The third season of The Bay lands on ITV today (Wednesday 12th January), and there’s a new DS in town. COBRA star Marsha Thomason will be taking over from Morven Christie, who played lead character Lisa Armstrong in seasons one and two of the coastal crime drama.
Thomason will be playing the CID’s new Family Liaison Officer, DS Jenn Townsend, and her first case will see her meet the Rahmans after their son Saif is murdered.
Actor Michael Karim, who plays Saif’s brother Adnan in The Bay cast, spoke to RadioTimes.com and other press about playing an Asian family on screen that was “just a family”.
He explained: “For me, it’s really refreshing to play an Asian family where the story isn’t just focused on the fact that you’re Asian. You just are a family, and we happen to be Asian. There aren’t massive plot points that just bang you over the head with it that we’re Asian.
“It’s kind of like a window into a normal family in Morecambe, and the trials and tribulations that they’re going through – we just happen to be Asian. It’s really refreshing as an actor, to read something that isn’t sort of ramming it down your throat or banging you over the head with it.”
The Bay writer Daragh Carville also spoke about the importance of focusing on a different community in Morecambe, and how they brought in writer Furquan Akhtar to ensure they did the story justice.
“I knew that we wanted to go somewhere really different, that’s kind of what we’ve done in every series,” Carville said.
“So in the third series I knew we wanted to tell a story about a different part of the community in Morecambe; and I was really keen to tell a story about an Asian family. But I was also very conscious of the fact that that’s not my story to tell, so we brought on board another brilliant writer who worked really closely with me, Furquan Akhtar, a brilliant Manchester writer who’s just fantastic – in a few years he’s going to be running the world!
“So we worked really closely, we co-wrote some episodes, and I wrote some episodes and Furquan wrote some episodes. A lot of the distinctiveness of this family, the Rahmans, really comes from Furquan’s sense of the reality and texture of those lives. So that’s an element of series three that I’m really proud of and excited about.”
Luckily, we don’t have long to go before we can enjoy it ourselves.
Additional reporting by Laura Denby.
The Bay returns tonight (Wednesday 12th January) at 9pm on ITV. For more to watch, check out our Drama coverage or plan your viewing with our TV Guide.