ITV commissions a second series of detective drama Grace

The drama debuted earlier this year with a spooky feature-length episode – and the positive response was enough to warrant a commission for season two.

The first episode, based on Peter James' Roy Grace books, debuted back in March this year, featuring Simm (Doctor Who and Life on Mars) leading the Grace cast as the titular Brighton-based Detective Superintendent Roy Grace.

ITV’s Head of Drama Polly Hill said: “We are delighted to be adapting more of Peter James’ wonderful novels. John Simm has brilliantly brought the much-loved Detective Superintendent Roy Grace to screen and there are many more cases for the audiences to enjoy.”

Speaking ahead of season one, Simm told RadioTimes.com and other press that he already had his "fingers crossed" that ITV would want to adapt all of the Roy Grace books.

The two-part first season (each episode lasting two hours) is adapted from the first two books in the Roy Grace series: Dead Simple and Looking Good Dead.

Writer Russell Lewis (Endeavour) commented: “After the overwhelmingly positive audience response to the seaside noir of Dead Simple, (tabloid trauma tales notwithstanding!) and Looking Good Dead cued up ready to go, all at Team Roy Grace are delighted to have been given the opportunity by ITV to return to Brighton (& Hove, actually!) to continue Roy's story with a new series of films based on Peter James best-selling novels.

"We’ll be shooting out of our Brighton HQ and all along and around the South Coast from late summer through to very late autumn, so it’s quite possible that like some macabre Radio Fab Roadshow, our caravanserai of coroner’s van, SOCO unit, Mobile Incident Room may well be coming to a street near you! As the late, great Shaw Taylor used to ask viewers on Police 5... ‘Keep ‘em peeled!’”

It's not yet clear when the second episode will air on ITV, but the likelihood is that it will broadcast later this year.

If you want to start reading Peter James' Roy Grace series, you can purchase the first three novels on Amazon. Or, if you have seen the first episode you can read our Grace episode 1 ending explainer. If you're looking for more to watch, check out our TV Guide.