The Split Up Cast Reveal Emotional First-Episode Moment Left Everyone in Tears — as BBC Drama Introduces a New Family and a Dangerous Secret

The cast of The Split Up have revealed how quickly their fictional family began to feel real behind the scenes — with an emotional moment during filming of the very first episode leaving the actors collectively in tears.

The new BBC drama expands the world of The Split, the acclaimed series starring Nicola Walker that originally ended after three seasons in 2022 before later returning for a two-part special.

This time, however, the story moves away from London and introduces an entirely new family.

Set in Manchester, The Split Up follows the Kishans, a British South Asian family whose highly regarded legal firm handles the private affairs of some of the city’s elite.

But behind the firm’s reputation for excellence, integrity and discretion, the Kishan family is dealing with grief, complicated relationships and a secret capable of threatening everything they have built.

Meet the Kishan family

Ritu Arya leads the drama as Aria Kishan, a rising figure in Manchester family law who has been expected to eventually take over the family firm from her father, Dhruv.

Sanjeev Bhaskar plays Dhruv, while Aysha Kala and Arian Nik also star as Aria’s siblings Maya and Kav.

Until recently, the family’s future appeared relatively straightforward.

But the death of Aria’s mother, Raina, six months earlier has changed Dhruv’s perspective.

He begins questioning whether Aria should take on the responsibility of running the firm alone.

Aria’s fiancé Neal emerges as a potentially more stable choice to lead alongside her, but mixing their professional and personal lives creates another problem.

Their wedding itself is no longer guaranteed.

An old romance and a family secret threaten everything

The situation becomes even more complicated when someone from Aria’s romantic past moves to Manchester.

At the same time, a family secret that has remained buried threatens both the Kishans and the reputation of their firm.

Aria, Maya and Kav consequently find their personal relationships colliding with the legal disputes unfolding through their work.

The series uses those pressures to explore modern relationships, family responsibility and the conflict between living for yourself and meeting the expectations of those closest to you.

While those tensions provide plenty of drama on screen, the atmosphere among the actors themselves appears to have been very different.

One scene left the cast in tears

Aysha Kala, who plays Maya, recalled a particularly emotional experience while filming the opening episode.

The Kishans gather for Aria’s Chunni engagement ceremony, which includes a dance performed by Maya’s on-screen daughter Charvi, played by Izzy.

According to Aysha, Izzy had spent the day knowing the performance was still ahead of her and was understandably nervous.

“When Izzy did her dance at the Chunni [engagement ceremony], she had to do that right at the end of the day, and that’s like hell when you know you’ve got to do this thing all day,” Aysha explained.

When the moment finally arrived, the rest of the cast gathered around to watch.

“She was nervous, and we all stood around and watched her, and collectively there were just tears coming from everyone.”

The reaction didn’t stop when filming did.

Aysha recalled everyone rushing over afterwards to give Izzy a huge hug, describing an atmosphere in which the cast genuinely wanted one another to succeed.

“We all wanted each other to do the best that we could do,” she said.

The cast created their own family WhatsApp group

That connection continued away from the cameras.

Sanjeev Bhaskar revealed that the actors formed a family WhatsApp group during production — and it remained active after filming.

“We even had a little family WhatsApp group, which is still going,” he said. “It’s very, very sweet.”

For Bhaskar, joining The Split Up also represented something new in his own career.

The Unforgotten star said he had never previously played a patriarch and wasn’t even certain he had played a father before.

That made Dhruv and his complicated family particularly appealing.

Sanjeev Bhaskar was already familiar with The Split

Bhaskar had watched all three seasons of The Split as well as its special before joining the spin-off.

He also had personal connections to the original series.

Nicola Walker, who led The Split, has worked with Bhaskar several times, while his wife Meera Syal appeared in the show’s first season.

Bhaskar said he loved the new scripts and the ideas surrounding the Kishan family, particularly the combination of domestic drama, conflict and secrets.

Although crime, murder and mayhem can make compelling television, he believes family stories offer another kind of appeal because most viewers can relate in some way to being part of a family.

He hopes audiences who enjoyed The Split will find the same appeal in The Split Up.

A familiar world with a new identity

Bhaskar also highlighted the importance of writer and creator Ursula Rani Sarma in taking the established foundations of The Split in a new direction.

Abi Morgan, creator of the original drama, remains involved as an executive producer.

Bhaskar described Morgan as one of television and film’s greatest writers and praised Sarma for taking the existing template and making the new series her own.

Moving the action from London to Manchester and placing a British South Asian family at the center allowed The Split Up to establish a distinct identity while remaining connected to the world viewers already know.

Bhaskar admitted that taking on such a task would have been daunting for him, but said Sarma “more than rose to” the challenge.

For the actor, the opportunity to play the head of a deeply dysfunctional family was another major attraction.

As he put it, that dysfunction may be bad news for the family’s relationships — but it makes very good drama.

The Split Up airs Sundays at 9pm on BBC One and is available on BBC iPlayer.