John Simm and Grace author tease resolution to long-running mystery

Speaking ahead of the new season, author of the Grace books Peter James teased a resolution to the plot surrounding Sandy, saying: "One thing that John [Simm] and I discuss a lot is Sandy and her disappearance. It will ultimately resolve, and I think the audience will love it."

Meanwhile, James also spoke about how the first episode in season 3, Dead Like You, contains flashbacks to Grace and Sandy's life together before her disappearance.

James said: "Grace has always idolised Sandy but what I have gently shown through the books is that maybe she wasn’t quite the perfect wife that he always thought. I’m writing Sandy’s story as a standalone novel at the moment, which is from her perspective from the day she leaves him and the real reason that she leaves him!"

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Meanwhile, Roy Grace star Simm added about the flashbacks: "Those scenes are interesting because you can see that it wasn’t actually a perfect marriage. There were problems there. She finds it very difficult to deal with his work and to live in that environment where she sort of plays second fiddle to his job.

"That always must be the case. There is nothing really you can do about that. There is a very telling moment when it’s her birthday and he is in the middle of looking for a missing girl and the phone rings. Sandy says, 'Don’t take it. Choose me.'

"He looks at her like she’s crazy. 'What do you think I’m going to do? Just ignore this phone call?' He picks up the call. There is no dialogue in that moment, but I think it says a lot about where they are and what happened with her. It’s quite telling."

Following the phone call Simm mentions, Sandy asks Grace why he's more interested in a dead woman than her. Simm said this was "quite an unfair question really" because "she knows it’s his job and he is super-dedicated to his job".

Simm continued: "He’s Roy Grace. He’s not going to start saying, ‘OK, fine, darling, I’ll just turn the phone off and ignore it.’ You can see where their clash came and where it all started. It’s left to the audience to try and work out what might have happened. It is drip fed into each episode. You get a little clue."

Grace season 3 will air on ITV1 and ITVX in the spring of 2023. Check out more of our Drama coverage or visit our TV Guide and Streaming Guide to find out what’s on.

You can purchase the Peter James Roy Grace books being adapted for this season, including Dead Like You, Dead Man's Grip and Not Dead Yet on Amazon now.

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