Looking Good Dead: Volume 2 (Roy Grace)

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Four of Peter James’s stories have previously been adapted into highly successful stage plays:, The Perfect Murder, Dead Simple, Not Dead Enough and The House On Cold Hill – and now Looking Good Dead! 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.

Peter pursues many interests in his relaxation time, including his extensive charity work. A self-confessed “petrol head”, Peter races classic cars at circuits around the country and has been a regular at the Goodwood Revival for several years. His enthusiasm remains undimmed after a surviving a horrendous high speed crash at Brands Hatch in 2013, although his publishers and his fans might prefer he took up a somewhat safer past-time – bowls, perhaps? A chilling event at the Royal Edward Hotel on the night of ACC Vosper's leaving party forces Grace into a difficult position. Filming commences on highly anticipated new crime drama, Grace, starring John Simm, 14 September 2020". ITV . Retrieved 7 March 2021. My first experience of working in television came as ‘Shiner’ in The Baker Street Boys and shortly afterwards ‘Dave Firkettle’ in The Witches and the Grinnygog.

Detective Superintendent Roy Grace (played this time by Harry Long) features in another enjoyable romp through the darker side of policing, keeping the audience guessing with its plot twists until the very end in a production which certainly doesn't disappoint.

I don’t care for woo-woo in crime novels, but James just about gets away with the angle. There’s an intriguing throwaway comment about how police elsewhere will call in a medium more than you’d think, along with a character I hope James will revisit — a cop-turned-medium who seems to know a bit too much about what’s going on in Grace’s life.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….? The family life created on stage felt very authentic, with the constant squabbles and jokes. Tom Bryce (Adam Woodyatt) was a caring father figure and realistic argument maker, probably thanks to Adam’s many years in Eastenders. Kellie Bryce (Haynor Faye) was relaxed, fun and feisty and her son Max (Luke Ward-Wilkinson) the typical tech obsessed teen. Entirely entertaining first evening performance at Malvern , reminding tonight’s audience why we all love and have missed live theatre. Enthusiastically applauded by one and all who appreciated the reciprocal applause given by the grateful cast. 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.