DS Grace is the greatest role of John Simm’s career ...Middle East

Roy Grace is back. We last saw Brighton’s Detective Superintendent (John Simm) in September, trying to come to terms with his formerly missing wife Sandy’s suicide and the discovery of a newfound son, Bruno (Finn Guegan), while girlfriend Cleo (Zoe Tapper) was planning a nursery.

But in the opening episode of series five, the nursery remains unfinished, for Cleo is no longer pregnant.

We watch as Grace heads out for an afternoon at the football game with Bruno. This was supposed to have been an afternoon of father-son bonding, but the day has a real sense of melancholy. Also cheering on the local team is flash local Kipp Kavinda (Abhin Galeya) – who introduces himself with the line, “For God’s sake, make sure the champagne is properly chilled this time” – and his son Frank (Tobias Jowett). Frank, understandably, rows with his awful dad and eschews the shareholders’ box to sit in the stands with his mate instead.

Then, the club’s chairman receives a phone call. There is a bomb inside the stadium, and unless £2m is transferred into the caller’s bank account, it will detonate on the final whistle. And, says the caller, if the stadium is seen to be being evacuated, the bomb will explode immediately.

And so we are presented with the uneasy spectacle of watching crowds of people enjoying the footy, even as the police first rush to locate Grace in the stands (a decent dad, he has turned off his phone) before attempting to track down the bomber, while a pale and desperate Cleo races to the stadium to rescue Bruno.

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Another side of Brighton has been bubbling away, too. Desperate Albanians are intent on escaping a slave house. Among them is Dren (Madalina Bellariu), who will do anything for the return of her and her brother’s passports. It is she who sits in the stands, a small island of terror, shaking fingers connecting the circuitry of the bomb while fans cheer around her.

It is so tense that I wondered whether ITV really would show a football stand being blown up pre-watershed. This is just the first act in a two-hour look at Brighton’s underbelly, as men and women manufacture bombs, run through darkened carparks and beg, wild-eyed, for their freedom.

When Kip’s son Frank and his friend later go missing, their parents’ lavish homes offer a nice visual counterpoint to the horrors the Albanians have had to endure; Brighton has corners of utter squalor, a squalor that is made all the more unbearable in the knowledge that just down the road, there are sweeping staircases and outdoor swimming pools.

The murk thickens, and cruelty is everywhere. At the eye of the storm is DS Grace, with his benign expressions and normcore clothes, bearing a bag containing a live bomb as I might carry a sack of fresh dog poo.

Simm inhabits Peter James’ creation so completely that it’s impossible to imagine him in any other role; his performance is, as ever, a masterclass in understatement.

He’s supported by an excellent turn from Bellariu as Dren, whose arc from downtrodden slave to murderous avenger is startling to behold.

Yes, the script is, at times, a smidge on the lazy side (at one point, Frank says, “You just don’t get it, do you!” a phrase which appears so often on the screen that it really needs to be banned). But the tension stays high, and Brighton is as salty a backdrop as one might hope.

With three more episodes to come, Sunday night is in safe hands.

‘Grace’ continues next Sunday at 8pm on ITV1

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