ITV drama

Grace was shot under stringent coronavirus protocols but you would never know an epidemic was sweeping the nation from watching ITV’s new Sunday-night drama. This was as the broadcaster and the show’s producer intended – and immensely pleasing for its star, John Simm. “No one wants to see anything about Covid. It was the most depressingly boring year and we don’t want to see it on film,” he says.

Simm plays detective superintendent Roy Grace, the eponymous hero of Peter James’s bestselling crime novels.

The series, adapted from Graham’s play of the same name, explores the story of the ‘coughing major’, which saw Charles (Matthew Macfadyen), Diana Ingram (Sian Clifford) and Tecwen Whittock (Michael Jibson) cheat their way to a million pounds on the quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

The “audacious heist” took place in 2001, when Major Ingram was a contestant on the show and with the help of his wife Diana and accomplice Whittock, navigated the notoriously difficult quiz to win the top price.