Grace: thrilling return as Peter James' Brighton-based detective reclaims our Sunday night TV

Roy Grace, superbly played as ever by John Simm, is trying to juggle burgeoning romance with Cleo Morey (Zoe Tapper) with the fact that there has been a possible sighting of his missing wife Sandy whom he’s trying to have declared dead. Meanwhile, his great mate DS Glenn Branson (Richie Campbell) is just about holding it together after catching his wife cheating on him. And to make matters worse, Grace’s old enemy – Cassian Pewe (Sam Hoare), the police officer who pretty much accused him of Sandy’s murder – has now returned as Roy’s boss. Oh and there’s the little matter of the Brighton Prowler apparently returning, after ten mystifying years of inactivity – a case which comes with all sorts of nasty reminders of attitudes the police would love to think they’ve long since put to bed.

Grace: thrilling return as Peter James' Brighton-based detective reclaims our Sunday night viewing

It all adds up to perhaps the most absorbing Grace episode yet in this terrific new ITV franchise as season three begins– a series which is must-see in the precisely way Morse used to be all those years ago, and yet is already so much better than Morse ever was. Professional lives and personal lives are richly and inextricably intertwined. Series one set the main characters up; series two showed us all the confidence of a cast which now knew each other well; the start of series three tonight sees everyone firing on all cylinders as they focus on a ghastly series of crimes going back ten years. It’s convoluted, gripping stuff: there are multiple suspects: there’s a dodgy taxi driver; there’s a ghastly bully; and there is a real sense of threat. And as the net closes, there is even a race against time. The regulars are fully rounded characters now who live and breathe, and they breathe thrilling life into this first-class adaptation of Peter James’s superlative detective novels. With your favourite novels it’s so easy to be… well, just a bit protective. But this is an adaptation which gets it exactly right and wraps it all up in the highest possible production values. How lovely it is to have Grace back…

VIDEO: Grace – and the mystery of the missing wife as TV detective returns

SERIES THREE: FILM ONE - DEAD LIKE YOU. A chilling event at the Royal Edward hotel on the night of Assistant Chief Constable, Alison Vosper’s leaving do forces Grace and Branson into a difficult position when they must investigate all hotel guests, including high ranking East Sussex police attendees. Something about the incident is causing a deep unease in Grace - he knows he’s seen this before. Has a sinister offender from Grace’s past dubbed the Brighton Prowler resurfaced or is this a copycat? As the attacks continue, Grace is convinced it’s the same man – and delving into the past may be the key to saving the next victim.

FILM TWO - DEAD MAN’S GRIP. Grace and his team are called to the site of a tragic road traffic collision involving three vehicles: an articulated lorry, a car and a blue pickup truck. An unexpected discovery at the scene, found on the victim, soon suggests there could be far more to this particular accident than meets the eye, sparking an unsettling chain of events which leads Grace and Branson on a tense, desperate game of cat and mouse through the city of Brighton to save an innocent life before time runs out.

FILM THREE - NOT DEAD YET. A rising music star, Gaia Lafayette, receives the opportunity of a lifetime, and the same night that she excitedly announces to her devoted fans that she and her band are headed to LA, a shocking turn of events leads Grace and Branson to believe someone may be trying to harm her. With a perpetrator on the loose, Roy must deduce who of Gaia’s fanbase may be concealing sinister intentions. Meanwhile, a grisly discovery on a remote Sussex pig farm puts Roy under serious pressure, forcing him to split his team in order to investigate two impossible lines of enquiry.

CHARACTER CREDITS: DS Roy Grace JOHN SIMM; DS Glenn Branson RICHIE CAMPBELL; DS Norman Potting CRAIG PARKINSON; DS Bella Moy LAURA ELPHINSTONE; Cleo Morey ZOE TAPPER; DS Nick Nicholl BRAD MORRISON; ACC Cassian Pewe SAM HOARE; Kevin Spinella ALEXANDER COBB; ACC Alison Vosper RAKIE AYOLA; Rachel Ryan HEATHER FOSTER; Johnny Kerridge THOMAS COOMBES; Mimi BONI ADELIYI; Rollo Mercer LUKE NORRIS; Mingo MAX KRUPSKI; Punt JAY OLIVER YIP; Badger ANDY APOLLO; Oliver Starling BEN WIGGINS; SOIT Officer CHARLOTTE WORKMAN; Jack Skerrit JACK PIERCE; DI Sid Barrow ROB JARVIS; Anna JO HERBERT; Roxy CHARLOTTE CHRISTOF; Detective Marcel Kullen ERNEST GROMOV; Sasha KIERA LESTER; Maggie JOANNA BROOKS; Dominic Pope NICHOLAS TIZZARD; Pippa Starling CLAUDIA JOLLY