Grace is a British television crime drama series based in Brighton and Hove, England, starring John Simm in the title role of Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, a dogged detective who, haunted by the disappearance of his wife some years previously, solves a variety of cases.
Based on the bestselling novels by Peter James, the series was adapted by screenwriter Russell Lewis with a pair of films comprising the novels Dead Simple and Looking Good Dead, filmed in 2020 for broadcast in 2021. Dead Simple, broadcast in March 2021, attracted an estimated 7.2m viewers, which made it the fifth-most-watched programme for the week of 8âÂÂ14 March, according to BARB.
Following strong viewing figures for the opening episode, a second series of three films was commissioned in 2021, with broadcasting beginning in May 2022. A third series was commissioned in 2022, with filming beginning in August 2022 and broadcast starting in March 2023.
A sixth series has been commissioned.
The first series was predominantly filmed in Brighton and Hove, with location filming also taking place elsewhere in Sussex, particularly around the border between East and West Sussex. The opening titles for each episode feature the shipping forecast read by Zeb Soanes. The first episode, Dead Simple, originally set to air on 21 March, was shifted forward in the schedules by a week to avoid a clash with the launch of the sixth series of the BBC's Line of Duty. This led to the postponement of the first episode of series 2, Looking Good Dead, until a later date. Consequently Looking Good Dead was available to stream in the United States more than a year before its British broadcast.
The second series, commissioned in May 2021, adapts the next three novels in the Grace series: Not Dead Enough, Dead Man's Footsteps and Dead Tomorrow. Filming began in September 2021 in the West Sussex town of Burgess Hill, and broadcast commenced in the UK on 24 April 2022.
A third series was commissioned in May 2022, adapted from the novels Dead Like You, Dead Man's Grip and Not Dead Yet. Russell Lewis stepped down as showrunner and principal writer, with former Whitechapel writers Ben Court and Caroline Ip penning two episodes, and screenwriter Ed Whitmore penning the other. Sam Hoare is featured as a new ACC, following the departure of Rakie Ayola at the end of series two.
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The series was broadcast from 2 July 2024 on BritBox in the United States. It was broadcast on ITV1 from 1 September 2024.