SECRETS, contradictions and complicated relationships are at the heart of a new BBC drama set in an Asian family law firm in Manchester, with Sanjeev Bhaskar and Ritu Arya in the lead roles.
The Split Up, which began airing last weekend, is a spin-off of The Split, a legal drama created by Abi Morgan for the broadcaster. Bhaskar and Arya, who play father and daughter Dhriv and Aria Kishan respectively, told Eastern Eye they were drawn to Ursula Rani Sarma’s script and characters who were “specific and complicated”.
“I enjoyed reading [the script]… where each of the characters is presented with a dilemma of some kind, and I was curious as to what choice they make to respond to that dilemma,” Bhaskar said.
Arya spoke of her love for Sarma’s writing and her role in particular.
“It felt unpredictable, and these characters felt specific and complicated,” the actress said.
“And I absolutely loved reading Aria. She’s this contradiction, where she is so good at handling other people’s relationships. She’s a family lawyer, she’s so good at it, but when it comes to her own personal love life, she’s a mess. And she’s got this beautiful relationship with her family.”
Also starring in the six-part series are Aysha Kala, Arian Nik, Danny Ashok, Dimitri Leonidas, Mawaan Rizwan, Sindhu Vee and Shalini Peiris.
Lenny Henry, Jane Horrocks and Jameela Jamil make guest appearances.
Arya’s character expects to take over the family firm from her father, but he has other ideas, with more than a few complications and revelations on the way to her realising that ambition.
“I was a fan of The Split, the series that came first and that Abi Morgan wrote, and my missus was in it,” Bhaskar said, referring to his wife, Meera Syal.
He added: “I really liked the relationship the family has [in The Split Up]. The siblings with each other are really lovely. I genuinely believe that, and the relationship with the father, as well. It is complicated, because families are complicated, but they also work together.
“In a law firm that specialises in divorce, that further complicates it, and drama comes from complications.”
Prior to filming the series, Arya spoke to a female family lawyer to understand what the experience was like.
“She was incredible. What I found the most fascinating was how round the clock it was, how much she was juggling, and that sort of the work didn’t ever stop,” the actress said.
“It was always on call, and how much she cared, her intelligence, her articulation, and her decisiveness, but also her generosity of spirit.
“I felt grateful to chat with this woman; I admired the way she was as a person, navigating the workplace, she’s dealing with such high stakes situations and families are depending on her life changing stuff. So I found it amazing getting to do that.”
Arya spoke of having compassion for her character because “she’s being torn in so many different ways, she doesn’t want to hurt anyone, and she doesn’t know what she wants.”
She added, “She is very driven and ambitious, and really good at what she does. She’s the kind of lawyer that everyone would want to have. She cares so much, like her life depends on it.
“She’s in conflict with her father on taking over the business, she’s got these siblings – their problems are her own problems. So there’s this sort of enmeshed world, and then they work together too.
“She’s also grieving her mum, and so things are coming out sideways that she might not even be aware of, or that they’re being talked about.
“We’re catching this family in one slice of their life and lives, and so yes, she’s making these decisions.
“And sometimes you’re like, no, Aria, and sometimes yes, and that makes her more human, and that also creates drama and someone that I want to play for six episodes.” Morgan is an executive producer on the spin-off and the series is directed by Shamim Sarif.
With a prime-time slot on the BBC, The Split Up follows AA Dhand’s crime drama Virdee last year and, prior to that, A Suitable Boy, based on Vikram Seth’s novel.
Bhaskar traced the arc of Asian storytelling from the 1960s and 1970s to the present day – from information-based programmes aimed at helping new migrants settle in the UK, through Goodness Gracious Me, The Kumars and Bend It Like Beckham, to a newer generation confident in telling stories where ethnicity is not the key driver. He cited Riz Ahmed, Dev Patel and Himesh Patel, who can be part of big movies and “in some of those they play somebody of Asian heritage, or they don’t.
“It doesn’t matter.”
The actor noted his own portrayal of a detective in a series (Unforgotten), where ethnicity is not the purpose, it’s not the drive of the character, but that’s who he is, and “that is the difference now”.
“That sense of presence now is a lot more established than it ever was before,” Bhaskar said. But, he added: “I don’t think it makes it easier. The competition for jobs is still as difficult as it ever was, but we can now see people who have made it.
“When I started, there weren’t many examples that I could look to who were British, south Asian, who had made a career. But now we can see lots, which is super encouraging,” Bhaskar said of the progress made by Asian actors in Britain.
