‘D.I. Ray’ is a British police procedural drama series created by Maya Sondhi, starring Parminder Nagra as Rachita Ray, a capable British Asian policewoman who is promoted to look into the homicide case of a young Muslim man. This leads her to believe that rather than her qualities and skills as a detective, she has been specifically chosen for the case because of her ethnicity. She is aware that the suspects are innocent but is nevertheless determined to crack the case and catch the killer.
Because of the unspoken biases and the desire to finish the case as soon as possible, Ray’s attempts to persuade her superiors of this are ignored. The criminal drama, which takes place in Birmingham with the fictional police force at the centre of the story, also stars Parminder Nagra, Bhavik C. Pankhania, Che Cartwright, Jamie Bamber, and Ian Puleston-Davies. You may question where “D.I. Ray” is shot given the utilisation of some intriguing locales, such as the police station and crime scenes. If so, don’t worry—we’ve got you covered!
D.I. Ray Filming Locations
Filming for “D.I. Ray” takes place mostly in and around Birmingham in England. According to rumours, the first season of the crime drama series’ principal photography started in early October 2021 and ended in December of the same year. In terms of the sophomore round, shooting began in May 2023. Without further ado, let’s travel to each of the precise sites where D.I. Rachita Ray in the police procedural series unravels the mystery of various crimes!
Birmingham, England
The majority of “D.I. Ray’s” crucial scenes were filmed in Birmingham, a city and metropolitan district in England’s West Midlands. The locations of Centenary Square on the north side of Broad Street can be seen in the pilot’s opening shot. Scenes featuring D.I. Ray’s home and the neighbourhood were filmed in Birmingham’s southwest, more specifically in the Harborne neighbourhood.
The exterior of the Birmingham police station is represented in the mystery series by the area outside the Lloyd House police station. Moreover, key scenes in the Parminder Nagra starrer were filmed at a number of other Birmingham locations. They are The White Swan in Deritend at 276 Bradford Street, Marco Pierre White’s Steakhouse Bar & Grill in the Cube at 200 Wharfside Street, Three Snowhill in Queensway at Snowhill 3 and the Ladbroke Hotel in Digbeth at Bordesley Street. In addition, the Central Library in the PBS series is actually the Library of Birmingham on Centenary Square in Birmingham.
The season one production crew camped down at the base of Spaghetti Junction to film a scene featuring the discovery of a body under the bridge. The Jewellery Quarter, St. Paul’s Square, Livery Street, Snow Hill Station Car Park, Ludgate Hill Car Park, and Grand Central, which is located above New Street Railway Station, are all locations where various significant exterior shots of “D.I. Ray” are filmed. A couple of the series’ sequences were also shot in and around Sutton Park in the Birmingham neighbourhood of Sutton Coldfield.
Aside from “D.I. Ray,” Birmingham has over the years served as the location for many films and television shows. ‘Miss Marple: At Bertram’s Hotel,’ ‘Clubbed,’ ‘The Marker,’ ‘Line of Duty,’ ‘Dalziel and Pascoe,’ ‘Hustle,’ and ‘You Don’t Know Me’ have all used its locations.
