Grace: John Simm stars in dramatic trailer for ITV drama
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Grace premieres tomorrow evening (Sunday, March 14) at 8pm on ITV. There are two episodes in the series, based on the first two novels – Dead Simple and Looking Good Dead. The series follows Roy Grace, the detective from the Grace novel series by Peter James but how true is the series to the books? The cast and team behind Grace spoke to Express.co.uk and other press about the screen adaptation.
How true is Grace on ITV to the original books?
The Roy Grace novel series began in 2005, by international best selling author Peter James.
So far, there are 15 novels in the series and James has shown no sign of stopping the adventures of Roy Grace.
The series follows the story of Brighton-based Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, who is is excellent at what he does, even if he does unconventionally go about things.
However, Grace is haunted by the mysterious disappearance of his wife which continues to haunt him as time goes on.
The upcoming ITV series is an adaption of the first two novels, Dead Simple and Looking Good Dead, with Looking Good Dead airing at a later date on ITV.
READ MORE Grace ITV: How many episodes are in Grace on ITV?
Each instalment is two hours long and fans are hoping the recent adaption will do the books justice.
As expected, some intricate details from the books and potentially some side plots will be missing from the series due to time constraints but in a recent interview with Expres.co.uk and other press, the show’s executive producers and cast could not be happier with ITV adaption.
John Simms who plays Roy Grace in the series described the adaption as a “delicate balancing act.”
He said: “It’s a delicate balancing act because they are two different things.
“A novel is not a TV show and a TV show is not a novel so while we are trying to be absolutely true to the source material, its a TV show and so fans of the novel, some of them will be up in arms because it won’t be the characters they had in their head but there is nothing we as actors can do about that apart from serve the script and what is in front of us.
“I can’t really be worrying whether people that are into the novels won’t like it. I guess you have to take it from the standpoint that nobody knows the novels and knows what is going to happen and it’s a separate entity but at the same time, being as true as we can be to Peter’s novels.”
Executive producer Andrew O’Connor added: “The foundations of this show are obviously Peter James and Russell Lewis and Peter’s books are amazing and the big challenge was finding someone who could adapt them and take what Peter James said on the page and turn it into a TV show and the last 10, maybe 15 years, people have tried and no one really got it right.
“When Peter came to me and asked if I wanted to be a part of developing it I was obviously thrilled and honoured and humbled by it and then it was really who is the writer?”
He continued: “The one name that kept coming up was Russell Lewis and I was told I would never get him because he’s too busy, he does Endeavour and has got a lot on his plate.
“Russell had been given the book by his son as a father’s day present and he re-read it and thought ‘it’s really good isn’t it’ and what he loved about it was, it’s not about whodunnit, they aren’t normal crime procedurals, they are thrillers and Russell discusses them as rollercoaster rides. Although he didn’t have a lot of time, he just couldn’t say no. We waited a long time for Russell, he wanted two years before he could be fully available.
“His first thing was to try and honour the books. He wanted to do a very faithful adaptation and Peter loved Rusell’s first draft and the pair of them worked together and made some changes and turned it into the brilliant script that it ended up being and attracted this amazing cast.
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“The key thing really was we just got so lucky Peter and Russell got on, understood each other and worked so closely together.”
He added: “A lot of effort went into that [being true to the books] and a lot of that sat with Russell and his relationship with Peter and obviously with our guidance.
“I think he has done a tremendous job to honour the books and it feels as though the texture of Brighton that Peter captures and the regency grandeur next to the lanes and the real underbelly that Brighton has as a real seaside play town for people to come and holiday and to be a bit naughty.
“To set crimes in that environment has been a real joy to see the scripts develop and capture that essence from the books and with the enormous readership, we did feel that was very in our minds as we worked through the adaptations and I think Russell has done a wonderful job and I hope everyone agrees when they see the first episode.”
Richie Campbell, who plays DS Glenn Branson praised the adaptation and in particular, the relationship between Branson and Grace from the books to the screen.
He said: “Just seeing the heart and the friendship of these two guys and also they love their job and they are trying to do their work and I think you see that in the book and Russell has done brilliant to adapt that from the page and it was up to us to just lift it up really and it was so easy, it really was.”
Campbell continued: “I do think that [their friendship] is the real heart of the piece, just seeing these two guys just gelling of each other and trying to solve cases.
“It’s the respect they have for each other and the way I look at is it, Brandon really admires the way Grace works.”
Grace premieres Sunday, March 14 at 8pm on ITV
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