Grace series 5: Release date, cast changes, episode plots and fresh heartache for Roy after missing wife tragedy
By Dave Golder | Sun Apr 06 2025Grace series 5 delivers some major changes for the cast and characters that play out across four new episodes.
The Brighton-based cop show, starring John Simm as Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, has become renowned for its dark plots and grisly murders, and there’s plenty more of both on the way in the new series.
The new cases involve a kidnapping, a bomb threat to a football stadium, identity theft, the murder of a mental health guru and a drugs baron trying to nobble a jury.
In series 5, Grace is put through the wringer, professionally and personally, like never before.
What happens in Grace series 5
This series marks some significant alterations to the show’s format, with a new member joining the regular cast, another popular cast member going AWOL, and a shift in the central ongoing mystery.
This used to be the show about "the cop whose wife went missing". But that was cleared up last year, leaving Grace free to marry his pregnant pathologist girlfriend, Cleo.
Or so we thought.
The new series starts with a heartbreaking revelation about Grace and Cleo’s private life – they’ve lost their unborn child.
Grace and Cleo lose one child - and gain his son Bruno
Things are further complicated with the introduction of Bruno – the son Grace never knew he had – into his life. With his ex-wife, Sandy, apparently having died (but as they always say about crime shows, never believe it unless you’ve seen the body), Bruno is being looked after by Sandy’s parents, with Grace helping out when he can fit in his son in between cases.
“It’s a very complicated and strange situation for Grace, because he is also dealing with his son Bruno turning up as well and he’s trying to get to know him,” says John Simm. “It’s even stranger for Cleo, because suddenly there is a kid in her life who isn’t hers. There’s a moment where Bruno asks Cleo if she is a mummy and it’s just so raw for her. Then Grace and Cleo start to think about whether or not they want to try again, which is such a big decision.”
“Cleo was quite far along in the pregnancy as well,” adds Zoë Tapper who plays Cleo. “So it was not expected at all. We don’t delve enormously into exactly what happened and the complications of that, but we certainly see the aftermath and the deep, profound sense of loss and shock that they face.”
John, renowned star of Life On Mars, seems to think the show wouldn’t be the same if Roy were ever allowed to be completely happy: “You’ve got to have some kind of conflict otherwise it’s all too happy – nobody is interested in watching a detective who is happily married and happily solving cases because he’s really good at it. Something needs to happen for the drama to work.”
New mystery for series 5 now Grace’s missing wife puzzle has been cleared up... kind of
At the end of series 4, Grace discovered that his wife Sandy, who had been missing for a decade, had taken her own life not long after the former couple had shared a painful reunion.
It was at this point Grace had also discovered he had a son. This series has a lot of unanswered questions to address.
“I was worried about the Sandy storyline being tied up at the end of last series, because that was his thing – he’s the detective with the missing wife,” admits John.
“I was worrying where the conflict would be, but trust me, there’s loads more to come. Nothing is ever tied up – just when you think it’s all done it’s not, there’s plenty more in store.”
Sandy’s death left some plot threads dangling. Specifically, that she had a relationship with Grace’s boss, Cassian Pewe – which Grace still doesn’t know about – and that Cassian saw Sandy when she briefly returned to Brighton, which for some reason he has not yet told Grace about.
Changes to main cast of Grace for series 5
The vast majority of the cast is returning including John Simm as DS Roy Grace, Richie Campbell as his best bud and work partner DI Glenn Branson and Zoë Tapper as Grace’s fiancée and Senior Anatomical Pathology Technician at Brighton’s mortuary, Cleo Morey.
We’ll also be seeing more of Brad Morrison as Sots cop DC Nick Nicholl, Laura Elphinstone as the North East’s finest export DC Bella Moy, Carolina Valdés as chief pathologist Nadiuska De Sancha and Sam Hoare as Grace’s posh, snide boss ACC Cassian Pewe.
“You’ll find out a lot more about Nick and Bella this series,” says Richie Campbell. “So everyone gets a moment.”
Outside of the police force, Rebecca Scroggs is back as Glenn’s wife, nurse Ari Branson, who’ll be having a major, ongoing malpractice storyline of her own in this run.
But there is one member of the original cast we won’t be seeing around...
Has Craig Parkinson aka Norman Potting left the show?
Yes, Craig Parkinson, who played the much-loved, unapologetically un-PC cop Norman Potting, is no longer in the show. He announced his departure on Instagram last year when series 4 began airing.
“It’s been a wonderful experience taking this character from page to screen & updating him for a new audience,” he said. “There was a huge sense of responsibility in portraying such a character from @peterjamesuk much-loved book series but with a few tweaks here and there from our excellent script team and the support from Peter, I’m really glad that he resonated with the audience.”
Norman’s departure from Grace is acknowledged but not fully explained in the opening episode of the series 5.
When we last saw him, he was in a fairly new relationship with Bella, but also reeling from a prostate cancer diagnosis. It’s very much in Norman’s character to simply walk away and deal with something like that on his own.
New Grace cast member for series 5
There is a replacement for Norman, but not straight away. And she’s definitely not a like-for-like replacement. After all, you wouldn’t want to replace Norman with a character who’s just Norman-but-not-as-good.
We first meet headstrong DC Vee Wilde, played by Juliette Motamed, in episode 2, and though Grace tells the team she comes highly recommended, she doesn’t make a good first impression on Bella, and clearly has a lot to learn.
Will those villains who got away last series – Alvin Smallbone and Dr Crisp – be returning?
Grace is often in contention with his bosses for not tidying up cases with a neat bow. There are at least two villains from last series who are still at large, who both hinted they would be back: small-time gangster-with-a-grudge Alvin Smallbone and serial killer Dr Crisp, who somehow survived being buried under falling rubble.
Crisp actually turned up again in the book that the final episode of series four was based on, Love You Dead though was absent from the TV adaptation. So will he emerge in one of series 5’s episodes instead?
Neither of the actors who played Alvin Smallbone (Niall Greig Fulton) and Dr Crisp (Keir Charles) are listed in the series 5 press pack, but the production team may be just trying to avoid spoilers.
And while not a villain, it also seems the journalist character Siobhan Sheldrake (played by Jan Le) has been quietly dropped (she was the nice one, trying to foster positive links between the press and police, rather than the scummy one who was bugging Grace’s car).
What are the stories for this series?
The four episodes for Grace series five are:
Dead If You Don’t: A bomb threat at a football stadium on match day leads to the botched kidnapping of one of the football club’s wealthy shareholders.
Dead At First Sight: A businessman having a secret liaison with his mistress in a Brighton Hotel is found dead… but it looks like a whole string of women (and a man) were trying to get to meet him. And most of them seem to have no connection to him.
Need You Dead: The murder of a former psychiatrist and creator of a popular mental health app triggers a case that leaves Grace doubting his own abilities, and the East Sussex CID in tatters.
Find Them Dead: Grace tries to prove that somebody is attempting to fix the trial of a notorious drug baron, while his team investigate a double murder in a park. Grace also learns something that leaves him reeling.
According to John Simm: “Series 5 ends on a bit of a cliffhanger. There’s a huge storyline that we will pick up in series 6 and the stakes get higher every season.”
Are the stories in series 5 the same as the ones in the Peter James books?
The TV episodes roughly follow the plots of the books but, says John Simm, they’re doing their own thing more and more as the show evolves.
“We’ve started to veer away from the books. Bella dies early on in the novels and we didn’t want her to, so she’s very much alive in our series. There’s another big change this series, in that Norman Potting is no longer there, but he’s in the books," he explains.
"Also, many of the books were written a long time ago, so they do need bringing up to date. That means I’m not worried about people thinking they know what’s going to happen next, because the rug will be pulled from under them!”
That sounds like a hint to us!
Big name guest stars for Grace series 5
Faces you might know among the guest stars of series five include:
Shaun Dooley, who appears as Terence Maxwell in episode 4, will surely be familiar to all viewers, thanks to his impressive TV CV that includes roles in It’s A Sin, Gentleman Jack, Mr Bates Versus The Post Office and the Alan Carr sitcom Changing Ends (as Alan’s dad Graham).
Georgina Rich, playing jury member Meg Magellan in episode 4, stars as Charlie’s mum in the Netflix hit Heartstopper.
Holli Dempsey, who is phishing victim Sam Fordwater in episode 2, is well-known from the Ricky Gervais comedy Derek and the first series of Harlots.
Shaun Dingwall, who plays Joseph Ludlow in episode 1, is best remembered for playing Rose’s dad in various early episodes of the Doctor Who revival. He also played Jeffrey in series 3, 4 and 5 of Top Boy on Netflix.
Abhin Galeya, who appears in episode 1 as football club shareholder Kipp Kavinda, has recently appeared in five episodes of the Star Wars spin-off Andor.
Gethin Anthony, who plays Marcus O’Sullivan in episode three, is probably best known as Renly Baratheon in Game Of Thrones.
