'Grace' Season 4 is Already Filming for a 2024 Release

Like many series that premiered in the glut of 2020-2021, Grace was initially overlooked by American audiences when it first arrived. The series, starring John Simm (Life on Mars) as DSI Roy Grace, was based on the Roy Grace books written by novelist Peter James, with Russell Lewis — the man behind Endeavour — writing the show's debut TV movies and the subsequent Season 2. Lewis stepped down for Season 3, leaving the show to Ben Court & Caroline Ip (Whitechapel) and Ed Whitmore (Manhunt) to continue it. With Season 4 greenlit and running four installments, filming is already underway for the Brighton-based mystery.

Like Lewis' other hit show, the Grace series is a "short season, long episode" format. Season 1 was initially filmed as two feature-length episodes but wound up divided, with the second episode joining the three commissioned episodes of Season 2. Season 3 also ran three feature length-installments, and Season 4 is planned for four. Unlike Endeavour, which started life as a TV movie before becoming a series that ran 3-4 episodes a season, Grace treats its installments as standalone films and sticks close to the books, as the 120-minute run time per episode makes that a sensible option.

Season 1 adapted James' first two novels, Dead Simple and Looking Good Dead, with the latter becoming the premiere of Season 2 in the U.K. (On BritBox, both episodes came over as Season 1, as originally intended.) Since then, the show has continued going in order, adapting Not Dead Enough, Dead Man's Footsteps, Dead Tomorrow, Dead Like You, Dead Man's Grip, and Not Dead Yet. The series is currently 18 books and counting — Number 18, Picture You Dead arrived in May 2023 — so the series has plenty more material to work with.