Roy Grace series by Peter James to be adapted for Television

© ITV

John Simm will play the lead role in police drama Grace, ITV has announced.  The Doctor Who star will take on the troubled Detective Superintendent Roy Grace in the series, which is based on the bestselling Roy Grace novels by Peter James.

The series will consist of two episodes and will cover the first two books, Dead Simple and Looking Good Dead, with filming due to begin in Brighton in early 2020.

Novelist Peter James said: “John Simm, who actually looks like the Roy Grace of my imagination, is inspired casting! With John in the lead, the brilliant scripting by Russell Lewis, and our wonderful production team, I’m confident that fans of my novels and of TV crime dramas in general will be in for a treat.”

John Simm is best known for playing The Master in Doctor Who and fellow time traveller Sam Tyler in Life on Mars, and was recently in ITV crime drama Strangers.

Grace will follow Simm’s character Roy Grace as he investigates a missing groom-to-be following a stag night prank, while Grace himself is haunted by the disappearance of his own wife, Sandy. Suspecting something more sinister, Grace ends up getting dangerously close to the bride-to-be…

The series will be written by Russell Lewis, who also created (and wrote) Inspector Morse prequel Endeavour.

“I’m thrilled and honoured to be involved in bringing Peter James’ brilliantly gripping series of Roy Grace novels to ITV,” Lewis said.

“Each story is a fantastic, hair-raising, twisting, switch-back of a roller-coaster ride that grips the reader from first to last, and the opportunity to translate that best-selling magic to television is like all one’s Christmases and birthdays come at once.”

He added, “That John Simm will be breathing flesh to the bones of Roy Grace really is the cherry on a dark, and troublingly encrimsoned cake…”

NEW ANN CLEEVES NOVEL SNAPPED UP FOR TELEVISION SERIES

Silverprint Pictures has announced that it has optioned the screen rights to The Long Call the Outstanding first novel in the new Two Rivers crime fiction series from bestselling author Ann Cleeves

The deal was arranged by Rebecca Watson at Valerie Hoskins Associates on behalf of literary agent Sara Menguc.

The Long Call is the third collaboration between Cleeves and Silverprint Pictures¨ a partnership that has produced Shetland © BBC® and Vera © ITV®¨ two of television’s most popular dramas.  Both the television series and the books they are based on have become international sensations¨ capturing the hearts of millions worldwide.

The Long Call¨ published by Pan Macmillan on 5 September¨ is set in North Devon¨ where the author spent her teenage years Ann introduces us to the reserved and complex Detective Inspector Matthew Venn and to a wonderfully rich ensemble of characters¨ in a compelling¨ skilfully plotted mystery¨ which vividly evokes the stark beauty of the North Devon coastline¨ and a community where murder and intrigue bubble just beneath the surface

Author Ann Cleeves says

“I’m delighted that the team at Silverprint has optioned The Long Call.  The adaptations of Vera and Shetland have captured the essence of my books¨ while making TV dramas that are hugely successful in their own right”

Kate Bartlett¨ Executive Producer¨ Silverprint says

“After almost a decade working together¨ we are thrilled to be continuing our creative partnership with Ann The Long Call is a rich and deeply engrossing mystery with a whole host of new Cleeves’ characters led by the inimitable Matthew Venn. Just as the novel feels like a progression of Ann’s writing¨ this feels like the opportunity to create a wholly unique and ambitious event crime drama with another iconic detective at its heart We can’t wait to get started”

Vicki Mellor¨ Publishing Director Fiction at Pan Macmillan says

“We are thrilled that Ann’s superlative new novel The Long call has been optioned for television Ann’s unique ability to evoke landscape and create† compelling new characters is never more evident than with this novel¨ as we see a new setting in North Devon and a new lead in the wonderful Matthew Venn The happy news that Ann’s hugely successful partnership with Silverprint is continuing couldn’t be more welcome or come at a better time. We can’t wait to see how the series evolves onto the screen’

The Long Call by Anne Cleeves (Published by Pan Macmillan)

In North Devon, where the rivers Taw and Torridge converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his father's funeral takes place. The day Matthew turned his back on the strict evangelical community in which he grew up, he lost his family too.  Now he's back, not just to mourn his father at a distance, but to take charge of his first major case in the Two Rivers region; a complex place not quite as idyllic as tourists suppose.  A body has been found on the beach near to Matthew's new home: a man with the tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death.  Finding the killer is Venn's only focus, and his team's investigation will take him straight back into the community he left behind, and the deadly secrets that lurk there.