Roy Grace is back — John Simm returns as the troubled detective in ITV's Grace season 2, based on bestselling author Peter James’ award-winning Roy Grace novels. Last year's film was a big hit with viewers and this second series has been expanded into four feature-length films,
Season 2 of Grace follows the tenacious detective who's haunted by the disappearance of his wife while walking a career tightrope. Grace has given his life to the police, yet his clashes with his boss, ACC Vosper, have held back his career over the years.
Talking to us about how the new series opens, John says: "Grace is in the doghouse because he's consulted a medium Harry Frame [played by Adrian Rawlins] during his investigation last year. That put the subsequent trial in jeopardy and now it could go either way."
Endeavour creator Russell Lewis is adapting James' books for the screen once again, so here's everything we know about the new second season...
Grace season 2 start date
The new series begins at 8 pm, Sunday 24 April on ITV. In the US Grace season 2 will be available to watch on BritBox.
Which stories are featured in Grace season 2?
Looking Good Dead opens with a young woman’s body being found butchered in Brighton, reminding Roy Grace of his own missing wife and her unsolved fate. Elsewhere in the city, when Zack Bryce finds a USB stick left on a train, he simply tries to do the right thing and return it to its owner. But this attempted act of kindness makes him the sole witness to that same vicious murder. Learning that Zack has made a statement to Grace’s team, the killers have to act. But when they plan the murder of the Bryce family, it’s not just revenge — it’s entertainment.
Talking about the Looking Good Dead plot, John says: "Grace finds himself hunting someone who makes and distributes horrific films that show people being murdered."
Not Dead Enough sees Grace and Branson investigating the murder of wealthy socialite and patron of local charities, Katya Bishop, wife of a prominent Brighton entrepreneur, played by ex Doctor Who actor Arthur Darvill, who becomes the main suspect in the investigation. The Bishops seem to have a charmed life until Grace digs deeper behind the respectable facade and discovers all is not what it seems. Doing so, however, places him unknowingly in grave danger.
In Dead Man’s Footsteps, Grace leads the inquiry into the discovery of a woman’s skeletal remains in an old storm drain, believed to be the wife of a failed Brighton conman, who died several years prior in a plane crash. Grace must retrace the man's steps in the years before his death, which leads him on a murky trail through the world of Brighton's oldest crime families but it’s not only on the professional front that Roy is chasing ghosts.
When in Dead Tomorrow a body is dredged up from the seabed of the English Channel it initially appears a burial at sea gone wrong, but a strange incision on the victim soon points to something very sinister. When two more bodies are found, news spreads like wildfire through Sussex and Grace begins to unearth that this is part of an altogether more chilling design, one which forces him to confront the question of just how far anyone would go to save the ones they love.
Grace season 2 cast
John Simm (Doctor Who, Life On Mars) is back as DS Roy Grace, while Richie Campbell (Liar, Stephen) returns as his partner DS Glenn Branson and Rakie Ayola (The Pact, Holby City) reprises her role as Grace's boss, Assistant Chief Constable Alison Vosper.
Laura Elphinstone (Line of Duty, Game of Thrones) also returns as Detective Sergeant Bella Moy, while fellow Line of Duty alumni Crag Parkinson joins the show as the outspoken DS Norman Potting.
Zoe Tapper (Liar, Nightflyers) joins the cast as Cleo Morey, a mortuary technician who takes a shine to Grace, while Doctor Who and Broadchurch star Arthur Darvill plays a successful Brighton-based entrepreneur in the second episode of the series.
Is there a trailer for Grace season 2?
There is a trailer, check it out below...
