Interview with Reece Ritchie who plays Jay in BBC Two’s drama series White Heat.
Jay is Hindu, a second generation Indian immigrant. He not only carries the secret burden of his homosexuality but the burden of his parents expectations. He is expected to marry and have children as well as excel in his medical career.
Jay is used to watching and keeping his distance, to interpreting hidden signals. He is careful who he can trust. He has spent years living in the shadow of his sexuality by having transient sex.
The only major commitment in his life is medicine, drawing on his reserves of compassion and humanity. Eventually his need for companionship and intimacy force him to accept his sexuality. He has a unique bond with Orla perhaps because like her, he becomes emotionally estranged from his own family. She is the sister he never had.
