The crime drama, D.I. Ray (ITV, Sun), has got something of the Wild West about it.
You can take that any way you like. Parminder Nagra’s highly strung detective inspector has returned for a new series during which I expect she will finally say, “Get the wagons in a circle!” Just like the first series it feels like the constabulary in the fictional Midlands – now Badlands -- are under siege. Why? A gangland boss, with the unlikely name of Frank Chapman (more like a local butcher), has been killed in a turf war.
Job done from where I'm sitting. But Ian Puleston-Davies’ gruff police boss was a picture of stress. Was he interrupted during a trip to the golf course? He barked at DI Ray, “You need to think like us.
” Think? That’s putting it highly. With shades of High Noon, all the best guns -- within a day's ride -- had gathered in the town at the local pub for Frank's wake. Obviously strong liquor was taken, there was much chest-beating before they sent someone around to the rival gang’s lair which appeared to be an illegal but genteel sewing circle in someone's front room.
Meanwhile, DI Ray was now feeling the pressure. She started drinking bad red wine from an oversized mug, before appearing to entertain someone in her dimly lit bedroom. It could have been any random gunslinger.
Thankfully Ray also had a direct line to a local snout who owned the kebab shop. He was poised to give DI Ray, and her portly assistant, an obvious regular, a free garlic sauce but the.