BBC's Virdee axed after one series
The BBC has axed Virdee after one series.
The BBC has axed Virdee after one series.
Viewing figures for the six-part thriller - which was released in 2025 and adapted from A A Dhand's best-selling crime novel series - "didn’t come in sufficient numbers to make it a viable proposition for a second series".
An insider added to The Sun newspaper's TVBiz column: "There was a lot of hope that Virdee would work because it was a deviation for a crime series, and it did gain its own following."
The Bradford-based show - of which some episodes raked in an average of 743,000 viewers in its primetime Monday slot on BBC One - saw DCI Harry Virdee - played by Staz Nair - hunt down a killer targeting the West Yorkshire city's Asian community.
It also saw the detective's Sikh family feel outraged that Harry decided to marry Saima (Aysha Kala), who is Muslim.
With Staz's hope that he would see his cast mates on "another ride" of the series - which, including iPlayer viewers, averaged 3.3million views - being diminished, the BBC wants to cast him in future programmes.
A BBC spokesperson said: "We’d like to thank Amit Dhand and the Virdee team for a brilliant series, we are really proud of the show, and we are talking to Amit about future projects."
As well as Staz, 34, and Aysha, 35, Virdee also starred the likes of Tobias Jowett (young Harry Virdee), Vikash Bhai (Riaz Hyatt), Danyal Ismail (DS Amin), Elizabeth Berrington (DS Conway), Sudha Bhuchar (Jyoti Virdee), and Kulvinder Ghir (Ranjit Virdee).
In February 2025, A A Dhand said it felt like a "very natural progression" for him to adapt Virdee into a TV series.
He said: "I’d written the books as a long screenplay because I’m a very visual storyteller, so I always have pictures in my head.
"It just felt like a very natural progression to try and adapt it myself. There wasn’t any hesitation from me to try and adapt it, and I really enjoyed it because it gave me another opportunity to dissect the books but elevate it for screen, so I could go even further.
I’ve always wanted to be a screenwriter. I grew up in a convenience store which had a video library, so I spent my youth watching videos, thrillers and the like.
"I’ve been raised and obsessed with movies since I can remember. I’ve always wanted to do something for screen, and the novel was my way into it."
