Review: Grace scales new heights on great night for Peter James’s Brighton detective

DS Glenn Branson (Richie Campbell) is desperately clinging to hope that his marriage might somehow be retrieved even as he messes up DS Roy Grace’s abode where he’s temporarily lodging. Meanwhile Grace (John Simm) is determined to get everything right as his romance with Cleo (Zoe Tapper) reaches the point where they’ll soon be moving in together. The trouble is they are, all of them, contending with probably the most complex case the series has thrown at the team so far. An American student has been knocked off his bike and killed. Was it a ghastly accident or was there something more to it? Drugs are found in his bag; the truck that hit him vanishes. And pretty soon the murders start piling up, hanging over each of them a viciousness which suggest vengeance.

A big part of the cleverness of this episode is that it leaves us in the dark so long. For the most part – and the episode really pushes it in this respect – we haven’t a clue how all the separate threads can remotely be part of the same story let alone ever come together in time for 10pm. But the pacing has been one of the greatest qualities of this series so far. And as it picks up, so it all starts to make sense. There are fabulous scenes of Brighton with some gorgeous aerial shots that show it to its maximum advantage but, as it turns out, it’s from way beyond Brighton that the strings are being pulled tonight. And then it cuts to the chase for a thrilling finale, with maximum peril for all concerned. But don’t forget. This is Grace. It ain’t over even when it’s over. It’s case closed to an extent, but moments before the credits roll, an even bigger case is thrown wide, wide open – and just yards away from canoodling Cleo and the doting Roy. Guess who is back, and I, for one, can’t wait for next week. Gutting that it will be the last in the series. This is accomplished confident TV of the highest order.

NEXT WEEK :FILM THREE - NOT DEAD YET. A rising music star, Gaia Lafayette, receives the opportunity of a lifetime, and the same night that she excitedly announces to her devoted fans that she and her band are headed to LA, a shocking turn of events leads Grace and Branson to believe someone may be trying to harm her. With a perpetrator on the loose, Roy must deduce who of Gaia’s fanbase may be concealing sinister intentions. Meanwhile, a grisly discovery on a remote Sussex pig farm puts Roy under serious pressure, forcing him to split his team in order to investigate two impossible lines of enquiry.

CHARACTER CREDITS: DS Roy Grace JOHN SIMM; DS Glenn Branson RICHIE CAMPBELL; DS Norman Potting CRAIG PARKINSON; DS Bella Moy LAURA ELPHINSTONE; Cleo Morey ZOE TAPPER; DS Nick Nicholl BRAD MORRISON; ACC Cassian Pewe SAM HOARE; Kevin Spinella ALEXANDER COBB; ACC Alison Vosper RAKIE AYOLA; Rachel Ryan HEATHER FOSTER; Johnny Kerridge THOMAS COOMBES; Mimi BONI ADELIYI; Rollo Mercer LUKE NORRIS; Mingo MAX KRUPSKI; Punt JAY OLIVER YIP; Badger ANDY APOLLO; Oliver Starling BEN WIGGINS; SOIT Officer CHARLOTTE WORKMAN; Jack Skerrit JACK PIERCE; DI Sid Barrow ROB JARVIS; Anna JO HERBERT; Roxy CHARLOTTE CHRISTOF; Detective Marcel Kullen ERNEST GROMOV; Sasha KIERA LESTER; Maggie JOANNA BROOKS; Dominic Pope NICHOLAS TIZZARD; Pippa Starling CLAUDIA JOLLY