MURDER, HE WROTE
John Simm stars as the eponymous Detective Grace in a gripping TV adaptation of Peter James’s multimillion-selling novels
PICK OF THE WEEK GRACE
Sunday, ITV, 8pm
He played a policeman caught up in a trip back in time for Life On Mars, but now John Simm is starring in a very different kind of detective drama. You might call it an end-of-the-pier show, seeing as the setting is Brighton – home town of Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, hero of no fewer than 17 unputdownable novels by Peter James. Devoted fans will be excited at the prospect of the books – which have sold more than 20 million copies – at last being brought to the screen in a gripping adaptation by Endeavour creator Russell Lewis.
Newcomers who’ve missed out until now can be assured they’re in for a treat – James’s lean, mean thrillers know what they’re about, right from page one, with their distinctive trademark of featuring the word ‘dead’ in the titles and a grittily compelling and captivating darkness.
Though Simm (above, with Richie Campbell as DS Branson) was a stranger to James’s work when he was invited to consider the role, the actor had the enthusiastic recommendation of his father-in-law, a retired police officer who had served 30 years with the Met. He was full of praise for the accuracy of the books, based on painstaking research by James, who took regular ‘ride-alongs’ with the Sussex Police, his own local force.
Like all the best detectives, Grace is burdened by his past, and most of all haunted by the mystery surrounding the disappearance of his wife years ago, on the day of his 40th birthday. Despite an outstanding record, his unorthodox methods have incurred the displeasure of superior officers. They are particularly concerned about Grace’s penchant for consulting a medium who claims to have supernatural powers – all of which guarantees plenty of column inches in the newspapers when Grace is on the case, but not with the kind of headlines the force wants to see.
The debut feature-length instalment
(the first of two tales to be shown this year) is based on the first book in the series, 2005’s Dead Simple. Grace is under orders to stay in the office looking into cold cases – until he’s called upon to help in the search for a bridegroom who’s gone missing after a stag night took a tragic turn. As the mystery enters macabre territory, it falls to Grace to take charge of the investigation – albeit with the reluctant approval of his bosses.
The unshowy Simm quietly makes the role his own without any fussy histrionics. There can only be one verdict on his performance: dead good.