We’re delighted to announce that three brand new GRACE films, adapted from international bestselling author Peter James’s award-winning novels, have commenced filming in Brighton with John Simm in the lead role of the tenacious detective.
Acclaimed screenwriter and Endeavour creator, Russell Lewis, has adapted the three 120-minute screenplays from the novels NOT DEAD ENOUGH, DEAD MAN’S FOOTSTEPS and DEAD TOMORROW, following much-loved character Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, a hard-working police officer who has devoted his life to the job.
John Simm on his happy return to GRACE: ‘Everyone involved with GRACE is very excited to be back in Brighton bringing the next three Peter James novels to the screen. Like the first two, they’ve been brilliantly adapted by Russell Lewis, and we can’t wait to get started.’ Simm won praise for his ‘excellent’ and ‘as watchable as ever’ performance as Roy Grace – for more details of reviews, see below, and you can watch for yourself on ITV Hub.
Richie Campbell and Rakie Ayola also reprise their roles as DS Glenn Branson and ACC Vosper following the success of the first film, DEAD SIMPLE, which aired on ITV in March 2021 and achieved consolidated ratings of 8.8m viewers, with nominations for two National Television Awards. Zoe Tapper (The One, Liar, Nightflyers) is also joining the cast as recurring character, Cleo Morey, a mortuary technician, who takes a shine to Grace.
Arthur Darvill (World on Fire, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Broadchurch) guest stars in NOT DEAD ENOUGH, which sees Grace and Branson investigating the murder of wealthy socialite and patron of local charities, Katya Bishop. Katya is wife of a prominent Brighton entrepreneur, played by Arthur Darvill, who becomes the main suspect in the investigation. The Bishops seem to have led a charmed life, until Grace digs deeper behind the respectable facade and discovers all is not what it seems. Doing so, however, places him unknowingly in grave danger.
In DEAD MAN’S FOOTSTEPS, Grace leads the inquiry into the discovery of a woman’s skeletal remains in an old storm drain. The remains are believed to be of the wife of a failed Brighton conman, who died in a plane crash several years earlier. Grace must re-trace the man's steps in the years before his death, which leads him on a murky trail through the world of Brighton's oldest crime families. But it’s not only on the professional front that Roy is chasing ghosts…
In DEAD TOMORROW, a body dredged up from the seabed of the English Channel initially appears to be a burial at sea gone wrong, but a strange incision on the victim’s body soon points to something very sinister. When two more bodies are found, news spreads like wildfire through Sussex, and Grace begins to unearth that this is part of an altogether more chilling design – one which forces him to confront the question of just how far anyone would go to save the ones they love.
Kiaran Murray-Smith (Grace, Bulletproof, Silent Witness) returns to produce the series again this year with Henrik Georgsson (Tsunami, The Bridge, Marcella) directing the first film, Brian Kelly (Poldark, The Lock and Downton Abbey) directing the second film and Kate Saxon (Endeavour, Silent Witness, Casualty) taking the helm for the third title, DEAD TOMORROW.
GRACE has been recommissioned for ITV by Head of Drama, Polly Hill, and Drama Commissioner, Huw Kennair Jones. Huw will oversee the production of the series from the channel’s perspective. A further GRACE film, LOOKING GOOD DEAD, was produced last year and is also due for scheduling on ITV, along with the newly filmed stories.
The Executive producers are Andrew O’Connor and Paul Sandler for Second Act Productions, Patrick Schweitzer for Tall Story Pictures and Michael Vine for Vaudeville Productions. Russell Lewis and Peter James will also be executive producing the new films.
ITV Studios will be responsible for the international distribution of GRACE and the new series will be exclusively available on BritBox North America.
The paperback of LEFT YOU DEAD, a Number One bestseller and the seventeenth novel in the Roy Grace series, will be published on 14 October 2021 and is available for pre-order now.
Praise for the first film in the GRACE series, DEAD SIMPLE
‘It’s so, so good… Set in and around Brighton and Sussex… The team have made it look absolutely beautiful… and they’re such great stories, brilliant whodunnits… I was hooked!’ – Zoe Ball, The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show, BBC Radio 2
‘A twisty race against time… John Simm is one of those actors who makes you think: what must that be like? What must it be like to be so good at the thing you do that, when you come along, everyone just relaxes? To be so good that everyone knows they are in safe hands, knows they are going to be shown something great, knows they won’t have to mess about trying to make a little look like a lot. For viewers, he turns up and you just … believe him… And here he is again, doing his quiet, unfunky, wholly credible thing, in GRACE.’ – Lucy Mangan, The Guardian
‘It’s a good’un… I thoroughly enjoyed it… 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.’ – Anita Singh, The Telegraph
‘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
‘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
‘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
‘Simm is excellent as the melancholic copper and should get his wish to play the role for years to come.’ – Joe Clay, The Sunday Times, Critic’s Choice
‘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
Peter James is the international bestselling author of many award-winning novels, repeatedly occupying the Number One slot on the Sunday Times bestseller charts in both hardback and paperback. Peter writes both thriller standalones and the hugely popular Brighton-set Roy Grace series, now adapted for ITV.
Peter’s books have been translated into thirty-eight languages, with worldwide sales of over twenty-one million copies and his Detective Superintendent Roy Grace series, set in Brighton, has given him 18 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. Peter James has also written two books based on true crime stories, with former senior detective Graham Bartlett.
The 16th Roy Grace, FIND THEM DEAD, was a UK Number 1 in both hardback and paperback, spending four consecutive weeks at Number 1 in paperback, and reaching Number 5 in Australia and Canada too. In 2021 Peter James repeated the hardback and paperback Top Ten double with LEFT YOU DEAD and standalone thriller I FOLLOW YOU.
Successful nationwide tours of the stage plays of THE PERFECT MURDER (2014), DEAD SIMPLE (2015,) NOT DEAD ENOUGH (2017) and THE HOUSE ON COLD HILL (2019) have packed theatres in dozens of British cities, and garnered magnificent reviews. The stage play of LOOKING GOOD DEAD is currently touring the UK. Several other Peter James novels are optioned for film and in further development.
Visit Peter’s website.
Like him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter and Instagram.
