five when PC Maneet Bindra had her throat slit and was left to bleed out on a jetty.

While the shocking scene was the unequivocal end of Bindra, it was not the full stop on the relationship between Maya Sondhi, the actress behind the character, and the show’s creator, Jed Mercurio.

The TV executive, also responsible for hits such as Bodyguard, Bodies and Cardiac Arrest, was aware Maya was an aspiring screenwriter as well as a busy actress, so he offered her an opportunity to write a show for his new production company.

The result was DI Ray, a police procedural set in Maya’s home city of Birmingham which touched on a number of themes personal to her.

As it returns for a second series next Sunday, mum-of-two Maya reflected on the journey that has made her a force behind the camera as well as in front of it.

“When we decided I was going to die on Line Of Duty, Jed said he knew I was writing – I was doing a couple of episodes of EastEnders at the time – and he would like to support that,” explained Maya. “He told me he was setting up a production company and that I should let him know what I wanted to write about and we would talk.”

Maya told him she wanted to write a story about girls and gangs in Birmingham. They threw the idea around, received a commission at E4, and she wrote a script that both of them were proud of, but the show failed to get off the ground. While it was a tough lesson in the world of TV production, Jed remained keen to work with Maya.

“I told him I wanted to explore identity,” she continued. “He said I had to wrap it up into something – that’s Jedbrain, as I call it, he knows how to sell stories to mainstream audiences. He’ll come in and say, ‘No, this won’t work, we need to give the audience this and that’. He has that type of mind.

“I don’t have a twisty-turny brain – my writing comes from characters. That’s what I know. I don’t have formal writing training, I come from it as a human and an actress. I know how the characters think and feel, what they sound like and how they interact, but you need someone to say, ‘You need to do something here to make this more high stakes, maybe kill this person’. That’s what he brings to it. When you sit in a room with him, it sometimes feels like a lecture in screenwriting.”

DI Ray

As the process continued, DI Ray emerged.

“We didn’t do too much work on the pitch at the beginning – this is the character, this is who she is, where she works, and what we can do with her. He took it to ITV and I think it was the right show at the right time. So much of this business is about luck and timing. Polly Hill at ITV said she wanted it but didn’t know when, so I started writing the pilot. A couple of weeks later, Jed told me there was a slot available for four episodes.”

The series follows DI Rachita Ray, who is promoted to join a homicide investigation but soon suspects she has been chosen for her ethnicity rather than her ability. Nevertheless, she is determined to find the killer by delving into the world of organised crime, leading to an unexpected discovery in the final episode of the first series.

It stars Parminder Nagra, who made her name in Bend It Like Beckham and ER, as Ray. Maya admits she was tempted to pitch herself for the role.

“I floated it at the beginning, but Jed told me I’d be too busy and he was right. I was still altering parts and re-writing as we were going, and I was also looking at casting tapes for later episodes. As we were getting it off the ground, we had to make sure it was right. It’s me, it’s my story, but mixed in with other elements, so I feel my voice is out there now. Identity is quite niche; I’ve always wanted to explore it because it’s such a massive theme for everyone. We all feel like we don’t fit at times. We felt if we wrapped it up in a police procedural format, it let us explore those themes.

“We go a little further in the second series – she’s suffering PTSD after what happened in the first season, she’s in her 40s and single, doesn’t have kids, isn’t trusting of anyone. These are all things people are judged on but also make us who we are.”

Maya, who has also starred in Citizen Khan and The Following Events Are Based On A Pack Of Lies, had thought about writing throughout her acting career but often talked herself out of it.

“I felt a bit of imposter syndrome,” she admitted. “Because I didn’t go to uni – I went to drama school at 18 – I didn’t have a degree. I had been away from academia for a while, and I felt to be a writer you had to be academic, but it’s b******s, anyone can write their story.

“My mum and dad always said I should write and I got annoyed with them because they kept saying it. I think I was scared and didn’t know how, but I kept notes and characters in my head.”

Writing inspiration

It was while starring in a panto that Maya finally found the confidence she required. Each night she was allowed to adlib a scene and she was told afterwards that she had to write. Inspired, she had an idea for a sitcom and showed it to her producer on Citizen Khan, who introduced her to an agent she is still with today.

As well as DI Ray, she has written for the latest series of Grantchester and will also act in an episode of the 1950s-set detective show.

She says becoming a mum – she has two primary school-aged children – has helped her to make the most of her time.

“I’m so much more focused now I’ve had kids,” she smiled. “I snatch time. If I’ve got a train journey, I’ll sit there and write. Sometimes when they go to bed, I’ll write. Both are at school, so I plan what I’ll do with that time.

“Often, creativity doesn’t come when you want it to come. I have notebooks and I’ll also write things in my phone to deal with later. A lot of the time, the creative stuff comes when you’re in the shower or falling asleep, and you note it down and come back to it.

“Brett Goldstein [writer and actor on Ted Lasso] said he realised writing isn’t just sitting at the computer typing, it’s going for a walk and wandering around, all the time mulling the story over. Sitting down to write it is just the final part. So now I don’t beat myself up so much if there’s a day when I’m thinking about it rather than actually doing it, because that’s when you get the solutions and know how to fix a scene, because you’ve allowed yourself a break.”

She added: “I probably didn’t have that much to write when I was in my 20s, but I’m 41 now and have had lots of life experiences and met lots of different people who have also had interesting experiences.

“I’m excited about getting older in the business as a writer, whereas as an actor you worry about becoming invisible. But as a writer, you come into your own as you grow older, especially as a woman.”

‘I want some fun’

Although DI Ray is a serious crime drama, the series writer says she is desperate to have a laugh.

Maya Sondhi has appeared in lots of light-hearted productions during her acting career, from panto work and playing Shazia on Citizen Khan to providing voices for kids’ TV shows like The Adventures Of Paddington and Dennis & Gnasher: Unleashed.

“I’m desperate to do a working-class comedy, because I don’t feel like we have enough of that,” she said. “That’s another way for people to be seen, and it doesn’t need to be grim. It can be joyful.

“I’m speaking to another couple of Brummie women – a comedian and a comedy writer – and we’re getting our heads together. I’d love to be in that, it’s my cup of tea.

“With the way of the world, we need joy. Even if it’s dark and silly joy, it can still be joyful. Look at how well Ted Lasso did – viewers want joyful people on screen, where folk actually like each other and have big hearts. That’s what I crave.

“There’s nothing more brilliant than making people laugh. It makes me feel happy.”

As for more adventures for DI Ray beyond the upcoming second series, she doesn’t know.

“I think a third season is dependent on ratings and if there’s an appetite. I feel this is a show that might have a certain life, an ending, but I don’t know when that will be.”

DI Ray returns to STV and ITV next Sunday at 9pm