Shabana Azmi on Next of Kin: You can’t push conflicts of this kind under the carpet

Still from Next of Kin

What begins as a distant tragedy slowly unravels into an intimate and unsettling crisis in Next of Kin, the gripping British thriller premiering April 3 on Lionsgate Play. At its heart, the series explores a question that feels both deeply personal and universally relevant: how far would one go to protect their family when everything begins to fall apart?

About Next of Kin

The story opens with the death of a young British Pakistani doctor working overseas. The news reaches his family in London in fragments - through phone calls, quiet exchanges, and a lingering disbelief that refuses to fully settle. For a brief moment, life appears to move forward, albeit with grief quietly simmering beneath the surface. But in Next of Kin, distance is only an illusion. What starts as a contained loss soon spirals into something far more complex and unsettling.

Created by Paul Rutman and Natasha Narayan, the series brings together a powerful ensemble cast including Shabana Azmi, Archie Panjabi, Jack Davenport, Viveik Kalra, and Navin Chowdhry. At the centre of the narrative is Mona Harcourt, played by Archie Panjabi, a successful doctor whose seemingly stable life is shattered when her brother is abducted and murdered abroad on the same day a bomb explodes in London.

The crisis deepens when Mona's nephew, Danny, goes missing and is soon linked to both incidents. What follows is a slow-burn descent into suspicion, conspiracy, and emotional turmoil. Relationships are tested, loyalties begin to shift, and the fragile threads that hold the family together start to fray. The series captures not just the external chaos of unfolding events, but also the internal fractures that emerge within a family under pressure.

For Shabana Azmi, who plays a pivotal role in the series, the decision to come on board was almost instinctive. "I just happened to be in London at the time when my agent told me about the part. I met the director Justin Chadwick and before I knew it, I was part of the production," she recalls. Having had a long-standing association with British cinema and television, she found the choice an easy one. "I took an immediate liking to Justin… knowing what the drama was about, it was a pretty easy decision for me to make," she adds.

Beyond its gripping narrative, Next of Kin resonates because of its emotional and social relevance. Azmi underscores the importance of telling such stories, noting, "This story is so close to home. I think it's very important for cinema, television, theatre, literature, art to reflect that. You can't push conflicts of this kind under the carpet. This drama shows what happens to human beings in these kinds of situations."

For Archie Panjabi, the script itself was the biggest draw. "My first reaction was, ‘I want to read episode two. I'm totally gripped by this script,'" she says. Calling it "intelligently written" and "timely," she highlights how deeply she connected with Mona's journey and the emotional weight the character carries.

In a landscape often dominated by spectacle, Next of Kin stands out for its quiet intensity and psychological depth. It doesn't just tell a story of crime or conspiracy- it holds up a mirror to the complexities of family, identity, and the choices we make when pushed to the edge.