Grace — Fifth season of John Simm cop show as strong as the first

Review by C.J. Bunce

If you only know John Simm from his role as The Master on Doctor Who, you’re missing out on his best role–as a cop. After the stellar Life on Mars, Simm returned to the police force as another great detective solving crimes in the BritBox original series from IPT, Grace. Simm is Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, and in the latest, fifth, season Simm is so comfortable in the role you can almost predict where his low-key demeanor is going to take the audience next. By now regular viewers will be familiar with the show’s setting of scenic Brighton, and Roy’s latest four cases provide plenty of opportunity to showcase the corners of the city. This season adapts author Peter James’ stories “Dead If You Don’t,” “Dead at First Sight,” “Need You Dead,” and “Find Them Dead.”

Even better, a sixth season is already in the pipeline.

Unlike the three ninety minute episodes of first three seasons, fans of the show are again treated for the second year to four 90-minute episodes, four complete mysteries. The crime-of the-week format works well for the crime-solving for Roy and his partner DI Glenn Branson, played by Richie Campbell, and it still provides room for the season- and series-long story arcs, which typically have focused on Roy’s relationship with medical examiner Cleo, played by Zöe Tapper. After last season’s finale, Roy is left with deciding how to move forward with his son with Sandy–his first wife that vanished and prompted Roy’s inner turmoil over the first seasons of the show. Cleo’s surprise miscarriage means Tapper doesn’t get much to explore this season other than forging her own bond with the boy.

No longer the troubled cop plagued by his past, Roy can finally get to work. In the first case, “Dead if You Don’t,” Roy and Glenn must identify a bomber at a packed football stadium after a local magnate’s son is kidnapped and ransomed. In “Dead at First Sight,” a catfishing scheme results in men and women murdered, all with an event in their past in common. In “Need You Dead,” one of the members of Roy’s own staff is implicated in the plot to kill a local psychiatrist. “Find Them Dead” finds Roy spending extra time in the courtroom trying to get a drug kingpin known as The Merchant convicted. Roy’s investigation has him keeping a close eye on jurors, and who might be attempting to manipulate them.

While Craig Parkinson’s exit from the series means no more Norman investigations, it’s good to see more left for Laura Elphinstone’s DS Bella Moy. She’s one of the more interesting and believable desk cops on British mystery TV. With Norman’s vacancy, Juliette Motamed joins the cast as DC Vee Wilde. Vee is over-confident and cocky at first, clashing with Bella’s amiable style. But her character begins to kick in better later in the season, especially when she brings in a super recognizer–a real tool used in the UK–to aid in a case. This season’s role for Sam Hoare’s ACC Cassian Pewe–the police chief and Roy’s boss–seems oddly familiar. What is it with Roy’s bosses in these Peter James stories?

What will keep viewers coming back to Grace is the deliberate, methodical pacing, spending a little more time than the average police procedural on working through the elements of the investigation. Anyone who is a fan of Simm on Life on Mars will enjoy a look at what Sam Tyler might have been. For some extra fun, watch this season back-to-back with Life on Mars co-star Philip Glenister in Steeltown Murders. With a sixth season already greenlit with filming beginning this year, it’s time to check out this great series. Taking on bad cops, creeps, and all the latest in tech crimes and fighting back against the worst villains in England, John Simm is back in Grace, streaming its fifth season exclusively here on BritBox via Amazon in the U.S., and IPT in the UK.

Catch up with our reviews of other quality British TV series (including Australian and New Zealand shows you’d find on PBS, BritBox, or Acorn TV) beginning with our Top 10: Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes, Zen, Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?, Mr. Selfridge, Guilt, The IPCRESS File, The Hour, The Gentlemen, Black Doves, and Shetland. You could stay pretty busy with our full list of top British TV recommendations, including The Artful Dodger, Van Der Valk, the first season of Sherlock, Deadloch, Troppo, Case Histories, This is Going to Hurt, the second season of Black Snow dragged the series from the Top 10 tier down to here, Mystery Road: Origin, Death Valley, Dept. Q, Bodkin, The Bletchley Circle, Good Cop/Bad Cop, Grace, Steeltown Murders comes in about here, Hinterland, Glitch, Mystery Road, Culprits, Harrow, Annika, The Day of the Jackal, Code of Silence, Luther, Professor T, and Supacell. After you’ve seen all of those, try Viva Blackpool, Marchlands, Lightfields, State of Play, I, Jack Wright, Population 11, Protection, After the Flood, Traces, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Ordeal by Innocence, Unforgotten, The Bay, Wild Bill, Quirke, Requiem, The Gloaming, The Clearing, The One, The Tourist, The Tower, Collateral, Roadkill, Stay Close, The Salisbury Poisonings, and A Confession.

Other British series across genres that are worth checking out (a few still to be reviewed here) include fun romps like Monarch of the Glen, Para Handy, Cranford, Viva Blackpool, and As Time Goes By, and cozy mysteries Rosemary and Thyme, Father Brown, Hetty Wainthropp, and Death in Paradise. One of the best of all British productions is the reboot of All Creatures Great and Small, which is in our British Top 10 (and the original is good, too). Of course there’s always Doctor Who for your sci-fi fix (and spin-offs Torchwood and Class), The Watch for your fantasy fix, Truth Seekers and Sea of Souls for your supernatural fix, and Spaced for more sci-fi fun, and we really should add House, MD, for Brit lead Hugh Laurie’s one-of-a-kind performance. (We’ve also reviewed but don’t heartily recommend so much Dublin Murders, The ABC Murders, The Pale Horse, Reef Break, The One That Got Away, The Silence, The Five, The Missing, Thirteen, or Broadchurch, as well as No Offence, which could have merited a review for its first season but, like Sherlock, its later episodes were a disappointment).