ITV hit crime drama, GRACE, returned to screens on Sunday 19th March for a third season, garnering high praise and strong viewing figures. DEAD LIKE YOU (Series 3, Episode 1) drew in 5.6 million viewers on its seven-day consolidated figures – up a massive 700,000 on Season 2. The last episode of the season, NOT DEAD YET, airs on Sunday 2nd April at 8pm. Tune in then, and if you watch closely, in the first moments, you will be able to spot Peter James and his wife, Lara, walking down Brighton Palace Pier towards the camera!
GRACE stars acclaimed actor John Simm as tenacious detective Roy Grace, Richie Campbell as Glenn Branson and Zoë Tapper as Cleo Morley. The series is adapted from the bestselling Roy Grace book series by Peter James, which has delivered nineteen consecutive Sunday Times Number Ones for Peter James and his publisher Pan Macmillan. The third season of GRACE has received wonderful praise in the press and Season 4, with four episodes, starts shooting on April 11th.
‘For fans still coming to terms with the end of Endeavour, the third series of Grace has arrived just in time to fill the Brit detective void… a world-weary detective; a younger sidekick; and plenty of knotty cases to be solved.’ – Poppie Platt, The Sunday Telegraph
‘Simm plays the lead with elegant understatement’ – Mail On Sunday
‘John Simm is very good as gentle DS Roy Grace’ – Carol Midgley, The Times
‘John Simm is perfectly cast as our morose hero.’ – The Sunday Times
‘Darkly compelling’ – Tim Oglethorpe, The Daily Mail
‘A stirring return’ – TV Times, 5-star review
GRACE aired around the world for the first time in March 2021, with the first episode based on the first Roy Grace book DEAD SIMPLE. It has since aired in many countries including the USA, Canada, Japan, Norway and Finland. In April 2022, GRACE returned to screens with LOOKING GOOD DEAD and NOT DEAD ENOUGH, both of which topped the charts as most-watched UK TV show of the night. DEAD MAN’S FOOTSTEPS and DEAD TOMORROW followed. You can catch up on previous episodes of GRACE on BritBox and ITVX.
GRACE is produced by Tall Story Pictures (part of ITV Studios) and Vaudeville Productions. Along with Patrick Schweitzer (Tall Story Pictures), Andrew O’Connor (Vaudeville Productions) and Paul Sandler (Vaudeville Productions), author Peter James also acted as executive producer on the new films. ITV Drama Commissioner, Huw Kennair-Jones, oversaw production from ITV’s perspective.
March also saw a return to the stage for the Roy Grace series as the adaptation of WISH YOU WERE DEAD premiered. The nationwide stage play tour included a successful Gala Night at Brighton’s Theatre Royal. An all-star cast includes George Rainsford, who returns to the stage after eight years as Ethan Hardy in BBC One’s Casualty, Clive Mantle, much loved for many roles including Casualty, Game of Thrones and the iconic ‘puddle’ scene in Vicar of Dibley and the multi-talented actress, novelist, podcaster and winner of I’m A Celebrity, Giovanna Fletcher (until 29th April 2023). See more information on tour dates here.
The paperback edition of the most recent bestselling Roy Grace title, PICTURE YOU DEAD, will be out in the UK on 11 May and the nineteenth book in the series, STOP THEM DEAD, will be published in hardback in by Pan Macmillan on 28 September 2023.
Further praise for GRACE
‘A very effective appetite-whetter… The unpretentious storytelling makes this an easy watch, helmed by the always watchable Simm.’ – The Mail on Sunday, Pick of the Day
‘It’s a good’un... John Simm was pleasingly understated as Detective Superintendent Roy Grace and the adaptation was well done by Russell Lewis, creator of ENDEAVOUR. Richie Campbell was great as Roy’s colleague, DS Branson, bringing just the right amount of energy to proceedings... If ITV can find room in the schedules, another Grace instalment would go down nicely.’ – Anita Singh, The Telegraph
‘Roy Grace doesn’t have any obvious gimmick to mark him out, but he swiftly establishes himself as a solid addition to the Sunday-night pack… Chilling.’ – James Jackson, The Times, Critic’s Choice
‘Grace and Branson’s race to find Michael made for truly nail-biting TV and there were great performances, with Simm as watchable as ever as the shrewd, yet vulnerable Grace… With more to come later this year… I’ll certainly be tuning in.’ – Gwendolyn Smith, The i
‘There is a reason why Peter James’s novels have sold all over the world, and one of the main ones is that… Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is a well-written and believable character… Simm makes for a likeable lead and the atmospheric Brighton setting is well used.’ – Sarah Hughes, The Sunday Telegraph, The Very Best of the Week Ahead
‘Simm gives [Roy Grace] a winning sense of humour beneath all the grit… Campbell is smooth foil, playing Branson quietly enough that Simm doesn’t have to be enormous to stand out. Brighton’s mix of pretty shoreline, faded glamour, criminal past and contemporary hipsterism makes it a ripe spot for some murder. The action feels rooted in its setting…It’s almost inconceivable Simm hasn’t already been in a long running franchise… and I expect the wait’s over.’ – Ed Cumming, The Independent
‘Few people do moody, angst-ridden men better than John Simm, who takes on the role of Grace. With so many books in hand, this series could run and run.’ — The best television shows in the UK this April, Prospect Magazine
About Peter James
Credit: James Clarke
Peter James is the international bestselling author of many award-winning novels, translated into thirty-seven languages with worldwide sales of over twenty-one million copies. His Brighton-set Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series has given him nineteenth consecutive Sunday Times Number Ones. In 2015 WH Smith customers voted him the Greatest Crime Author of All Time and in 2016 he was awarded the coveted CWA Diamond Dagger, a lifetime achievement award for sustained excellence. In 2018 he received a Specsavers Honorary Platinum Bestseller Award.
In addition to his career as a novelist, he has produced several films, including The Merchant of Venice, starring Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons and Joseph Fiennes. He also co-created the hit Channel 4 series Bedsitcom, which was nominated for a Rose d'Or.
Successful nationwide tours of the stage plays of THE PERFECT MURDER (2014) and DEAD SIMPLE (2015) have packed theatres in dozens of British cities, and garnered magnificent reviews and NOT DEAD ENOUGH opened to full houses and acclaim in 2017. January 2019 saw the opening of the stage tour of THE HOUSE ON COLD HILL, with the sequel THE SECRET OF COLD HILL published in October 2019. The stage play of LOOKING GOOD DEAD toured the UK in 2021. The WISH YOU WERE DEAD stage play is currently touring the UK.
Visit Peter’s website