To catch a KILLER

STAZ NAIR on playing TV's latest maverick crime-fighter

- SEAN MARLAND

VIRDEE NEW MONDAY, 9PM, BBC1 THRILLER (BOX SET, BBC IPLAYER)

Staz Nair is brimming with excitement as he tells TV Times all about his dream role as the lead in BBC1’s gritty new crime thriller Virdee.

Starring as Harry Virdee, a Bradford-based detective who gets dragged into a gangland turf war while hunting a serial killer, feels like a breakthrough moment for the actor, especially as the show is already being compared to Idris Elba’s hit, Luther.

‘It’s a wonderful compliment for people to say that,’ says Staz, 33, whose previous credits include American dramas Game of Thrones and Supergirl. ‘Luther is so cool, but he’s also a hero who lives within his world; you don’t really see his vulnerability. I think empathy is actually Harry Virdee’s superpower and his curse because he feels everything.’

Author A.A. Dhand, who turned his 2016 novel Streets of Darkness into this sixpart drama, says Harry was partly inspired by comic book heroes, yet we see plenty of his sensitive side in this week’s opening episode as he struggles under the weight of the agonising burden of being disowned by his Sikh family for marrying a Muslim woman, Saima (The Doll Factory’s Aysha Kala).

Here, Staz tells us more…