Looking Good Dead: Volume 2 (Roy Grace)

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Grace is a British television crime drama series, based in the English city of Brighton & Hove, that stars 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. [1]

Grace, the adaptation of the Roy Grace novels, premiered on ITV in March 2021 to widespread critical acclaim, and with 8.8m viewers making it instantly one of the most successful TV dramas of 2021. A second series commissioned, which will broadcast in 2022. The series stars John Simm as Roy Grace and Richie Campbell as Glenn Branson. Peter is an executive producer on the series. Designer Michael Holt’s ingenious set is highly adaptive. A feature wall in a posh ultra-modern residence turns within seconds into a grisly pornographic film set. All I can say is that this production was absolutely brilliant! The best play I've seen in ages .... all of the actors were fantastic ... a great story, great twist and just fab!!! Grace star John Simm wants to adapt all of the Roy Grace books for TV, 24 February 2021". Radio Times . Retrieved 7 March 2021.Television includes Vera (ITV), Endeavour (ITV), Victoria (ITV), Little Miss Jocelyn (BBC), Proof (RTE), The Bill (ITV), The Colour Of Justice (BBC). Forthcoming theatre projects include The Forsytes, written with Lin Coghlan, and an English version of a Mexican comedy Thinking Too Loud. Past plays include Ruling Passions, To Serve Them All My Days and How Green Was My Valley. The series, based on the bestselling novels by novelist Peter James, [2] was adapted by acclaimed screenwriter Russell Lewis, with a pair of films, comprising the novels Dead Simple and Looking Good Dead, filmed in 2020 for broadcast in 2021. [3] Dead Simple, broadcast in March 2021, attracted an estimated 7.2m viewers, which made it the fifth-most-watched programme for the week of 8–14 March, according to BARB. [4] Eighteen million people across the globe are familiar with the character of crime writer Peter James’ Brighton-based Detective Superintendent Roy Grace: a complex man haunted by the disappearance of his own wife, now hell-bent on solving seemingly unsolvable murders and wrongdoings on his own East Sussex coast beat. James penned 18 books in the Roy Grace series, and both the first ( Dead Simple, 2005) and this one, the second in line published in 2006, have been adapted into feature-length films for ITV in the popular Grace series of crime dramas. Looking Good Dead follows his other "dead" novel adaptations - Dead Simple, Not Dead Enough plus The Perfect Murder and The House on Cold Hill. This time, the stars come from the main three soaps - Adam Woodyatt (38 years in EastEnders) and Gaynor Faye (Emmerdale and Coronation Street).

Film includes Boxing Day (Boxing Day Productions), Gold (Bollywood feature – Eros International), A Serial Killer’s Guide to Life (Forward Motion Pictures). Associate Director credits include: An American In Paris (Dominion Theatre); The Judas Kiss (Brooklyn Academy of Music/Ed Mirvish Theatre, Toronto); The Scottsboro Boys (Young Vic). Theatre includes Adam in How to Disappear Completely and Never be Found (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), Phillipe in The Speculator (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), Jasper in Function (National Youth Theatre).Gemma is an actress, writer and voice over artist from Edinburgh. She trained at Arts Educational Schools after studying English Literature at the University of Glasgow. Roy Grace (Harry Long) was as tall and calm as I imagined with a strong sense of authority. His colleague and best mate Glenn Branson (Leon Stewart) brought the humour we love him for but maybe I was expecting more energetic charm. And Bella Moy (Gemma Stroyan) balanced the hard kindness with ease. The journey of popular contemporary fictional detective flitting from book to TV screen to stage can be a complicated case to follow. Some do it with skill, flair and aplomb ( Inspector Montalbano; Grantchester; Vera; et al), others take the ‘two out of three ain’t bad’ route (the 2016 film version of British writer Paula Hawkins’ edgy 2015 psychological thriller The Girl on the Train was pretty much universally panned, but the 2018 stage adaptation was a theatre-world hit) and several deserved to die a horrible, lonely death (Dan Brown’s 2003 epic mystery thriller The Da Vinci Code, for example, was a huge, highly acclaimed lit-hit, but the 2006 film version tops multiple ‘worst book-to-film adaptation’ charts; watch this space for a forensic examination of the stage version, coming to Theatre Royal Bath early next year). And my point, your honour, is….?

DEAD SIMPLE, the first in the series, was one to read with the lights on, and LOOKING GOOD DEAD has a selection of very creepy villains. And James is particularly strong in those scenes with Tom’s family where it looks like his on the surface perfect life is collapsing around him. Now a major ITV series, Grace, adapted for television by screenwriter Russell Lewis and starring John Simm.First pictures of Grace filming on location, 16 September 2020". Brighton & Hove News . Retrieved 7 March 2021. A group of friends on a stag night are involved in a road accident and are killed except the groom, a wealthy Brighton property developer who has vanished. Detective Superintendent Grace is called upon by colleague Detective Sergeant Branson to help. The search and investigation uncover lines of inquiry which involve his bride and his best friend and business partner. Liam is a Deaf and disabled freelance journalist, campaigner, theatre critic and public speaker. View all posts by Liam O’Dell Screen credits include The Nurse in Repression (Accento Films), Reporter in Taggart (STV), Sciron in Scottish Bafta Winning Last Commanders (CBBC), Lauren in Yo Diary! (CBBC), ‘stand-in’ Claire in the Series 4 Readthrough for Outlander (Starz), Herself in ‘Prey’ Spoken Word – The Social Presents (BBC Scotland), Woman in Slimfast Commercial, Mother in Scottish Power Commercial.

I started acting when I was about nine years old, at first in commercials and then in Oliver! as one of Fagin’s Gang at the Albery Theatre (now Noel Coward). My next role was ‘Ragamuffin” in Tom Stoppard’s On the Razzle at the National Theatre and also on tour in Edinburgh and Bristol. While Looking Good Dead most definitely doesn’t fall into category three of my case for the prosecution of Crimes Against Crime Writing and isn’t quite a photofit for category two either, the jury’s out on whether or not it quite deserves the ‘Get Out Of Jail Free’ card awarded for skill, flair and aplomb . John Simm: from Life on Mars to death in Brighton, 6 March 2021". The Times . Retrieved 7 March 2021. Top left: Gaynor Faye as Kellie Bryce, Luke Ward-Wilkinson as Max Bryce, Leon Stewart as Branson and Adam Woodyatt as Tom Bryce; top right: Adam Woodyatt as Tom Bryce and Gaynor Faye as Kellie Bryce In May 2021, Grace was commissioned for a second series. Filming began in September 2021 in the West Sussex town of Burgess Hill. The second series adapts the next three novels in the Grace series, Not Dead Enough, Dead Man's Footsteps and Dead Tomorrow. Broadcasting of the second series commenced in the UK on 24 April 2022, with Looking Good Dead as the opening episode. [13]

Event Calendar

Even with the domestic drama prioritised, the compromises imposed by the theatre format allows issues such as the morality of concealing information from the police for fear of reprisals to be raised but not really explored. As a result, the stage version of Looking Good Dead does not completely satisfy as a family drama or as a thriller. To an extent, the play is hamstrung by expectations—fans of the original novel will expect to see detective Roy Grace on stage even though he is reduced to a rather colourless character. John Simm to star in adaptation of Peter James' Grace for ITV, 19 December 2021". Radio Times . Retrieved 6 March 2021. A third series was subsequently commissioned in May 2022, adapted from the novels Dead Like You, Dead Man's Grip and Not Dead Yet. For this series, Russell Lewis stepped down as showrunner and principal writer, with former Whitechapel writers Ben Court & Caroline Ip penning two episodes, and prolific screenwriter Ed Whitmore penning the other. The series also features Sam Hoare as a new ACC, following the departure of Rakie Ayola at the end of series two. [14] Other television includes Owen Woodward in BBC’s Luther, Alex Kennedy in Doctors, Ensign Beauclere in Sharpe’s Peril.