SAVING GRACE
JOHN SIMM PLAYS THE DETECTIVE WHOSE PERSONAL LIFE AND CAREER HAVE BOTH HIT AN ALL-TIME LOW…
GRACE USES STRANGE METHODS, BUT IF IT WORKS, IT WORKS!” JOHN
In this new feature-length drama – based on the hit novels by Peter James – John Simm takes the lead as Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, a man who’s at rock bottom following the mysterious disappearance of his wife, Sandy, six years previously. Since then, he’s thrown himself into his work, but even his career seems to be going off the rails. Can his fortunes be turned around?
The bestselling Grace series has now reached its 16th novel – and the TV version looks set to be just as popular…
“It was manna from heaven to get that phone call,” John admits to Inside TV. “It’s not a genre that I’d normally read, but when they called me, I was walking past a Waterstones! So, I devoured the first three books very quickly, and I was hooked. I’m on book 10 now!”
John is keen to tell us about his character, explaining why DS Grace was a role he simply couldn’t turn down…
“He’s a brilliant cop,” shares John. “But he has also been visited by tragedy, with his wife going missing. And for such a great detective, it’s ironic that that’s a case he can’t solve, so it’s always hanging over him. And he uses strange methods – but if it works, it works! He just wants results: he doesn’t care what people think.
“Having said that, Grace isn’t a maverick,” continues the actor. “He’s just a very good police officer. But when we meet him, he’s down on his luck. He’s in the middle of a really stressful trial, and has been demoted to cold cases.”
However, there’s soon something much more meaty for Grace to get his teeth into. The police are baffled by the disappearance of a groom just a few days before his wedding. A stag-night prank that went wrong? Or something more disturbing? Grace’s colleague, Detective Sergeant Glenn
Branson, calls upon Grace to unravel the truth of this mysterious vanishing act…
“What attracted me to this project was the friendship between these two guys,” enthuses Richie Campbell, who plays Branson. “That’s the real heart of the piece – these men really bouncing off each other, trying to solve
cases. And what was lovely was that it was already there, from the very first read-through. John and I were just in tune.”
For now, only the first two books have been adapted by ITV; the second film will follow later in the year. But the signs seem good that John will be back in Grace’s shoes soon…