| Genre: | Crime thriller |
| Based On: | City of Sinners by A A Dhand |
| Screenplay: | 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: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Num Series: | 1 |
| Num Episodes: | 6 |
| Executive Producer: | Paul Trijbits AA Dhand |
| Producer: | Stella Nwimo |
| Company: | Magical Society |
| Network: | BBC One |
Virdee is an upcoming 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.
Virdee (Nair), is a Sikh 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 Hans Zimmer.[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.[8] [9]
The six-part series will be shown in the UK on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.[10]
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.[11]