ITV Commissions Peter James' Grace

ITV has commissioned Peter James', Grace, starring John Simm from screenwriter Russell Lewis and co-produced by Second Act Productions, Tall Story Pictures and Vaudeville Productions

Acclaimed screenwriter and Endeavour creator, Russell Lewis, has adapted two of international bestseller Peter James’ award winning novels for ITV from the Roy Grace series starring John Simm in the lead role of the tenacious detective.

Entitled Grace, the 2 x 120 screenplays will narrate the first two stories in the series, Dead Simple and Looking Good Dead, which introduced Brighton based Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, a hard-working police officer who has given his life to the job.

Co-produced by Second Act Productions, Tall Story Pictures and Vaudeville Productions, the drama opens with Grace's career at rock bottom. He’s fixated by the disappearance of his beloved wife, Sandy, which haunts his thoughts. He’s in the last chance saloon running enquiries into long forgotten cold cases with little prospect of success. Following another reprimand for his unorthodox police methods, Grace is walking a career tightrope and risks being moved from the job he loves most.

With so much at stake, his colleague Detective Sergeant Glenn Branson knows he has more to give and asks him for help with a case. When a stag night prank appears to go wrong and the groom goes missing, Branson calls upon Grace to unravel events that led to the mysterious disappearance three days before his wedding to his beautiful fiancé.

A successful property developer with everything to live for, there is no trace of the missing groom. Is this a case of stag night shenanigans gone badly awry? Or is this something more sinister?

With nothing but instinct, a lingering suspicion and his obsessive nature, Grace doggedly pursues the groom's disappearance and becomes uneasily close to the bride to be….

Grace will begin filming in Brighton during the early months of 2020 with executive producers Andrew O'Connor and Paul Sandler for Second Act Productions, Patrick Schweitzer for Tall Story Pictures, Michael Vine for Vaudeville Productions, and Russell Lewis and Peter James. The first film, Dead Simple, will be directed by John Alexander (Belgravia, Trust Me, Jamestown) with the second film, Looking Good Dead, directed by Julia Ford (Sticks and Stones, The Bay II, Safe).

Part of ITV Studios, Second Act Productions was created in 2015 by Andrew O'Connor and Paul Sandler to focus primarily on scripted comedy and entertainment commissions. Grace is the company's first scripted drama commission for ITV.